Pulled Pork Plus! Slow cooked pork, lots of spice and flavour, crisped in the pan and served up as tacos with BBQ sauce – this is an amazing dish. I did the trawling of recipes on the internet so you don’t have to and I think this recipe makes perfect little spicy tacos. Many recipes called for orange juice in the cooking broth, but apple surely makes sense, given how well it goes with both pork and chilli. As for spices, I would experiment with what you have but would certainly have something smoked in there (chipotle, smoked paprika) and if you can get Mexican oregano, so much the better. Either garlic or onion granules are useful too.
A quick bbq sauce can be made by heating up some tomato ketchup, about 150ml, and adding honey, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle powder and whatever chilli powders you have at home. I used guajillo and ancho powders but feel free to experiment.
Some lovely homemade tortillas would go a treat with this but shop-bought ones are just as good. I top mine with some red onion, chopped cucumber and sliced red or green chilli. Feel free to add some lettuce, avocado, spring onion, radish, whatever takes your fancy or whatever’s in the fridge.
Enjoy!
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- One piece of pork shoulder, 1.2 - 1.5kg.
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon each of: Mexican oregano, guajillo chilli, ancho chilli, chipotle, hot smoked paprika, cumin, garlic powder, black pepper
- 500 ml chicken stock
- 200ml apple juice
- 2 limes
- To serve:
- Soft tortillas (or taco shells)
- Sliced red onion
- Diced cucumber
- 4-5 tablespoons of plain natural yoghurt
- Barbecue sauce
- Sliced jalapeños or other mild chilli
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150º.
If the pork comes with a layer of fat, cut it off, it will make the final cooking liquor very fatty.
Mix your spices together with the salt.
Cut the pork into 2 or 3 big pieces and coat well with the spice blend.
Rub the spice mix into the pork, getting into all the nooks and crannies until it is very well coated.
Put the pork into a oven-proof, lidded pan so that it fits quite snugly. Pour in the apple juice, chicken stock and the juice of a lime.
Put a layer of tin foil over the top of the pan and place the lid on top, we want a really good seal in there to keep all the moisture and flavours together.
Leave in the oven for around 4 hours. The meat should pull apart very easily when done.
When cooked, transfer the pork to a separate bowl, keeping the cooking broth.
Put the pan with the cooking liquid on the hob over a low flame to reduce; heat until it has reduced by around half, leaving a thick sauce.
Pull the pork apart and add to the sauce, mixing well to coat it.
When you are ready to serve, add the pork to a hot frying pan or skillet for a few minutes. This will crisp up some of the meat a little, browning some of the edges. This will give lovely flavour and texture.
Serve as you wish, I recommend some tortillas warmed in a dry pan, covered with a smear of yoghurt and BBQ sauce, topped with plenty of meat with some onion and cucumber and a squeeze of lime juice.
Notes
For extra punch, melt some cheese onto the meat before adding the onion and cucumber - delicious!
