Pulled Pork for Tacos Recipe?

HellrodKC

Hey everyone,
The wife and I are hosting a shower this weekend for some friends of ours that are having a baby. The shower is fiesta themed, so we are doing a taco bar and I want to make pulled pork. I'm not wanting to do my standard "BBQ" flavored pulled pork, so looking for something that would fit the theme more. I've been searching here and other recipe sites that I trust, but it's hard to find anything that stands out.

So what do ya got? Any favorite recipes for pulled pork tacos?

Thanks!

saluki2007

I've never made a butt just for tacos.  I will however use my leftovers for tacos.  Heat a skillet up over medium low heat.  Add butter.  Sprinkle this on it.  Serve with green salsa, cilantro, cheese and the key is pickled red onion.  

xfire_ATX

I just did Pulled Pork Carnitas for Memorial Day-
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1213659/weekend-carnitas-pic-heavy-and-long#latest

Eggcelsior

"Regular" pulled pork works fine, but carnitas-style works well, as does adobada. Even perníl-style goes great, which is probably my go-to when I have perníl leftovers.

lkapigian

I would fry the Pulled Pork up in a pan till a bit crispy before inserting into said taco

Photo Egg

lkapigian said:

I would fry the Pulled Pork up in a pan till a bit crispy before inserting into said taco

Great idea as it tends to normally  get mushy

fence0407

saluki2007 said:

I've never made a butt just for tacos.  I will however use my leftovers for tacos.  Heat a skillet up over medium low heat.  Add butter.  Sprinkle this on it.  Serve with green salsa, cilantro, cheese and the key is pickled red onion.  

Agree totally on the @AlbuKirky Green Chile Rub. If you can cook your BB with it first, do that. Treat the green chile rub just like you would your normal BBQ dry rub. I can tell you I did green chile rubbed pulled pork for homemade tamales and they were KILLER. DO IT!

CodyA88

This has been on my list to do for a while.  Can't go wrong with Malcom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqH2P2V1gpE

saluki2007

fence0407 said:

saluki2007 said:

I've never made a butt just for tacos.  I will however use my leftovers for tacos.  Heat a skillet up over medium low heat.  Add butter.  Sprinkle this on it.  Serve with green salsa, cilantro, cheese and the key is pickled red onion.  

Agree totally on the @AlbuKirky Green Chile Rub. If you can cook your BB with it first, do that. Treat the green chile rub just like you would your normal BBQ dry rub. I can tell you I did green chile rubbed pulled pork for homemade tamales and they were KILLER. DO IT!

That's awesome!  I've never actually used the green chile as the base rub.  Typically use the red chile for base and then when reheating apply the green as a finish rub.  Their casa rub is great on fish.  @SoCalTim sent these rubs to me during my first rub and sauce exchange experience.  Awesome stuff.

Carolina Q

I guess this is more Cuban than Mexican, similar to perníl I think. Mighty good on a pork butt, though I didn't make tacos!

I had used Goya's Mojo Criollo on chicken, but can't do the sodium these days. Started looking around and found several recipes for Mojo Criollo. They're all the same, or close anyway. Decided to try it on pork.

1 cup sour orange juice. Can't find sour oranges here so I subbed 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice + 1/3 cup orange juice.
10-12 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano (I used Mexican)
1/4 cup olive oil

Into blender for 30 seconds.

From  http://www.thehungrycuban.com/mojo-criollo/ 

Marinate overnight (an injection would probably be good too - if I had an injector), cook it as for standard pulled pork except baste with the marinade from time to time (you might need to make extra for basting). I didn't make more, I just reused the marinade and stopped applying well before the cook was finished (so the raw pork in the marinade got cooked). Must have worked as I didn't get sick. 

Looks like this... bark was outstanding!

hogfan412

I have never done this.   I will order some rubs and definately do this now.   I looks amazing ya'll.

Legume

we just did this last night our super lazy way - we use pork sirloin roast which is leaner than a shoulder when we don't use the egg to cook the fat off.  I think they come in a four pack at Costco and look like pork cannonballs.  yesterday dropped a frozen on into a crockpot with a can of hatch green chile enchilada sauce and a large can of chopped jalapenos.  not sure what other seasoning my wife put in, probably not much to start.  Ran it on high for a couple of hours since it was frozen, cut it in quarters, then low for several hours.  it pulls really easily and you get a nice trailing heat from being cooked in the diced jalapenos.  great flavor if you use a really good enchilada sauce or season up a mediocre one.

Some amazing cooks posted above that I’m going to try myself.  This one is a simple approach that still gives great flavor cooked through the meat.  You could do this in a crock pot or DO on the egg or in the oven.

thetrim

Conchinita pibil.  

Action_Hank

Love me some pulled pork tacos!  Just made some for Preakness.  Don't know a taco-pork recipe though, sorry... I'll be following some of the suggestions above next time.  I'll add my taco pics, BUMP!   

How I did it last for preakness:

I went low and slow with whatever rubs on hand.  

Foiled near end to make sure it done at a decent hour.

Pulled it.

Then added shack sauce after pulling.  For pp taco meat, I try to shred the meat rather than chop and also let the pp sit in the sauce for a second ( the hot meat soaks it up pretty quickly).

The sauce is certainly BBQ (not what OP wanted), but since its just mostly ACV and texas pete, it works well for mexican substitutions too.

  

Shack Recepie: https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136085

I'll need to try these pickled onions sometime... Keep the pork recipes comin!

northGAcock

HellrodKC said:

Hey everyone,
The wife and I are hosting a shower this weekend for some friends of ours that are having a baby. The shower is fiesta themed, so we are doing a taco bar and I want to make pulled pork. I'm not wanting to do my standard "BBQ" flavored pulled pork, so looking for something that would fit the theme more. I've been searching here and other recipe sites that I trust, but it's hard to find anything that stands out.

So what do ya got? Any favorite recipes for pulled pork tacos?

Thanks!

Dizzy Pig Mole works great mixed in with left over pulled pork, turkey, beef or Chicken
 

Ask me how I know?

THEBuckeye

I cook the butt but buy the tortillas, guac, salsa, queso and pico at at the best local mexican joint. 

JNDATHP

Here is what we do because we prefer Latin flavors. SPOG on butt, liberally. 

We make “refried beans” in the crock pot using this recipe:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/70312/refried-beans-without-the-refry/

When done, we reserve most of the liquid and use a stick blender to make the beans creamy, adding the liquid as needed. 

The remaining liquid is used to flavor the pulled pork. 

Serve with a bar of hot sauces, cheese, finely chopped cilantro and the beans on small corn tortillas warmed in the oven. 

Let me tell you - this is really good!

Legume

Please stop putting shredded packaged cheese on your tacos.  Especially pork chicken beef or fish tacos.  Ground beef?  Have a shredded cheese party.

Buy a brick of cotija and crumble it with a fork, don’t use a ton.  If you hate it, come back and flag me.

Focker

I don't have a recipe per se, but the main ingredient in the Yucatan is achiote paste.  It is wonderful on just about any meat, poultry, or fish, shrimp, over fire.

Add fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, zest, roasted garlic, Mexican oregano, cumin, granulated onion, salt, tajin, pepper, combo of ground ancho, guajillo, pasilla, just ancho would be fine.  

Slash 2 8lb butts on all sides, place in a 2 gal Ziplok, dump, seal bag as air tight as possible, and rub paste in from outside of bag, marinating overnight.  Achiote is a beautiful bright rusty red, and stains, so be careful.

Smoke the following day.  Traditional Cochinita Pibil is wrapped in banana leaves.  I like the bark too much and omit.  You can take it a step further with Mexican lump from the Supermercado. 


Fresh tortillas are another game changer IMO.  It's all about the platform.  Try to find a local tortilleria.  A great lady runs one down the street, I'm fortunate.

This tortilla warmer is a bargain at $9.99.  I love both of mine.  Have given a couple as gifts to fam and friend.  They come in handy for other hot items to hold too.

BBQ sauce and cheap flavorless buns will be a thing of the past.  Although some experts favor the taste and texture of cheap commercial white bread.

Focker

One other thing.  Lol

I like to moisten the pulled pork when serving with a little Mexican Coke and Cholula.  

Pickled red onions, sliced radish, and cilantro, chopped chicharron for crunch, sprinkle of cotija, avocado at times, bring it all together.  I've used crumbled pork rinds, but the pork butt trimmings/fat caps, are great for this.

And lime wedge. 

Acn

Legume said:

Please stop putting shredded packaged cheese on your tacos.  Especially pork chicken beef or fish tacos.  Ground beef?  Have a shredded cheese party.

Buy a brick of cotija and crumble it with a fork, don’t use a ton.  If you hate it, come back and flag me.

Ditching shredded and packaged cheese is great advice regardless of what you're using it for.  Buying in blocks and grating as needed is much better.

Legume

Acn said:

Legume said:

Please stop putting shredded packaged cheese on your tacos.  Especially pork chicken beef or fish tacos.  Ground beef?  Have a shredded cheese party.

Buy a brick of cotija and crumble it with a fork, don’t use a ton.  If you hate it, come back and flag me.

Ditching shredded and packaged cheese is great advice regardless of what you're using it for.  Buying in blocks and grating as needed is much better.

I have a great recipe for a three-cheese blend.

HellrodKC

Sorry for radio silence the last couple days. Had a pup get sick that required way more attention than normal. Anyway...
thanks for all the suggestions! @Carolina Q mentioned a mojo style recipe and it triggered something in my mind. The Cubanos recipe from the movie Chef. The YouTuber Binging With Babish recreated these with a mojo recipe for the pork that I always thought would be great smoked. Here’s a link to the recipe...

https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/recipes/2017/3/28/cubanos-inspired-by-chef

Im following this exactly except not making sandwiches. The pork brined for 12 hours today and is currently marinating. The egg will be getting started shortly for an overnight cook, and I’ll post more updates along the way!

pork in the brine


Out of the brine, into the marinade 

HellrodKC

Finished product!

i ended up pulling these off the egg after about 5 hours. Weather was windy this day and I was getting weird temperature swings, so went the easy route and finished in the oven. 

Everyone loved it, and several people asked where we catered the food from. Quite the compliment if you ask me!

Action_Hank

Legume said:

Acn said:

Legume said:

Please stop putting shredded packaged cheese on your tacos.  Especially pork chicken beef or fish tacos.  Ground beef?  Have a shredded cheese party.

Buy a brick of cotija and crumble it with a fork, don’t use a ton.  If you hate it, come back and flag me.

Ditching shredded and packaged cheese is great advice regardless of what you're using it for.  Buying in blocks and grating as needed is much better.

I have a great recipe for a three-cheese blend.

Haha!!  No flag needed homie.  Anything to improve these sounds great.  The eggspert advice is always appreciated.  Please post it or pm it to me when you get the chance.  Amazon grater coming in the mail this week

Hellrod, looks great!   I'll need to try to brine like this next time

saluki2007

Looks great.