| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 30 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr |
| Yield: | about 24 tacos |
Ingredients
- 2 ancho chiles
- 2 dried chipotle chiles
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 (3 to 5 pound) bone-in pork shoulder
- Salt and pepper
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand crushed
- 1 orange, halved
- 1 lime, halved
- Corn tortillas, recipe follows
- Avocado, sliced thin, for garnish
- Radishes, sliced thin, for garnish
- Tomatillo Salsa Verde, for garnish, recipe follows
- 4 cups masa harina
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- 1 jalapeno, stemmed
- 1 small Spanish onion, quartered
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
- 1 lime, juiced
Instructions
- Put the chiles into a small bowl and cover with hot water; set aside. In a large heavy bottomed pan with a tight fitting lid, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil. Generously season the pork with salt and pepper. Brown the meat well on both sides, about 5 minutes per side; remove the meat and set aside. Add the onion, pepper, garlic, cumin, thyme, and bay leaf; fry until softened, about 5 minutes, scraping up the browned bits in the pan. Stem and seed the soaked chiles reserving the soaking liquid; hand tear them into the pot. Return the meat to the pan along with any accumulated juices. Top the meat with the tomatoes. Pour in the chili soaking liquid, straining out any seeds, until it almost covers the meat; add water if you need more liquid. Squeeze the orange and lime juices into the pot and add the rinds. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the pork is very tender. Remove the meat to a platter and cover to keep warm. Strain the braising liquid and reserve.
- Shred the pork. Add some of the reserved braising liquid if the meat is dry. Take a tortilla and place about 2 tablespoons of the mixture on top. Garnish with the avocado, radishes, and Salsa Verde; fold the sides up and serve.
- Put the masa harina in a bowl and mix in the salt. Add about 1 cup warm water and mix with your hands; add more water as needed until the dough comes together. Knead for a few minutes to smooth the dough out. The dough should be firm and springy and should not stick to your hands. Test by forming a small disk, if it cracks around the edges you need more water.
- Place a piece of heavy plastic (like from a garbage bag) onto a tortilla press. Form a 1 1/2-inch ball of dough and place it in the center of the press. Top with another piece of plastic, close the press, and push the lever down to form the tortilla. (Alternately, the dough balls can be rolled between plastic sheets with a rolling pin.) Open the press and remove the top layer of plastic. Carefully peel the tortilla off the bottom plastic and place it onto a hot, ungreased cast iron skillet; cook for about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove the tortilla and place it on a clean tea towel; keep it covered to keep it soft and pliable. Continue until you have used up all the dough.
- Yield: 20 (6-inch) tortillas
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the tomatillos, jalapeno, onion, garlic, and 1 tablespoon salt. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes until the tomatillos are soft but have not burst. Add the cooked vegetables to a blender with the cilantro leaves and lime juice. Pour in 1/4 cup of the reserved cooking liquid and process to a coarse puree. Taste and adjust seasoning with more cilantro, lime juice, or salt.
- Yield: 2 cups
Reviews
I will be deaf to the comments of “don’t review if you don’t make the recipe as is” because I was making it for toddlers, wanted the Mexican flair but not the hot and spicy. So omitted the chiles, but I had to review that adding the lime and orange to the braising just leaves you with “yum, what is that?” I won’t braise pork again without lime and orange. I have tried several of Tyler’s recipes for tacos and all of them have been great.
Reduced the recipe in half. Used pork chops cause that was what I had. Instead of tomatillos I used roasted green peppers.
Kept the sauce with the meat while thickened it with a bit of cornstarch.
Used store bought tortillas.
Kept the sauce with the meat while thickened it with a bit of cornstarch.
Used store bought tortillas.
Best tacos I ever made. Need to try it with pork shoulder and also make a beef version.
Great recipe! These were a big hit at a party we had last weekend. We spiced it up a bit by using more peppers and some seeds to get some heat in both the pork and salsa :-
I served this to a dinner guest and my husband for the first time last Friday night and I was very disappointed. Very little flavor to the meat. Lots of work and ingredients for such a dismal outcome.
PASILLA:
Also known as the chile negro. Literally “little raisin,” the pasilla is a dried
chilaca chile. There is some confusion over the name of this chile in
California and northern Mexico, the fresh poblano and its dried forms, the
ancho and mulato, are referred to (mistakenly) as pasillas.
Also known as the chile negro. Literally “little raisin,” the pasilla is a dried
chilaca chile. There is some confusion over the name of this chile in
California and northern Mexico, the fresh poblano and its dried forms, the
ancho and mulato, are referred to (mistakenly) as pasillas.
ANCHO:
The ancho is a dried poblano chile, and is the most commonly used dried chile
in Mexico.
Sorry Tyler. This used to be the recipe I’d always use for my pork tacos, but I just found a new recipe that’s easier, cheaper, and tastier. Give it a try…
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pulled-pork-tacos-00000000008021/index.html
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pulled-pork-tacos-00000000008021/index.html
My family loved this new recipe…it’s a better flavor, and soooo much easier.
Tired of Tacos shops and Mexican Resturants, so I tried this recipe and OMG! these tacos are super delicious and my huband and kids just loved them.
This recipe will remain in my household.
Very easy to make and worth all the prep and 2 hour wait.
This recipe will remain in my household.
Very easy to make and worth all the prep and 2 hour wait.
Easy to make although the chilies were hard to find. It was absolutely delicious – this recipe vastly exceeded my expectations. And it probably cost $15 to make.
ok so i don’t follow the recipe, but i use it for inspiration and it always comes out fantastic.
i do not use the tomatoes or the red peppers. i also leave out the thyme. i use, instead, a can of fire roasted green chilies. and i combine everything in a slow cooker in the morning and by dinner its falling apart and totally tender.
the key ingredients here are the dried chilies, the green chilies, cumin and the citrus.
I have 2 issues/adjustments to this recipe. 1. Dried Chipotles. I have a wonderful Mexican grocer in town and they dont carry them. I have never seen dried chipotles in any grocery store, and when I found out that El Rey didn’t have them, I realized that I needed to make an adjustment. I used canned chipotles and rinsed them thoroughly in order to remove all the adobo.
The second point is more crucial. 1 1/2 hrs to braise a pork shoulder? I do a lot of pulled pork, so I have braised my fair share. 1 1/2 hrs is not even close to the time it normally takes to produce fall-apart pork. It is more like 2 1/2 to 3 hrs. Sure, you could remove the pork after 1 1/2 hrs, but you would have to use a knife to cut it up and it would maintain some chewiness.
This recipe was fantastic with the proper cooking time.