Easy Al Pastor Tacos

August 8, 2019thetipsyhousewife

two tacos with toppings and salsa — A super easy dinner everyone will love!

I don’t think I have ever met a person who doesn’t like tacos. I personally could eat tacos every single day of the week. I am lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with a taco cart on every corner and a Mexican restaurant every two steps. In fact, I once did a taco crawl in my neighborhood and tried an incredible amount of tacos. You can read that blog post here A Taco Tour of Rogers Park. I have yet to meet a taco I didn’t like. One of my most favorite types of taco is Al Pastor. I won’t go into great detail but basically Al Pastor is marinated pork layered onto a spit with pineapple and grilled to perfection. they then slice the crispy bits of pork onto your taco shell and top it with cilantro and onion. I have found some of the best Al Pastor in my neighborhood and when I am not able to walk out my front door and grab one of these delicious tacos I make a cheater version myself. These Easy Al Pastor Tacos are not authentic, so please don’t come after me telling me so, LOL. But they are delicious, they are easy to make, and they will tide you over until you can get yourself to a proper taqueria. Follow along and you will soon be making these Easy Al Pastor Tacos once a week.

Here is what you will need to make the Easy Al Pastor Tacos:

This recipe feeds 4 to 6 people with enough leftovers for a couple of lunches.

Ingredients

2 lbs of Ground Pork
1 Can of Pineapple Chunks
2 pouches of Frontera Chicken Taco Skillet Sauce
1/2 C of Minced Purple Onion
2 C of Crumbled Cotija Cheese
2 C of Shredded Lettuce
Corn Tortillas
4 T of Corn Oil for frying the tortillas
Salsa, Guacamole and Sour Cream if you choose

A packet of Frontera Taco Sauce — This taco sauce is available in most grocery stores.

The steps are equally as easy as the ingredients. In fact, I am hesitant to even call this a recipe. This is more of an “assembly” of a dinner.

Cotija cheese which is a mexican white crumble cheese — This is the cheese I use, but if you don’t have access you can use any cheese you choose.

Steps

Add your ground pork to a hot skillet. You may want to use a little oil if your pork is lean. Cook the pork making sure to break it up so its crumbled.
1. Tipsy Tip, I like to get my pork just a little well done so that it is crispy like real Al Pastor.
When your pork is cooked remove it from the pan and set it aside.
I drain my can of pineapple chunks and add it to the same pan as I cooked the pork in. I don’t do anything to the pineapple but you can add a little sea salt and chili powder to it as you fry it up. Get a nice char on all the pineapple chunks and I use my spatula to break it up into smaller bite sized pieces.
When the pineapple is nice and charred, add your pork back to the pan and give it all a good toss. Then add your two pouches of the Frontera Chicken Skillet Taco Sauce. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and let cook for about 15 minutes.
As your pork cooks, get a skillet hot with a little oil and fry up your corn tortillas and keep them warm in a dish towel.
I assemble my tacos with the pork and pineapple mixture and let everyone top them how they choose.

What I like about this “recipe” is that it is not only easy, but it makes a large amount in order to have leftovers for lunches or even a big salad. If you aren’t familiar with the Frontera Taco Sauce it is typically in the ethnic food aisle of your local grocery or you can get it on Amazon. I also like to use the Cotija cheese which is a Mexican crumbling cheese that is readily available here in Chicago but if it isn’t where you live, you can use cheddar or even jack cheese.

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