Al Pastor Tacos with Pico de Gallo and Tomatillo Salsas (+ Elote Salad)

05 Sep Al Pastor Tacos with Pico de Gallo and Tomatillo Salsas (+ Elote Salad)

Skip to recipe (Adapted from All Recipes)

So I should probably admit that I’m not vegetarian. I’m like 90% vegetarian and allow myself some meat during this pandemic because we need to reward ourselves with things during this weird time, and I fucking love al pastor tacos. I’m sure there are random places in NY to find an amazing al pastor but they’re few and far between. Since I’ve got the anomaly of a large kitchen and a back patio with grill in Brooklyn, I decided I was going to attempt some al pastor tacos. My first attempt came years ago, where I spent all this time marinating the meat, and showed up at a friend’s apartment to cook the meat, and all they had was an electric stovetop. What a crime? I don’t care if an apartment has a claw foot tub with a beautiful fireplace and private rooftop deck. If there isn’t a gas range in the kitchen, it’s worthless.

Visit your local Mexican grocer

Al pastor requires some special ingredients you’re not going to find at most grocery stores, so I visited a Mexican grocer/bodega in South Slope to find dry guajillo chilies and pasilla chiles. And while I was there I tried their carnitas tacos… Devine. But what’s with NY places where you have to get all the same kind of taco and can’t mix and match! The other ingredients you absolutely have for al pastor are pineapple (and skip the can), cayenne, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and crushed red pepper.

Prepare your Marinade

The fist thing you have to do is rehydrate the dry chilies. Just add them to a large bowl and immerse them in water that’s been boiled. After about 30 minutes, remove the stems and the seeds. Then add them to your blender with all the other spices, pineapple juice, garlic cloves and vinegar. Blend it all together to get your thick marinade. I visited a local Carroll Gardens butcher, Paisano’s, to find pork shoulder. I decides to cut off strips of meat from the shoulder and marinated that batch in one ziploc bag and the remainder bone with meat in another bag to try out different cuts. You’ll want to marinate overnight so plan your al pastor tacos in advance.

What’s a taco without multiple salsas?

If you’re like me, then you grab all the salsa options at the taqueria and equally distribute salsa across each of your tacos. On another day I may have also attempted to make five different types at the same time, but for this batch, I decided on a simple pico de gallo (made with fresh yellow gold tomatoes from my garden) and a tomatillo salsa (or verde).

Start grilling

The first thing I did was prep the ingredients for an elote salad. I covered some fresh corn with salt, pepper, chili pepper and lime. Threw them on the grill with some peppers. I entrusted a friend to get poblano peppers and she returned with cubanelles? Regardless, my salad still worked with the one poblano I had in the fridge and these mystery peppers. After the corn and peppers are nice and charred, chop them up and cut the kernels off the corn into a large bowl. Add some chopped red onion, more lime, olive oil, salt, pepper, and mix it together. It’s the perfect side dish. Then get your pork on the grill. Make sure to get a nice char on both sides before you transfer it to the top shelf to slow cook while you grill the sliced pineapples. After your pork and pineapple are nicely cooked, start heating up the corn tortillas right on the grill. And for my opinion on why corn over flour, read my other taco blog post here. And, after your tortillas are nice and charred, you’re ready to assemble your tacos! Dice up your pork into small pieces along with the grilled pineapple and set up stations for your guests to assemble. And enjoy!

Recipe

Serves 6 (1 day to marinate, 1 day to grill)

Ingredients:
– 2 lbs of pork shoulder
– 1 whole pineapple (and 1 cup pineapple juice)
– 1 tablespoon white vinegar
– 4 peppers dried guajillo chilies, seeds discarded
– 3 peppers dried pasilla chiles, seeds discarded
– 8 cloves garlic
– 1 teaspoon ground red pepper
– 1 teaspoon cumin
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
– 1 small yellow onion
– 1 large red onion
– 1 plum tomato and several yellow gold cherry tomatoes
– 8 tomatillos
– 4 thai chili peppers
– 6 ears of corn
– 1 poblano pepper
– 4 cubanelle peppers
– Queso chees
– Limes
– Salt and pepper
– Olive oil

1. Start by making the marinade. Rehydrate the guajillo and pasilla chilies by immersing them in water that’s been boiled for 30 minutes. Remove the stems and the seeds, then add to a blender with vinegar, pineapple juice, a couple pineapple slices, cumin, cinnamon, red pepper, 4 garlic cloves, and oregano. Blend together.
2. Slice the pork shoulder and add pieces to ziploc bags with marinade. Make sure to cover every square inch of the pork with the marinade, and seal the ziploc bags. Make sure to not trap any air inside. Refrigerate overnight.
3. The next day, prepare your salsas. For the pico de gallo, combine yellow gold tomatoes, plum tomato, half of the red onion, 2 garlic cloves and 2 thai chili peppers, with cilantro in a food processor. Start pulsing slowly because you want to create a chunky salsa and not a puree. Add lime juice (one lime) and salt to taste. For the tomatillo (or verde) salsa, broil the tomatillos in the oven for a few minutes so you start to see a char on the skin. Add them to a blender, with yellow onion, 2 garlic cloves, cilantro and 2 thai chili peppers. For this one you want a puree, so blend completely.
4. Cover your corn with chili powder, salt, pepper, and lime. Throw them on the grill with the poblano and cubanelle peppers. After they’re all charred, remove from the grill, remove the seeds and stems from the peppers and dice. Remove the kernels from the corn and mix together with the rest of your diced red onion. Add some salt, lime juice and olive oil and mix together. Break up some queso cheese and stir it together.
5. Grill your pork. 5-7 minutes per side on medium high heat to get nice grill marks, then move it to the top shelf for slow cooking while you grill the pineapples. Should take another 15-20 minutes. The quickly grill your corn tortillas on both sides to get some nice charred marks.
6. Chop up the meat, the pineapple, and allow your guests to assemble their own tacos accompanied with the salsas, and side of elote salad. Pour yourself a homemade margarita and enjoy!