How to Make Tacos al Pastor Buenas dias!
Y Bienvenidos a Hilah Cooking!
Me llamo Hilah.
Today I am gonna show you how to make al pastor tacos which are my favorite kind of pork tacos
in the world, and I will show you how I make them, and we'll start with the marinade with
several different delicious ingredients, and then I will show you one way of cooking them,
but if you look at the website, you can see other kinds of ways of cooking them.
Let get started.
Vamonos!
[MUSIC] Okay, so I am gonna start with the marinade
first.
Typically what al pastor means nowadays, it means it involves pineapple and chiles, so
I am gonna use some guajillo chiles which are smooth and very fruity smelling and then
some ancho chiles which are dried poblano, and they are all wrinkly and they are kind
of more smoky.
Some pineapple.
Let's see.
I am gonna start throwing some crap in the blender.
I got some garlic, and maybe like half a cup of onion, and I have got some water boiling
over here because I am going to rehydrate these peppers so that I can get the seeds
and the stems off easily, and obviously soften them up since they are dry as a bone.
My God I almost cut my finger.
Okay, that , and then like a cup of this pineapple juice.
Thank God this thing has a measure on it.
Oops, okay, let a couple go in there.
So pineapple is known for kind of having enzymatic properties that tenderize meat.
I am using canned pineapple because I am gonna marinate this for a while.
Canned pineapple because it's been processed and cooked, the enzymes are pretty inactivated
so it doesn't have the same tenderizing qualities as fresh.
If you were gonna use fresh pineapple in here, don't let it marinate for longer than an hour
or the meat will just kind of turn to mush, unpleasant.
So fun fact for you.
All right, that was oregano, some cinnamon, some achiote powder which I don't know, I
think it's kind of for color mostly and a little bit of vinegar, and some pepper.
And while I am waiting for my water to boil, I am going to go ahead and slice my pork tenderloin.
Okay, so normally it's, this is cooked on like a big rotisserie with huge, giant pieces
of pork, but I don't have a big rotisserie, so I am going to slice it and then cook it
on the grill later after it's marinated.
So I am cutting it on a diagonal so that we can end up with larger pieces that will be
easier to cook on a grill and then when it's all done we'll dice it and put it in some
tacos.
Just kidding, it's pronounced "taco," even I know that.
All right, one down, add my water, just boiled, I turned it off, and now I am just gonna drop
these babies in, and they are gonna get all mushy and stuff.
Get on in that spa you peppers, and we'll just let them soak for a couple of minutes
and just sort of jab them because it's fun.
It's been about five minutes and these things are hotter than hades, so I am gonna gently
pull off that and then that comes out, pour out the seeds and the water that's in there
now, and drop it in my blender, and you might want to let these cool if you don't have amazing
man hands like I do.
Whoop, and there's another one.
Okay, I am gonna save this water just in case I need to add some to thin out my marinade.
Now I am just gonna blend this crazy concoction.
Get ready!
Let me make sure that's tight.
Jab it a little.
And you always want to be careful when you're blending anything hot because the pressure
builds up and if I was safer I would have a dishtowel and my hand over this, but I am
living on the edge here.
[blending] Beautiful!
Mmmmmm!
It smells all pineapply and chileey, Okay, now I am just going to pour this over my meats.
Okay, [laughs] okay onion fumes making me cry.
Anyway, okay, so this is all covered up.
Every little piece soaking away.
I am gonna put a lid on it, and we'll come back in a few hours to cook it.
Okay, here I am in my backyard.
I got my grill going.
My pork has been marinating for about four hours, and I have stirred it couple of times
in that period and now we are ready to put these puppies on the grill.
Okay, now here I go.
Putting them on the grill.
Hey, there's flies.
Okay, it's hotter than hell over here.
So I cut these about three quarters of an inch to an inch thick, so shoot, I don't know.
I ain't know grillin' whiz, but I imagine it will take about five minutes on each side.
We'll just see.
We'll see how it goes.
All right, so it's been a few minutes, and I could see these first ones I put on are
starting to get white around the edges, telling me they are getting to be done.
So I am gonna go ahead and start flippin'.
Hot damn!
I am hotter than hell!
And these are done, so I am gonna take them off.
See what I did was as the skinnier pieces got more done I moved them to the cooler side
of the grill so they didn't get overdone, and then I moved the fatter pieces over the
hotter part of the grill.
So I am gonna get these off, and I am gonna let them rest.
I am gonna let them take a little chill pill while I cut up my onions and my cilantro for
my tacos.
These might still need another couple of seconds, we'll see.
Okay, screw it.
They are probably fine.
All right, I am gonna go cut up some meat.
One thing I didn't show you was I put some pineapples on a spear and barbequed them too.
Son of a gun.
That looks just beautiful.
I am gonna come around this side.
Let me get it chopped up real small because that's how they do it in Mexico.
Okay, now, I am gonna heat up a tortilla and make me a taco.
So here I have some cilantro and some onion that I am gonna put on my taco, and then,
what else you do is get you a couple of them pineapple chunks.
Then some of that, some of that.
I'd like some hot sauce, there.
Taco city here I come!
Mmmmm.
Mmmm.
Hmmm.
Mmmm.
Mmm.
That's my favorite kind of taco.
There you have it, al pastor.
The recipe is at the website at HilahCooking.com, so try that out, let me know how it goes for
you, and I will catch you later amigo.