This recipe needs pineapple juice anyway, so I prefer to use canned chunk pineapple and roast them, rather than deal with a whole pineapple. Most people won’t find chipotle in adobo very spicy, but if you don’t prefer the spice level of jalapeno, it might be best to skip one or two of the pepper pods inside the can – the adobo part is a must however.Īl pastor is traditionally served with roasted pineapple cut from the top of the vertical spit. These are smoky spicy dried chipotle chiles (chipotle is smoked jalapeno) in adobo sauce – a sweet blend of tomatoes, vinegar, and spices. My favorite brand is El Yucateco. From a staining perspective, annatto is just as bad as turmeric, so be careful not to get any on your clothes or white porous surfaces. I’ve found the easiest way to buy the best quality chiles is online, where it’s far superior to anything outside of a good Mexican grocery store.Ī blend of spices featuring annatto that goes great in everything. One of the most common chiles for Mexican food and one of our favorites. Guajillo are dried mirasol chiles that are sweet, smoky, and not very spicy. It’s worth it though, this recipe is simple, tasty, and comes really close to the real street-side deal. It’s our go-to for taco nights, but I’ve never put it up until now because I always thought the ingredients were a little hard to come by. This recipe has been in my back pocket for a long time now. I’ve tried a lot of recipes on the internet and none of them really come close to what I love about al pastor – the smoky finish and the crisp edges. Why this is the best homemade al pastor recipe: it’s smoky, sweet, and super easy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have an amazing, just-as-good version at home too, especially if you are far away from Mexico or the south right now.

It’s heaven in a tiny tortilla.īecause you probably don’t have a flame powered vertical spit at home, you can’t replicate it 100% perfectly. The meat falls right into each taco and topped with a flourish of slow-roasted pineapple. The crisp smoky pork is sliced-to-order with a razor sharp knife as it’s flame crisped by the vertical spit. It’s served in all kinds of dishes, in tortas/sandwiches, pizzas, and even on rice, but the most celebrated way to serve it is in tacos al pastor. Vertical spits are often associated with middle eastern food and this is no exception: legend says that Lebanese immigrants brought the cooking method to Mexico, where they paired it with traditional adobada to make the genius known as al pastor. Your local Mexican place is always going to have the best tacos al pastor, but for those times you can’t get out, this recipe is so good you’ll feel like you’re back wherever your taco heart belongs.Īl pastor is a Mexican dish with pork that’s been slow roasted on a vertical spit. Is there anything as satisfying and delicious as making your own tacos at home? And if we’re talking tacos, the best thing to make at home is al pastor.

Al pastor in english