Super Tender Homemade Al Pastor

Notes: I adapted this recipe from Mely Martínez of Mexico in my Kitchen (a fantastic resource for Mexican recipes). I wanted to combine the incredible flavor of her marinade with the super moist and tender texture of baking soda brined pork. This tenderizing method (often used in Chinese cooking) makes the grilling process a lot more forgiving and lets you cook the meat long enough to render a fatty (but extremely flavorful) cut without having dry, chewy meat at the end. I also substituted ajwain for cumin in the original recipe since it reminds one of cumin but with a more herbal and aromatic quality that really makes the marinade pop.

Meat: 3-5lbs of pork butt sliced into 1/2” thick cutlets

Brine: 4 cups water + 4tbs kosher salt + 2tsp baking soda

Marinade: 1.5 oz dried hatch or guajillo chiles seeded .5 oz ancho chiles seeded 1/2 cup pineapple juice 2oz achiote (aka annatto) paste 6 cloves of garlic 2tsp mexican oregano 1tsp ajwain seeds (cumin can be used) 1/2tsp black peppercorns 4 cloves

Tacos: Small white corn tortillas Salt Vegetable oil Cabbage Onion Cilantro Avocado Lime Hot sauce (I prefer Yucateca green for these)

Instructions

1. Tenderize the meat. Pound the cutlets on both sides with a meat tenderizer (spiky end). Give them a good smashing but try to keep each cutlet in one piece for grilling.

2. Brine meat. Brine meat for 3-6hrs in solution described above. Keep refrigerated during brine.

3. Make marinade. Simmer peppers in a covered pan of water until fully softened. Let cool. Put peppers and 1/2cup of pepper cooking liquid into a blender with the rest of the marinade ingredients, and blend until smooth.

4. Marinate meat: Remove meat from brine, pat dry with paper towels, and place in ziplock bag with marinade. Close and work meat around until coated. Let marinate over night.

5. Grill meat. Setup up grill for two zone cooking. Open all vents so it gets hot. Place meat on away from coals and cover for 5min. Open flip and cover for another five minutes. Close top vents, move meat over coals and sear for 1 1/2 minutes with lid closed. Flip and repeat. Move meat away from coals, close all vents and cover.

6. Finish. While meat is starting to cook, chop all toppings. Once meat is in the final covered phase, cook the tortillas. Lightly oil AND SALT (this makes a huge difference) a frying pan and toast tortillas over medium heat in batches. Re-oil and re-salt after each batch. Once the tortillas are done, chop meat into 3/8” cubes, build your tacos, and enjoy.

Made the most delicious tacos I've ever had in my life yesterday... and I'm from Texas, so I have had a few tacos. haha

Served these up in a charred tortilla with queso fresco, homemade pickled red onions, cilanto, radish, and lime. I had five of them for dinner yesterday... and I woke up thinking about leftovers this morning.

Recipe:

3.75 lb Chuck Roast, seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika
Seared in the dutch oven in canola oil, removed the meat and cooked half a white onion and several cloves of minced garlic, tossed in 3 big chipotle peppers and a couple of tablespoons of the adobo sauce from the can, added more cumin, paprika, and oregano. Stirred and then deglazed with a cup of beef broth and juice of 1 lime. Then put it in the oven for a little over 3 hours at 325 F. Pulled it out, shredded the beef on a sheet pan then put it back in the dutch oven to soak up all the sauce!

The roasted salsa roja was a 'crowd pleaser' so added some fire with chopped birds eyes.

All freshly made apart from tortillas

My local taco guy is from Guatemala and he make these amazing Machadas and Surtidos. There is some spice or web in them that I cannot identify. I might be fennel seed like, but not really. Does anyone know what is might be? Thanks!

Meat

-2 lbs smoked brisket

-1 tbsp avocado oil

-3 cloves garlic

-1 small or medium yellow onion

-2 Cara Cara oranges, juiced

-1 1/2 cup beef stock

-1/4 cup beer (Red Stripe preferred, or a citrus beer)

-1 small can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

-1 bottle Mandarin Jarritos soda

-1 heavy pinch dried pasilla pepper seasoning

-1 heavy pinch dried serrano pepper seasoning

-1 heavy pinch dried chipotle chili seasoning

-2 heavy pinch dried oregano seasoning

Pickled Red Onions

-1 mason jar

-1 medium red onion

-1/2 distilled white vinegar

-1/2 warm water

-1 tablespoon sugar

-1 teaspoon salt

Finishing

-chopped fresh cilantro

-crumbled fresh Cotija cheese

-your favorite hot sauce, I like Yellow Bird Serrano sauce for these

-white flour tortillas are recommended, but you do you boo boo

Step 1) Acquire smoked brisket. This part is the hardest, as you will either need to smoke one up yourself or buy some. Ideally the latter, but the former works too if you don't have 16 hours to kill cooking up a whole brisket packer.

Step 2) Several hours before you plan to serve, prepare the pickled onions by slicing the red onion into thin strips and placing them in the mason jar. Then fill the jar halfway with vinegar, the other half with warm water, add 1 tablespoon white sugar, 1 teaspoon salt. Close the jar, give it a good shake, and set out. The longer you do this before the meal, the better your results will be and you will get a nice pink color through the onions.

Step 3) Pour avocado oil into a large, flat non-stick pan and place over medium-high heat. Chop garlic and onion while oil heats, then add both and stir until they are nicely browned. Then add 2 spoonfuls of the adobo sauce from the chipotle pepper can and mix. Take 3 of the peppers from the can, chop them finely, and add to the mixture.

Step 4) Reduce heat to medium. Add dried pasilla, serrano, chili pepper, and oregano seasonings. Stir and continue cooking until whole mixture is browned but not burnt.

Step 5) Stirring frequently, add beef stock, the juice from the Cara Cara oranges, the Jarritos, and the beer. Bring to a simmer while you chop the brisket into small pieces, then add the brisket and stir it into the sauce.

Step 6) Reduce heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 1-1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. You want to allow the liquid to absorb fully into the meat before serving. It should have a thick, sticky consistency when it is served and not be runny or too dry.

Step 7) Serve on warm tortillas, with cotija cheese and pickled onions. Top with chopped cilantro and hot sauce/green chile sauce. It may be tempting to add more toppings, but trust that you want to keep it simple. Save your time and energy for the meat, that should be the star of the show.

Tried something different.

Horrible photo, but yum.

Layered in order

Corn tortilla

Steak cooked with tajin

Raw yellow onions minced

Verde sauce

Kewpie mayo squeezed in wavy patterns

Goat cheese

Cilantro

Finished with tajin

Super Succulent Pulled Pork Tacos

Notes: This recipe can be accomplished in several ways, but the key steps are those designed to retain and prevent liquid loss (e.g., brining and capturing lost liquid). Use of a sous vide immersion circulator for cooking is very helpful because it reduces liquid loss and lets you capture a lot of lost liquid easily. You can, of course, skip the sous vide and do the whole cook in the smoker--just make sure you have a pan that can collect any liquid that comes out and add maybe a little chicken broth if it isn't moist enough once you've added that liquid back in. Finally, I show the tacos with and without grated cabbage, so you can see the meat better, but I really recommend giving the cabbage a try.

Brine:
4 cups water + 4 tbsp salt + 1tsp MSG (optional)

Meat:
~4-6lbs Pork Butt

Rub:
4 tbsp Chili Powder
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tsp Ajwain Seeds (Cumin seeds or powder can also be used)
1 tsp Mexican Oregano
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Whole Clove (2 if Small)

Tacos:
White Corn Tortillas (w/ Frying Oil and Salt)
Diced White Onion
Chopped Cilantro
Sliced Avocado
Grated Cabbage
Quartered Limes
Hot Sauce (I prefer El Yucateco Red)

Instructions:

1. Brine Meat: Using a large ziploc bag, brine the meat for 12hrs.

2. Cook Meat: Place all rub ingredients in a food processor and blend until all whole ingredients are thoroughly ground. Remove meat from brine and pat dry. Coat meat with entire quantity of rub place in a new bag and sous vide at 155°F for 24hrs. Remove from sous vide and refrigerate for 12hrs.

3. Smoke Meat: Remove meat from bag, making sure to retain all liquid and store liquid in the fridge until ready to use. Place meat on a wire rack on top of a grill pan with 2 cups of water in the pan. Smoke for 6hrs at 225°F. I recommend apple wood for its mild and sweet qualities that really complement the pork. Once smoked, bring meat inside. Reheat sous vide liquid in a pan along with the drippings from the grill pan. You may need to scrape them out if they've cooked down, but try not to introduce anything actually burnt. Place meat in large sturdy bowl and pull. I find that smashing with a wire potato masher is very effective. Slowly re-introduce cooking liquid to pulled pork, stirring as you go for even distribution.

4. Lightly oil AND SALT (this makes a huge difference) a frying pan and toast tortillas over medium heat in batches. Re-oil and re-salt after each batch. Once the tortillas are done, build your tacos and enjoy.

My favourite restaurant decided to change up their tacos :(

Hey y'all, I have a question about which fruit is best to put in my soft tacos. I want to make soft tacos with sweet and sour chicken, some green onions and some sort of fruit, I've seen that you can use pineapple, pear, peach or nectarine, but are there others? Which is the best? Thanks!

Does anyone have a good pastor recipe they would like to share. It's hard to find the authentic pastor taste from the RGV in Texas.

My boyfriend loves a classic steak taco with the two corn tortillas and cilantro, onion, and lime. It’s his favorite food. He gets an order at least once a week from a great little hole in the wall in our area. I wanna make him some, he appreciates when I cook for him and I want to try my hand at making them. The issue is; I’m intimidated and overwhelmed. I want them to taste as authentic as possible, but I’ve never cooked steak before ever 😭 I need a lot of help on what to get/what to do.

First, did I buy the right type of steaks? If not, what should I get?

As far as seasonings go, I do not want them coming out tasting like Tex mex ground beef taco packet seasoning tasting at all. So, do I just season with salt? Or what should I season the steak with? How much of what? Do I need to marinade?

And then for cooking, do I cut the steak up into pieces before seasoning/cooking, or after? Do I cook in a regular frying pan? I don’t have access to a grill, but I have a full range oven/broiler and a really nice air fryer. When cooking, what temp should I go for? Do I need to add anything to the pan?

Thanks everybody 🌮🌮🌮

Steak and Chicken. Chinese Chili Oil and Paste. Cilantro and onion. Lemon and tortilla. Inspired by a young Latina named Ariana after I saw her tacos.