I love Tacos al pastor but have never made them myself. They are a popular street food here in SoCal and Mexico and I finally decided to try my hand at making some. Forgive me as this is a long one.


I started out by thawing a Pork Butt I had in the freezer that I had purchased on sale for $.99 a lb. (7.93 lbs.)



I unwrapped it and found there was still some ice crystals on it. (which is what I was hoping for to make cutting it easier)



I cut it in half and deboned the other half.



I proceeded to cut it all up into approximately 3/8” slices.



I placed this into a large container, covered it and placed it into the fridge. I now gathered up the ingredients for the al pastor marinade.



Here’s the recipe I used. (It’s a combination of several recipes I watched on YouTube) Not shown in the picture are the pineapple juice and the vinegar.

8 lb bone-in pork shoulder (deboned)

4 tablespoons achiote paste (I used 1 – 3.5 oz. brick)

2 guajillo peppers (seeded and re-hydrated)

2 ancho peppers (seeded and re-hydrated)

3 Chipotle peppers + all the adobo sauce from 1 - 7 oz. can

5 garlic cloves

¼ small white or yellow onion

1 oz. Piloncillo (substitute brown sugar if you can find it)

1 tbsp. dried oregano (preferably Mexican)

1 tbsp. cumin                                                                            

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. pepper

1 tsp. cinnamon (preferably Mexican)

1 tsp, cloves

½ cup pineapple juice

½ cup white vinegar

¼ cup OO

¼ cup of the water from re-hydrating the peppers

¼ cup orange juice

¼ cup lime juice

1 pineapple, skinned and sliced into 1-inch (2 cm) rounds (for the spit/trompo)

(Note: I only had some small guajillo chiles so I used 6 of them)


 
Everybody went into the pool for a spin.



I poured some marinade into the bottom of a very large bowl and then some pork slices.



I repeated this process until all the pork was in the bowl and pour the rest of the marinade over the top. I then stirred it until everything had a nice coating.



Now how will I cook this? Tacos al pastor is a dish developed in central Mexico that is based on shawarma spit grilled meat brought by Lebanese immigrants. It is traditionally cooked on a vertical spit known as a trompo. I don’t have such an exotic grill, so I had to improvise. I had found this indoor grill plate at a local thrift store for $2.17



and used it to create a vertical spit.



I now peeled and sliced up the pineapple



And started my vertical trompo stack adding a slice of pineapple and red onion after every 6 or 7 layers of meat.




 



 


I place the stack in the center of my weber redhead with coals all around it.



I then setup my craving station.



Here it is after approximately 30 minutes.



After approximately 75 minutes I removed the trompo and craved off the outer charred layer. (The char is an important part of the taste profile)



I then placed the trompo back in the redhead to char the outside again.



So pretty!



I then repeated the process another 3 times.




 


After I had trimmed off the outside 3 times I set up my taco cart errrr bar



and started to assemble my street taco plate.



Oh Yum!



Here it is served up with a Modelo Especial.




 


This was a little on the spicy side but oh so delicious!         



Thanks for looking.

Hey everyone!
 
Made these gorgeous pork belly tacos tonight and would love to share how I did them.  I was going for some Mexican and Asian flavors, and couldn't have been happier with the result.  The only issue at all was a light spot on the pork due to liquid pooling there during the cook because the belly was a bit big for my standard Joe and I had to scrunch it a little.
 
PORK BELLY
1.  I brined it for about 14 hours in a mix of pineapple juice, teriyaki, and soy sauce after scoring the fat sight relatively deeply
2.  Dried the belly and rubbed it with Killer Hogs BBQ Rub on all sides
3.  Smoked on Kamado Joe at 240 with some cherry wood to add a light fruity smoke favor (no wrapping because I wanted some meaty bite in the taco)
4.  When I had internals around 185, I glazed the belly and cooked for another 20ish minutes
5.  Broiled the belly inside for 2 minutes to tighten up the glaze and crisp the fat even more
6.  Rested the meat for about 40 minutes (should have gone longer but people were too hungry :D )
 
GLAZE
1.  Mix together raw honey, soy sauce, salt, worcestershire sauce, peach preservers (wanted pineapple to go with the brine but couldn't find it), apple cider vinegar, kosher salt, black pepper, hot bone sucking bbq sauce, and some secret super hot scotch bonnet hot sauce I bought in Anguilla.  All of this is unmeasured and I mixed to taste.
2.  Simmer on the stove until the mixture reduces a bit and thickens up, allow to cool off the heat
 
TOPPINGS
1.  Home made guacamole (avocado, lots of lime, onion, kosher salt, pepper, cilantro)
2.  Home made Chipotle Crema (sour cream, heavy cream, lime juice, canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, adobo sauce, kosher salt)
3.  Grilled pineapple on the same grates I cooked the pork on
4.  Cojita Cheese
5.  Cilantro
6.  Home made pickled onions (red onion, apple cider vinegar, kosher salt, sugar, water)
 
Please enjoy the pictures, and as usual, ask any questions!

Decided to make Chicken Enchiladas again on Sunday. (One of my wifes favorites) Started out making up the verde sauce. Here are most of the ingredients.

Roasted most everything.

Tomatillos go straight into the blender.

Other items need to go inside to be cleaned up.

Everyone into the pool for a spin.

 
Add the cilantro and lime juice and spin some more.

Now I prepped the chicken breasts to shred. Took 2 boneless skinless breasts

and butterflied them, covered with plastic wrap and pounded them flat.

Seared them for approximately 5 minutes each side

and proceeded to shred them.

Now I made some Mexican rice. Most of the ingredients are here.

 
 
While the rice was cooking I made up the enchiladas and put them on the kamado at 300 degrees for 15 minutes.

Here they are plated up with the rice, some frijoles and a Modelo Negra.

 
 
Muy Bueno!
 Thanks for looking.

Carne Asada Tacos are one of my favorite things to make and eat. I make them at least once a month and sometimes many more than that. Today I started by making a fresh batch of Pico de Gallo.



Recipe is here:

https://www.kamadoguru.com/topic/31022-pico-de-gallo-my-way/?tab=comments#comment-414993

 
I then took a package of marinated skirt steak



and cut it into manageable sizes and placed it on the kamado.



I cooked it approximately 6 minutes per side until it developed a little char on it and here is the result.



I cut these up into taco size pieces across the grain and made up 3 tacos served with Negra Modelo, some sliced radish and a grilled yellow pepper.







 


 


Muy Delicioso!

Where the hell has DerHusker been?  You may or may not have been asking yourself this question but even if you haven’t, the answer is here. Every year starting in October I get busy doing an animated Christmas light display synced to music  and that consumes many many hours of my days. Add to that my work has exploded and I’m as busy there as I’ve ever been and finally we take care of my 92 year old MIL who has Alzheimer’s. Add all these things up and something had to give and that something was cooking. So I’ve been away from cooking and this site for quite a while and just to prove that I’m not dead I’m finally posting another cook. This is one of our favorite things to make.

 
I noticed a vacuum packed package of some BBQ chicken in the freezer drawer.



This was from this cook: https://www.kamadoguru.com/topic/29667-4th-of-july-dinner-chicken-2-ways/?tab=comments#comment-39879

 
I also had all the ingredients for some Verde Enchilada Sauce.



I took most of this out to the kamado and roasted them and then put everything in the blender for a spin.



I added some canned enchilada sauce to this. I then pulled the chicken and added some diced onion and some queso fresca to it. I set up my work area



and rolled up a dozen enchiladas and then poured some more sauce on the top.



I covered them with some Mexican 4 cheese blend and took them out to the 375 degree kamado.



Here they are after 15 minutes.



Here are 2 plated up with some homemade Mexican rice, some spicy pickled carrots, some frijoles and a Negra Modelo.




 


 

Muy Bueno!