If you love the flavors of Al Pastor tacos and want to recreate them at home without the fancy equipment….then this is the recipe for you! Easy peasy.
What is “AL PASTOR”?
Al Pastor is a traditional Mexican dish of marinated and seasoned pork and pineapple. It’s cooked on a vertical spit and thin slices are cut off and served on tortillas. The vertical spit is basically a rotisserie that is rotating vertically, rather than horizontally, with the heat source behind the meat. This is the part that makes it a little tricky for the “home cook” here in America. But, with a slight adjustment in the cooking method, we can still capture those flavors here at home.
What will I need to make AL PASTOR at home?
There are a couple ingredients that aren’t always the easiest to find, especially if you are like me and live in a small town. Most recipes call for Achiote Paste, which is a blend of spices and chiles with Annato, which give it a deep red color. You could definitely order these items online, but I wanted to keep the ingredients as simple as possible, so that you could just grab everything from your local grocery or WalMart. The ingredients we used were:
- Un-waxed Pink Butcher Paper
- Ancho Chile Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Cinnamon
- Black Pepper
- Cumin
- Oregano
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Paprika
- Coriander
- Ground Cloves
- Limes
- Date Syrup
- Pineapple
- Chipotle Chile Powder
- Sea Salt
What Did I Cook This On?
I used my Austin XL pellet smoker, made by Pitboss. Check out their equipment here. I really love these pellet grills. SO convenient and easy to use. I do love my wood burning traditional smokers, but these things make it so easy to get quality food, without having to babysit a fire all day. Plus they give extra flavor to your weekday meals. The other thing that I like is that they give you the option to use a bunch of different types of wood species, without having piles of fire wood all over your yard. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend picking one up today.
Watch This Video For Cooking Instruction.
How to eat AL PASTOR.
We had our Al Pastor Country Style Ribs chopped up and piled on corn tortillas. We also topped them with some Chipotle Pineapple Salsa (Get our recipe HERE) and fresh diced white onion and cilantro. These things were SO FREAKIN good! Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds Country Style Pork Ribs
- 1/4 Each Pineapple
- 2 T Avocado Oil
Marinade
- 1/2 Cup Ancho Chile Powder
- 3 each Limes, juiced
- 1/2 Cup Red Chile Vinegar Recipe for this linked below
- 1/4 Each Pineapple
- 3 Tbsp Date Syrup
- 2 Tbsp Paprika
- 3 1/2 Tsp Fine Sea Salt Redmond Real Salt
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tsp Cumin
- 1 Tsp Chipotle Chile Powder
- 1 Tsp Coriander
- 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 Tsp Oregano
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
- 1/8 Tsp Ground Cloves Go light on this one and adjust to add more if needed. Very strong flavor.
Instructions
Prepare The Pineapple
- Cut the top and bottom off of pineapple. Then use a knife to remove the outer rind of the pineapple. Cut the outer fruit away from the inner core. Discard core.
- Brush the chunks of pineapple with the avocado oil.
- If using a pellet grill, open the baffle over the burner and grill the pineapple over direct heat until it starts to get a dark char on all sides.
- Remove pineapple from the smoker and set aside.
To Make The Marinade
- Add 1/4 of the grilled pineapple, along with all other marinade ingredients to a blender of food processor and blend until all ingredients are thoroughly pulverized and combined.
Marinate the meat
- Place the country style pork ribs in a rimmed baking dish. Pour about half of the marinade on the pork and massage into the meat, making sure that all surfaces are covered.
- Place the meat in the fridge and allow to marinate for 2-3 hours.
Prepare the smoker
- Build a fire or turn on your pellet smoker and bring it up to 225 degrees and allow the cooker to preheat.
Smoke the pork
- After the meat has marinated, remove from fridge and place the meat directly onto grate of smoker. Discard the marinade that the meat was soaking in.
- If possible, place a foil lined baking sheet under the pork to catch the marinade drippings.
- Allow the meat to cook for 2-3 hours. Brush the meat about every 30 minutes with the reserved half of the marinade.
- Once the meat has reached an internal temperature of 140-150 degrees, remove from smoker and place on a large piece of un-waxed butcher paper (foil can be used if you can't find butcher paper). Chop another 1/4 of the reserved charred pineapple into bite-sized pieces and mix into the pile of pork ribs.
- After the pineapple is mixed into the pork, wrap the meat mixture as tightly as possible and place back onto the smoker and continue cooking at 225 degrees.
- Continue cooking for another hour or two, until internal temperature reaches 195-200 degrees.
- Remove from heat and allow to rest until cool enough to handle with bare hands.
- Remove any bones from the meat and then chop it all up with the pineapple, small enough to make good bites from a taco.
- Place on warm tortillas and top with Chipotle Pineapple Salsa, as well as dice white onion and cilantro.
