Grilled Tacos Al Pastor Recipes

Steps:

• In a blender, combine achiote, chiles and sauce, 1/4 cup oil, and 3/4 cup water; blend until smooth, about 5 seconds. Use one-third the marinade to coat pork all over (refrigerate or freeze remaining marinade to use on other meat or fish). Cover pork and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Set up a grill for indirect cooking over medium-high. Clean and lightly oil hot grill. Brush onion slices with oil and season with salt. Arrange in a single layer over hot side of grill. Cook until grill marks are dark brown on both sides, 3 to 5 minutes per side, flipping once. Move to cool side of grill and cook until soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Repeat with pineapple. In batches, grill pork over direct heat, about 1 minute per side.
• Transfer pork to a cutting board; chop into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces. Add to a skillet set on grill to keep warm. Chop onion and pineapple into small pieces, add to skillet, and toss. Season with salt. Serve pork mixture with tortillas and salsa.

Steps:

• Heat grill to medium-high heat.
• Blend first 4 ingredients in blender until smooth. Press through wire mesh strainer into medium bowl. Add meat; mix lightly.
• Thread meat onto 24 skewers. Add pineapple. Grill 5 min. or until meat is done, turning occasionally. Meanwhile, blend avocado, mayo and serrano chile in blender until smooth.
• Remove meat and pineapple from skewers; place on tortillas. Top with avocado mixture, onions and cilantro; roll up. Serve with lime wedges.

Steps:

• Soak pasilla chiles and guajillo chiles in a bowl with hot water until chiles are softened, about 10 minutes; drain. Mash chiles, garlic, achiote powder, cumin, and cloves in a saucepan with a fork.
• Pour vinegar into sauce pan and bring to a boil; cook and stir until mixture becomes a thick paste. Season with salt. Rub chile paste over sliced pork, stacking meat on a plate. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours to overnight.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; cook and stir marinated pork and pineapple until pork is browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Divide pork over stacks of two corn tortillas and serve with onion, cilantro, and lime wedges.

Steps:

• Combine adobo, ancho powder, oil, achiote paste, brown sugar, salt, cumin, garlic and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Whisk until uniform while bringing to a simmer to bloom all the spices and flavors, then simmer, about 5 minutes. Take off heat to cool completely, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Coat all slices of pork with marinade. Spray a plastic quart container with cooking spray. Stuff the container with the slices of marinated pork, arranging them in a stack. Cover and place in the fridge 8 hours or overnight to marinate.
• Slide marinated meat gently out of quart container. Cut the pineapple into 4 equal rounds. Reserve 2 whole slices of pineapple and core the remaining 2 slices, then cut them into chunks. Place the stack of marinated meat in between the reserved slices of pineapple. Evenly skewer the stack with 8 to 10 metal skewers to make the "pastor".
• Heat a grill for cooking at about 275 degrees F. Using a chimney starter, ignite 3 to 4 charcoal briquettes. Place the briquettes in a smoker box with apple or cherry wood chips that have soaked in water 30 minutes, and place the box directly on the grate.
• Place onion and pineapple chunks in a small drip tray or roasting pan. Position the pan right on the grill, and the pastor on the elevated grill shelf directly above it. Place smoker box directly in front of the drip pan, so that some of the heat and smoke from the wood can reach the pastor.
• Cook for 4 hours, rotating a quarter every 45 minutes to 1 hour. Take it off the heat and let rest for at least 1 hour.
• Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Dice onions and pineapple from drip tray and sear in the skillet until caramelized, about 5 minutes.
• Holding the pastor vertical, shave off shards of pork. Sear off in the skillet until caramelized, about 5 minutes.
• Serve with corn tortillas, salsa verde and fresh cilantro.