Mexico / Main
Tacos al pastor
Pork in a marinade of dried chillies and pineapple, seared to caramelised edges, in a corn tortilla.
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder, sliced thin700 g
- Dried guajillo chillies4
- Dried ancho chillies2
- Pineapple200 g
- Achiote paste, or a teaspoon of ground annatto30 g
- White vinegar60 ml
- Garlic4 cloves
- Ground cumin1 tsp
- Mexican oregano1 tsp
- Corn tortillas12
- Onion and corianderto taste
- Limeto taste
Quantities are auto-calculated from the original recipe as a guide. Items without numbers (e.g. “to taste”) are not changed.
Method 5 steps
Seed the chillies and toast them in a dry pan until they smell — twenty seconds a side, no longer, or they turn bitter. Cover with boiling water for fifteen minutes.
Blend the softened chillies with half the pineapple, the achiote, vinegar, garlic, cumin and oregano to a smooth paste. Season it.
Coat the pork in the marinade and leave it at least two hours, ideally overnight. Do not go past a day: the pineapple will soften the meat to mush.
Get a pan searing hot and cook the meat in batches, two minutes a side. Do not stir until dark edges appear.
Sear the rest of the pineapple in the same pan and dice it. Chop the meat roughly, warm the tortillas twenty seconds a side and build: meat, pineapple, onion, coriander, lime.
