Tacos Al Pastor

I wanted to make a wonderful homecoming dinner for my hubby who had spent the last two weeks in Atlanta, GA at Georgia Tech. He is a freak for Mexican food, the more authentic the better, and he can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I decided to make Tacos Al Pastor, in a very traditional way. I looked at a few recipes to get a general idea then dived in!

The meat was fall apart tender and so flavorful it was amazing, I will be making this often!

3 -4 lb Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder, bone in or boneless)

1 tbl dried onion powder

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp or so salt

1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 large onion chopped roughly large chunks

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 jalapenos, sliced (you can seed them if you don't like spicy food)

corn tortillas

Wet Ingredients

• 3 tbl white vinegar
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• Add enough water to make the mixture 2 cups

Avocado Salsa

• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• chopped purple onion, diced small
• 1 ripe avocado, cubed
• 1 medium tomato cubed
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Place your heavy bottom high sided roasting pan on the stove and get it screaming hot, add some olive oil to coat pan

Add your pork roast and sear on all sides, remove and set aside, reduce heat to medium high

Place your onion, garlic and jalapeno in the pan and cook for several minutes, until tender

In the meantime, add all the dry spices together and rub onto the pork, then place the pork back into the roasting pan on top of the onion, jalapeno mixture.

Now mix up your wet ingredients, and pour into the pan, spoon a bit on top of the pork roast.

Cook at 275 for 5-6 hours, turning the roast several times during the cooking process, it should be falling apart tender

Shred or cube (cubed is the traditional way) the meat and place on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, this will caramelize the meat.

Traditionally this is served on corn tortillas with diced onion and cilantro.

I made an avocado salsa with just tomato, avocado and onion, a bit of salt and lime juice for the tacos.