Tacos al Pastor #2

By slebel

Ingredients

• 4 lbs pork “butt” roast
• 1/4 pineapple sliced into long 1/4″ thick strips
• for marinade
• 2 ancho chiles
• 1 guajillo chile
• 3/4 C fresh pineapple
• 1/2 onion
• 1 Chipotle chile (in adobo sauce)
• 1 Tbs adobo sauce
• 1 Tbs vinegar
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp achiote paste (or 1/2 tsp paprika)

Preparation

Step 1

Put the pork in the freezer until its firm enough to cut (about 30 minutes).



Remove the seeds and stems from the chilies and put them in a bowl. Boil some water and pour it onto the chilies and allow them to rehydrate (about 10 minutes). Put the chilies in a food processor along with all the other marinade ingredients and process until smooth. Add the marinade to a pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. This destroys some of the enzymes in fresh pineapple that can turn your meat into mush. Turn off the heat then let the marinade cool to room temperature.

Take the roast out of the freezer and orient the roast how you’d have it sitting in the roasting pan (fat side up). The idea here is that you want to slice the meat into 1/2″ thick slices that will stack on top of each other in the roasting pan. I don’t slice all the way through which helps when you’re trying to put the roast back together.



Slather the marinade between each layer until every nook and cranny is covered. Tie the roast back together. Cover it and allow it to marinade for no more than an hour. Fresh pineapple has a powerful enzyme that breaks down proteins and while heating it destroys some of the enzymes, it’s still a powerful meat tenderizer. If you’re using canned pineapple let it marinate overnight as most of the enzyme is destroyed in the canning process.



When the roast is ready to go in the oven, set the oven to 450 degrees F. Put the roast on a rack in a roasting pan and add water to the bottom of the pan (this is to keep the drippings from smoking). Roast for 30 minutes at this temperature then place the pineapple slices on top of the roast and turn down the heat to 300 degrees F. Roast until the meat is tender (about 3 hours).

After removing the meat from the oven, cover it with foil and let it rest for about 20 minutes. When you’re ready to serve, just cut the meat up into small cubes. I like to pan fry it at this point to give the pieces a bit more caramelization but it’s up to you.