There is a good reason why tacos al pastor are a popular in Mexico and Mexican restaurants all over the world: the combination of smoky, spicy chiles, sweet pineapples, crisp onions, and cilantro makes for the ultimate taco. Tacos al Pastor are traditionally prepared by marinating pork in chile sauce, piling the meat on a vertical rotisserie, embellishing with a pineapple, and roasting slowly for hours. Making tacos al pastor at home is very impossible to accomplish. So that you may enjoy them anytime a craving strikes, we’ve taken the mouthwatering, original flavors that make these tacos so distinctive and modified the recipe for your home kitchen.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 5 Goya Guajillo Chiles
- 5 Goya Pasilla Chiles or Goya Ancho Chiles
- 1 chipotle pepper from a can of Goya Chipotle Chile in Adobo Sauce
- 1 medium white onion, halved
- 1 (20 ounce) can Goya Pineapple Chunks
- ¼ cup Goya White Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Goya Minced Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Goya Cumin
- Goya Adobo with Pepper, to taste
- 1 (2 1/2 pound) boneless, skinless pork butt, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons Goya Vegetable Oil
- 1 (10 ounce) package Goya Corn Tortillas, warmed
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Bring 2 cups water to boil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add guajillo and pasilla chiles. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until chiles soften, about 10 minutes; transfer to plate. Remove and discard stem and seeds. Meanwhile, coarsely chop one onion half; reserve remaining half. Strain pineapples; reserve juice and fruit separately.
- Transfer guajillo, pasilla and chipotle chiles, chopped onion half, reserved pineapple juice, vinegar, garlic and cumin to bowl of food processor. Puree until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer chile mixture to saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring chile mixture to a boil; cook until paste loses raw onion taste, about 2 minutes. Season with Adobo; cool. In large container with lid, or in large ziptop bag, combine pork cubes, cooled chile marinade and reserved pineapple chunks; transfer to refrigerator. Marinate at least 2 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Strain pork and pineapples, discarding marinade. Add pork and pineapples to skillet. Cook in batches until dark golden brown on all sides and cooked through, about 15 minutes; transfer to large serving plate.
- Meanwhile, finely slice remaining onion half. Transfer sliced onion to bowl with cilantro. Serve pork and pineapple mixture in warm tortillas. Garnish pork tacos with cilantro, onions and limes.
- Warm, soft tortillas, every time! Achieving perfectly warm and pliable tortillas can be tricky business: We find the microwave results in gummy, chewy rounds while the oven dries them out. Our tried-and-true method: steaming. To do, fill a steamer with 1/2 inch water; bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. In the meantime, wrap the tortillas in a dish towel. Then, place the bundle in the steamer, cover with a tight-fitting lid and heat until warm, about 10 minutes.
Reviews
This was delicious! Definitely worth the time it took to prepare. When I make it again, I’ll probably reduce the amount of pineapple. Otherwise, very tasty!
Added just a touch of honey to the sauce to take a little of the heat off – just a tablespoon or to your taste. It was big hit with the entire family.
We just love this recipe! After making a few times, these are my modifications to suit my family’s taste (The recipe is still 5 star without them) I add about 1/2 can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce and double the pineapple juice and chunks ( ie 2 20oz cans). I marinade the pork overnight and then cook it in crockpot the next day. Fresh tortillas, pickled onions, avocado, lime, radish, cilantro = Heaven! Even better, I throw about half of it gallon ziplock and freeze for another meal, too.
Absolutely scrumptious
Made this for my family and friends for Sunday dinner and everyone raved about how great it was
I already had pork tenderloin in the crockpot with some spice, a dash of liquid smoke, pineapple and black beans when I found this recipe. Added 2 tbsp chipotle chilli and adobo after reading recipe and a tbsp of brown sugar. Used mostly for ideas on serving the tortillas themselves. Served with small warmed tortillas with pineapple chunks, sweet white onion, the pork shredded and chopped with the reserved pineapple juice added to make it juicy, fresh cilantro and lime. The side was broccoli slaw with honey mustard dressing and celery seed. Loved it so much had again the next night with home made corn tortillas. That’s was even better.
I can’t believe that I made these at home. They are restaurant quality for sure! I served mine with the lime, cilantro, and onions that the recipe called for, plus some thinly sliced radishes, pico de gallo, and avocado. An absolute hit and worth the time and effort. The only thing I changed was to add a pinch of salt to taste after the pork had cooked because it needed a little boost. Definitely make these tacos! They’re amazing.
It turned out like the thing I have dreamt of. I never like the Americanized taco that covered with cheese. We went to the Hispanic festival and decided to try the real taco. I went back to the long line to get more and determined to hunt for the similar recipe. This is the closest one. Thank you so much Goya. I guess there is no Goya branded salt so it’s not on the list. Just add salto to your liking. After the first attempt was a success, I usually double or triple the recipe and freeze the rest. I use the fresh pineapple and add salt. I even make my own tortillas now !!!
This is very good and easy. My family has been buy Al Pastor at a local Hispanic grocery store that was very good but they changed the recipe they were using. So I decided to make it myself. It was easier then I thought it might be and the flavor was really good. For sure I’ll make it again.
I have tried this recipe for few times and using the fresh pineapple is the best one. Use a good ripened fresh pineapple with yellow crunchy meat and sweet great aroma at the bottom. Chop half of the pineapple and add 2 cans of pineapple juice to marinade the pork. Add more salt to your taste and you will never go back to Taco bell taco.
Good. It was little sweet, so i would recommend reducing the amount of pineapple juice.
Good sauce, I only used one chipotle pepper (too spicy otherwise) mild New Mexico dried chiles are ok too, instead of the 5 Guajillo and 5 Pasilla chiles, cheaper in Arizona but the original chiles were tastier…and added 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Orange Juice too. Used cheese grater for onion not chunks and blended in a Ninja blender for 3 minutes.
I made this recipe and it was like the food served at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
This was an easy dinner!! Everything was delicious! I recommend it for others to try.
This recipe is an awesome starting point. After making the marinade as directed and tasting it, I made a few modifications: The marinade needs to be boiled for more than 2 minutes for it to lose the raw onion flavor, and I felt that it needed significantly more pineapple juice for it to have the sweet-heat flavor I was trying to recreate. I ended up adding three 8 oz cans of pineapple juice (total), and boiled the marinade for 15 minutes or so to reduce the liquid and let the flavors come together. I also used 2 tablespoons of adobo from the chipotle can, added a few tablespoons of brown sugar, and a fair amount of salt (I also added salt to taste to the pork while it was cooking). I used fresh pineapple instead of canned. Otherwise, followed the recipe to a T. It was a big hit at my house, and will definitely be part of our meal rotation. A few tips: There ended up being A LOT of marinade, so I used only the marinade that was needed to saturate the meat, and set aside the rest to freeze. Glad that I’ll be able to make this meal on the fly next time. When I make this again from scratch, I will double it so that I have several meal’s worth for the freezer. This recipe is labor intensive for sure, but definitely worth it! Especially if you can get more than one meal out of it! Also, instead of cooking the meat in batches, I saved time by using more than one pan. I had one cast iron and one calphalon, and both worked equally well.
Popped the whole recipe in the slow cooker after making the sauce as per the recipe. Cooked on low for 8 hours and it was fabulous! Fall apart tender and everyone loved the little “street” tacos we served.
I made this last Halloween. I followed the recipe but instead of adding chopped onions, I added onion powder (so I didn’t have to boil it to remove the onion taste. Lol). I used crushed pineapple and added the juice and the pineapple when I put the mixture in the food processor. This recipe needs more salt. I added more adobo seasoning and cumin and more of the sauce from the chipotle chilies. Marinated it overnight and it came out so good!!! We grilled the beef slices and choppped all up and mixed in the remaining marinade to the still hot chopped meat. Everyone in my family loved it! My husband ate the leftovers for days!!! I’ll make this again. The effort was worth it!
Awesome! Did a 24 hour marinade and will make these again soon!! I got 33 street taco sized out of my batch. They were a hit with everyone even though I added an extra chile and adobo sauce. I use crushed pineapples & blended 1/2 into the sauce. I was eating the sauce w/ a spoon right out of the pot.. it was so good! Serve w/ onions, radish & cilantro. Some of my guests wanted cheese to I used finely shredded monterrey jack.
Pretty good
I’ve always loved those little tacos you can buy on the streets of Mexico! Three for one dollar and they are soooo good! This recipe is about as close as you can get …. north of the border. Ole!
I didn’t have time to marinade so I slow cooked the pork in the sauce instead of just marinading in it. The results were very good! The sauce needs additional flavor…more adobo seasoning, chile powder, cumin did the trick. FYI…this is not a novice recipe. It is pretty involved, but worth it!