What type of meat is pastor

The origins of this beautiful and succulent pork it contains can be traced from the Middle East to Mexico to the United States via The World , and thankfully into our mouths.

The meat is roasted upright. As it roasts, it spins and is shaved from the edges so you are assured to have a mixture of textures — juicy and crispy meat — in your corn tortilla via Serious Eats. However, to try to make al pastor at home can be quite the undertaking. Al pastor is generally made with boneless pork shoulder. It is thinly sliced and marinated in guajillo chilies, wonderful smelling herbs, and achiote , which is a red spice that comes from evergreen seeds.

Shauna, I use fresh pineapple in my version, and the recipe calls for the marinade to be brought to a boil for 5 minutes to break down the enzymes. No mushy meat. I have guajillo and ancho chile powder. Are those viable substitutes to the actual chiles? Would you have a recommendation on how much of the powders to use?

They are soo good. I hope to try this recipe soon and see if it is a decent substitute. We live 5 hours from the Columbus OH so we only get these tacos once a year or so. Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark.

Tacos al Pastor - made with slow marinated pork, grilled to perfection, and served with grilled pineapple. Prep Time 4 hrs. Cook Time 30 mins. Total Time 4 hrs 30 mins. Course: Main Course. Cuisine: Mexican. Keyword: tacos al pastor. Servings: 15 tacos. Calories: kcal. Author: Charbel Barker. Strain the liquid over a bowl to end up with a smooth marinade. Add one layer of meat in a large bowl or baking dish and cover with the marinade, and then repeat in layers until all of the meat and marinade have been used.

Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 4 hours overnight is best. Remove from the refrigerator and grill the meat until cooked through. Remove from grill and cut into thin slices to serve on the tacos.

For the Roasted Tomatillo Chipotle Salsa Roast the tomatillo, onion, and garlic in the oven on baking sheet at degrees for minutes, remove from oven.

Blend with the rest of the ingredients except the salt and pepper until well combined. My very first thought was why don't I just build a trompo in miniature? I tried layering my marinated meat into an empty quart-sized deli container before allowing it to rest overnight in order for proteins to cross-link and for the meat to cure slightly. I then stuck a skewer right down the middle, inverted the whole thing, topped it off with a pineapple, and built a base out of the pineapple bottom into which the skewer head could rest, allowing the whole thing to stand upright under its own support.

By placing coals around the perimeter of the coal grate, as well as directly on top of the wok grate, I was able to create a vertical heating system that cooked the pork and pineapple from all sides simultaneously.

I gotta say, it looked pretty bad ass, and surprisingly, it worked relatively well, albeit with a ton of fiddling, searing my hands to maneuver sticky pork juice-covered pineapple, adding more coals after realizing it was going to take far longer than expected, entertaining guests while their pork cooked, etc. In short, it worked, but it wasn't fun or easy. Here's one thing to remember: cooking on a vertical spit may look like a fast cooking method—The outer layers of meat are searing and crisping after all, right?

While the taquero is busy slicing off the exterior layers of the trompo, the layers within are still slow-cooking, causing the meat to break down and tenderize. This is, in conjunction with thin slicing and curing, are why even a tough cut like shoulder can come out tender and juicy when cooked. It's only after the inner layers of meat are exposed that they fast-cook. So why not just separate the two phases of cooking?

I returned to a method I employed when making Greek-American Lamb Gyros : pack the meat into a loaf pan before cooking. By then slow-roasting it in the oven or on the cool side of a grill , I could get the meat as tender as I liked it before slicing it and finishing it off under the broiler or in a skillet.

The method worked like a charm, especially if you let the cooked meat rest in the fridge until chilled before slicing it.

For the record, here's what insufficiently salted meat looks like when you try and slice it:. And here's how it looks if it's been salted properly. The only little thorn left in my side was the pork belly, which to be frank, is not easy to come by or to slice properly.

The easy solution? Just use bacon. Bacon is already cured, already thin-sliced, and once combined with the marinated meat, blends nicely into the background, adding fatty richness and juiciness without overpowering with its smoky flavor.

As the pastor-loaf cooks, it exudes a ton of juices and fat. This is OK. The fat is the ideal medium for re-crisping the sliced meat in a skillet and for painting onto a pineapple before roasting it , and the juices can be added to the crisped meat to add some flavor and extra moisture back to the mix.

While it's true that pineapples contain an enzyme that will break down meat protein, in the case of al pastor, it does not have this effect. The enzyme deactivates due to heat long before it can get a chance to actually break down any protein, particularly in the inner layers of meat, which don't get exposed to any dripping pineapple juice until long after the pineapple has been fully cooked.

The effect of the pineapple is for flavor only, thus it can be added after the fact with no real difference. I know I've said this, but this recipe took a long time and a whole slew of failures before I finally got it right.

I'd estimate in the multiple dozens of failures over the last two years or so. But when something finally works out, it makes the whole process worth it, failures and all. I know that the dogs would agree, and not just because they got to eat most of the failures. The one issue you may have is that, well, the recipe does take a long time. A night to cure. Another night after roasting for it to re-set and become sliceable. That said, the actual active time is remarkably low, and most of it can be done in advance.

Once the pastor-loaf is cooked, it can rest in the fridge for a few days before slicing and crisping to serve, which means that if you're planning a dinner party, it only requires a few minutes of work on the day-of to get the best tacos al pastor you'll find outside of a real taqueria. For me, that ain't a bad trade-off. The most traditional cut of pork to use for al pastor is thinly sliced pork shoulder. The fact that it happens to be my favorite cut of pork only further explains why I love al pastor so much.

You can also use pork sirloin or pork loin, but be careful as these two cuts are much leaner than pork shoulder and can easily dry out. Instead of seasoned ground meat, try some tacos al pastor for your next taco Tuesday!

Ree's Life. Food and Cooking. The Pioneer Woman Products. Type keyword s to search. Copyright: The Noshery. Thin slices of pork shoulder are marinated in a blend of dried chilies, spices, achiote, and pineapple.

If you enjoy your tacos sweet, spicy, and smoky, you will love tacos al pastor. Al pastor is traditionally prepared on a vertical spit but with a hot heavy skillet, you can still enjoy al pastor.