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Tacos Al Pastor - Slow Cooker

This easy, cook all day, delicious recipe takes an inexpensive pork butt to new heights. The sweet pineapple melds with the spicy chilies to create a fabulous dish your whole family will love. Perfect to bring to a party or pot luck too.
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 16 hours 15 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 1 3-4 pound pork butt roast or pork shoulder roast
  • 1 can diced pineapple
  • 1 large Onion cut into quarters
  • 2 large chilies in adobo
  • 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
  • 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
  • 1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2-3 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 12 small corn tortillas or flour tortillas
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1 batch pickled red onions optional - see blog for recipe

Instructions

The Pork

  • Trim any large pieces of fat from the pork butt roast (or pork shoulder). I love this cut of pork for a slow cooked dish - either in the slow cooker or for a long braise. It gets lovely and tender the longer it cooks
  • Remove the bone, if there is one, and cut the pork into 1inch cubes and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper
  • Place the pork cubes into the slow cooker

The Sauce

  • Save a 1/2 cup of pineapple chunks from the can and place the rest of the can (including the juice) into a blender
  • Place the quartered onion, 2 chilies in adobo, the tablespoon of adobo sauce, 2-3 tablespoons of chili powder, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 1.5 teaspoons of oregano, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper into the blender
  • Blend the ingredients until the sauce is smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings - you may want to add more chili powder or chilies in adobo. The sauce should taste fairly spicy as it will mellow as it cooks all day
  • Pour the sauce over the pork pieces in the slow cooker and stir to combine
  • Cook on low for 6-8 hours - until the pork is fork tender and falling apart. It smells so good!
  • Remove the pork from the sauce and shred with a fork
  • Add a few spoonfuls of the sauce to the pork to moisten and add flavor. I don't put the pork back into the slow cooker as it typically has more fat than I like
  • Serve on warm tortillas with pickled red onions (optional), cilantro and the remaining pineapple chunks. So yummy!