Simple Tacos Al Pastor Recipe
Today we bring you one of our favourite recipes, Pork Tacos Al Pastor. A very simple recipe that will get all the fantastic flavours you can find in traditional Mexican food. This dish consists of diced pork meat marinated in a fantastic sauce and pineapple. An incredible contrast between the saltiness of the meat and the sweetness of the fruit that match perfectly together. You can also prepare some tacos to enjoy the dish with some friends!
This recipe is traditionally prepared in a big skewer, like a kebab. However, we have tried to adapt the recipe to prepare it at home without any special equipment.
It’s a simple recipe, which the main ingredient is the “Achiote”, a paste prepared with annatto seeds… This is the only ingredient that could be difficult to find… We usually buy it (in the UK) in some Latin-American food shops.
We hope you like it!
Amazing Tacos al Pastor
Ingredients
- 1 pineapple
- 500 g of pork meat
The marinade
- 5 cloves of garlic
- ½ tablespoon of salt
- ½ tablespoon of black whole pepper
- ½ tablespoon of cumin
- 1 tablespoon of oregano
- 4 cloves
- 50 g of Achiote
- ¼ cup of white vinegar
- ½ cup of pineapple juice
- 2 sun dried peppers (ñoras)
- Juice of half lime
- 2 árbol chillies
- 2 morita chillies
- ½ cup of water from the chillies
Instructions
The marinade
- In a pot with boiling water, add the chillies. We have added 2 ñoras, 2 Morita chillies and 2 árbol chillies for getting a rich and spicy flavour profile. Cook them for about 10 minutes and keep the water.
- In a pan, toast half a tablespoon of cumin seeds for about 3 – 4 minutes.
- In a beaker, add the following ingredients: – 5 cloves of garlic – Half tablespoon of toasted cumin. – Half tablespoon of black whole pepper. – Half tablespoon of salt. – 4 cloves. – 1/4 cup of white vinegar. – 1/2 cup of pineapple’s juice. – 1/2 cup of water from the chillies. – The chillies that we cooked before. – Juice of half a lime. – 50g of Achiote.*Be careful with the Achiote. It can create stains!
The meat
- Cut the pork in small dices ( 1inch x 1 inch), and let them rest in a tray or in a glass baking dish.
- Cover the meat with the marinade. And let it rest for about 24 hours if possible.
Cook
- Now we’re trying to simulate the traditional way of cooking pastor with a vertical skewer like a kebab. As you can see in the image, we normally do skewers where we put a bit of meat and a slice of pineapple.
- Then we cook them on a grill. If you don’t have this possibility, using a pan will be fine too.Try to get a charred look in the meat, as if you were doing a barbecue.
- And that's it! You have the Pastor Meat ready to be eaten with some tortillas and a salsa on top.
Notes
- Make sure that the pineapple gets caramelized in the grill, it will acquire an amazing taste.
- Be careful with the Achiote because it can create stains