- Tacos al pastor cooked in a Weber kettle grill.
Today we're taking it outside of the Test Kitchen.
Let's fire it up.
(gentle music)
I fell in love with tacos al pastor
when I spent some time in Mexico,
and traditionally, they're cooked on a vertical rotisserie,
which is a little hard for most people to do.
So I'm going to show you a really cool technique,
how to do it inside of a Weber grill,
using a Certified Angus Beef chuck roast.
Here we have our Certified Angus Beef chuck roast.
They're a super common cut at the grocery store
and because of all that marbling, pack a ton of flavor.
The first thing you'll need to do is start the marinade.
Like many good Mexican sauces and marinades,
we use dried chilies.
We'll use guajillo for this particular marinade.
Just clean them and soak them in hot water.
We'll also use a whole bunch of fresh garlic.
Just peel the paper.
There's no need to chop,
since we're putting this all into a blender.
This marinade uses fruit juices
combined with vinegar, garlic
and a variety of spices to tenderize the meat.
The first spice we use is going to be achiote.
Achiote is traditionally an ingredient
used for this marinade,
but if you can't find it,
you could substitute some paprika powder.
The achiote will just add such a nice bright color
and give it a sweet and peppery flavor.
It's really worth seeking it out.
After the oregano, we'll add the soaked chilies.
They add such great flavor with just a touch of heat.
I like to save a little of the soaking water
to thin out the marinade if it gets too thick.
Remove the plug from the lid of the blender
and place a towel over top.
This way, if you need to thin out the marinade,
you could easily drizzle
a little bit of that soaking water until it loosens up.
This is a perfect consistency for this marinade
'cause it'll coat the meat really nicely.
Now it's time to slice up that chuck roast.
Cut the chuck roast in half to make it easier to slice.
Stand it on the cut side
and slice as thinly as possible against the grain.
You can put it in the freezer
for about 30 minutes before cutting
if you want to firm it up for easier slicing.
Now we'll get the beef into the marinade.
The acidity will really help to tenderize the beef
and develop a ton of flavor.
You'll really see the bright red color
that comes from the soaked chilies and the achiote powder.
Now get this well-coated and refrigerate overnight.
Now that this meat is well marinated,
it's ready for the grill.
But the first thing we're gonna need to do
is some pineapple prep.
I like to start with cutting the top
and the bottom off the pineapples.
Having a flat base will allow you to stand it up easily
without it moving around
while you're trying to trim up the sides.
For the sides, just gently shave off the spiky skin
while following the shape of the fruit.
Once all the exterior has been trimmed off,
you want to cut the pineapple into quarters.
You need to cut through the woody core
and remove it from the center of each quarter.
They're not really an enjoyable part of the fruit to eat.
The pineapple can be kind of slippery,
so be careful when coring those pieces.
Now we'll use two skewers
and the base of the pineapple
to create the spit for al pastor.
Push the flat sides of the skewer into the pineapple
so the points are facing up.
This will help to pierce the meat when assembling our cone.
Reserve three pieces of pineapple for later,
we'll make a salsa out of that.
I like to work on a sheet pan,
since this can get kind of messy.
Now it's time to start stacking
our marinated sliced chuck roast.
You'll want to make this into the shape of a cone
using the widest pieces at the bottom
and doubling them over if they're extremely long.
Pinch the two skewers together when stacking,
so they don't separate
as you slide the meat down the skewer.
Continue to stack the meat
as if you were attempting to make this into
one solid mass of marinated meat magic.
Try to assemble evenly so that it is well balanced
and doesn't lean to one side or the other.
You may have to fold and manipulate
the slices of meat to get a consistent shape,
but it's really important for even cooking.
Once the skewers are almost full,
you'll want to top it with that remaining
quarter of a pineapple.
Don't worry if you have a little meat leftover,
you could just saute this up
for some appetizer tacos while you wait for this to cook.
My cone of beef is arranged nicely
and my coals are good and hot.
Now how I spread these coals
and where I put this cone
is gonna be important to how this cooks.
I've heated all the charcoal in a chimney starter
to make sure that they're hot and prime for the grill.
Next, spread them around the base
of the charcoal grate of the grill.
We won't be using the top grate to cook on.
We'll just make a nice charcoal circle to surround our beef.
Using a sturdy metal spatula and some tongs,
lower the cone into the very middle of the coals.
It will be pretty hot in there,
so some fire gloves would be a good idea as well.
Now just let it roast in there for about an hour and a half
or until it reaches 150 degrees internally.
We'll use two of the remaining pieces of pineapple
to make a pineapple pico de gallo.
Now it's time to add the store-bought pico to our pineapple.
You could make your own if you wanted to,
but this makes such a bright and clean addition
to such a rich and flavorful taco.
I checked my taco tower
and saw that it was starting to lean.
So I bent a hanger to secure it to the side
from which it was falling away.
Sometimes you have to get a little MacGyver
with your cooking techniques.
I'll wrap some tortillas and foil
to warm them up in the grill
after the cone is finished cooking through.
Now that the meat is cooked
and everything has a little bit of char on it,
it's time to remove the cone using a sturdy metal spatula.
Place it directly on a wooden cutting board to rest.
You'll want to let those juices redistribute,
just like it was a roast.
After you removed that charred pineapple,
make sure to slide the meat down the skewers
so that it keeps intact and has a sturdy base.
An easy way to warm up those tortillas
is just to toss that foil packet right into the coals.
The key to cutting the cone is to slice extremely thin,
working down the side of the beef.
Shaving it off thinly will ensure a tender bite,
the charred pineapple from the top
adds some great flavor to the taco
and will be a perfect garnish at the end.
Make sure your tortillas are warm and pliable,
but keep an eye on them,
because the coals are pretty hot
and you don't want them to burn.
Before constructing the tacos,
I like to mix all the shaved meat together
so that you get a little bit of the charred exterior
along with the moist and delicious interior slices.
Now we'll top with a little bit of that charred pineapple.
I can't wait to dig into these tacos.
They're seriously one of my favorite foods.
Finally, we're gonna add some of that
fresh and tangy pineapple pico de gallo.
And then I like to top it with a few leaves of cilantro.
You can't get much of a better tacos than this.
So if you're craving authentic tacos al pastor,
with a little improvised equipment
and a classic kettle grill,
you can make tacos al pastor in your own backyard.
Now I get to dig into one of these tacos.
A little bit of char from that charcoal all around.
You get a little bit of smoke off of that.
It just really gets a full flavor to that.
So good.
So remember to like and subscribe
and we'll see you next time
on another one of our Test Kitchen videos
from Certified Angus Beef.
(energetic music)