alexEats: Tacos al Pastor

If you regularly check this blog, you'll know that I like to cook large amounts of pork shoulder, aka "Boston Butt." Usually there are two different directions that I take. One is a dry cooking method in the oven for a few hours to develop a substantial bark on the outside like southern barbecue. The other method I sometimes use is to braise it in some sort of liquid, then shred it and serve in tacos for a Mexican influenced meal. This recipe is more like the latter, yet it still gets some crust on the outside with the help of the grill. Al Pastor is the style of taco where the meat is cooked on a rotisserie-like device and is shaved off as it cooks. Also, pineapple is traditionally cooked along with the meat. The technique actually goes back to the Middle Eastern dish, Shawarma. For more info, click here.

Ingredients

10 dried guajillo chiles

1 1/2 cups water

1 to 2 lbs tomatoes, seeds removed

8 to 10 cloves garlic

3 bay leaves

large pinch sugar

Tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground cloves

5 to 8 lbs pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch thick slices (preferably boneless, but you can use bone-in)

1 lime

Pineapple slices, as desired (get fresh in the summer, but canned works if not in season)

Corn and flour tortillas

diced onion

Minced parsley and/or cilantro

This is what a guajillo chile looks like. You can usually find them in most supermarkets now. Heck, even Kroger carries them.

Start by toasting them in a dry pan over high heat. Cook until you think they are about to burn, then pull them out. Once they are all toasted, remove the stems and seeds.

Cut the tomatoes in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon or your hands.

Combine the water, chiles, tomatoes, garlic, bay, pinch salt and pepper, sugar, cumin, and cloves in a pot.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until tomatoes break down, about half an hour.

Then puree with blender, food processor, or immersion blender.

Add pork to pureed chile mixture. Cover and place in a 350 degree oven. You want the pork to be tender, but not to fall apart completely, about 100 minutes.

While this cooked, I made some salsas and other accompaniments to go along with the meal. Pictured here is simply a big bowl of chopped mango. I was going to make more of a salsa out of it but it was so perfect I decided not to and just eat it plain.

This was a quick fresh corn salsa I made. It has fresh corn off the cob, sugar, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

Just give it a mix.

More Mango!

Once the pork is fork tender but still just holds together, remove it from the sauce.

I used canned pineapple slices. Don't judge me. Just sprinkle them with a little sugar so they caramelize well on the grill.

Sear the cooked pork on the grill until it gets some nice color. Remember, the pork is already cooked, you just want to give it some crust. But you don't really have to worry about overcooking the meat because pork shoulder is pretty forgiving.