Tacos al Pastor and Green Taco Salsa

Tacos al pastor

Tacos al pastor are tacos with a marinated pork that is cooked on a large rotisserie grill in taquerías. The meat is sliced off the rotating meat right onto the warm tortillas (think of a traditional gyro). A chunk of pineapple sits above the meat and a slice is added to the taco as well. This recipe combines recipes from America's Test Kitchen and Rick Bayless to make a meat that is tender but with a grilled taste. You can find the achiote paste (not achiote powder) in any Mexican market, which is probably the best place to buy tomatillos for the green salsa (since I'm usually underwhelmed with any tomatillos they might have at supermarkets).

• INGREDIENTS
• 3 1/2-ounce package achiote paste (see picture below)
  3 canned chipotle chiles en adobo, plus 4 tablespoons of the canning sauce
• 1 cup water
• 3 pounds boneless pork butt roast, cut into 1/4" slices against the grain
• Some limes
• 2 cans pineapple rings
• 2 red onions, sliced into 1/4" rings.
• Vegetable oil
• Corn tortillas, warmed*
• 1 small onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 
  
• 1. Combine achiote paste, chipotles, and water in a blender. Blend until combined.
• 
  
• 2. Put achiote mixture in a large dutch oven with pork, making sure all sides of the pork are covered in sauce. (There is enough sauce here to do at least 6 pounds of meat.) Bring pot to a simmer and cook for about 90 minutes, stirring about half way through. You want the pork to be tender, but not falling apart.
• 
  
• 3. Remove pork from the mixture and season with salt. Stir sauce to combine. Remove one half cup of the sauce and use it to coat both sides of pork before grilling. With the rest of the sauce, leave about 1 cup in the pot and set the rest to the side. Squeeze a lime into the sauce in the pot, adding the whole lime as well to the mixture. Season with salt and allow to simmer on low.
• 
  
• 4. Heat up a grill and cook the sauce-coated pork until it gets a bit charred on each side. Brush pineapple and onion rings with oil, and grill until they get some nice grill marks and the onion is a bit tender. (Don't get too upset when you drop a bunch down the grill grates).
• 
  
• 5. Give onion, pineapple, and pork a rough chop and add to sauce in the pot. Stir, adding more sauce if necessary to coat everything.
• 
  
• 6. Serve on corn tortillas with Green Taco Salsa and some lime wedges on the side.

*My biggest problem with this recipe is figuring out how to warm up the corn tortillas. There are two options, 1 heat the tortillas individually in a pan, on the griddle, or on the grill. This is the best result, but takes forever. The other option is to wrap them in foil and put them in the oven, which never really comes out good either. I guess you could always use flour tortillas, which warm up so much easier, but I really like the taste of the corn tortillas.

Green Taco Salsa

Ingredients

4 medium (about 8 ounces total) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and quartered
3-4 large garlic cloves
Hot green chiles to taste (I like 2 serranos and 2 jalapeños which is pretty spicy), stemmed and roughly chopped
1/2 to 2/3 cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped cilantro
1 avocado

1/2 of a red onion

1/4 cup water

A good amount of salt

Add everything to a blender and blend together until smooth. Add more salt as needed.