Charred adobo-marinated pork with grilled pineapple, onion, and cilantro on warm corn tortillas. The marinade does the heavy lifting; the cook is fast.
Ingredients
Marinade
- 3dried guajillo chilies, stems and seeds removed
- 2dried ancho chilies, stems and seeds removed
- 2chipotle peppers in adobo
- ¾ cuppineapple, fresh, chunked
- ¼ cupwhite vinegar
- 4garlic cloves
- 1 tbspachiote paste, or 1 tsp ground annatto
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspkosher salt
Pork
- 1½ lbpork shoulder, thinly sliced ⅛-inch thick
- 1 tbspneutral oil
To serve
- 12small corn tortillas
- 1 cupwhite onion, finely diced
- ¾ cupfresh cilantro, finely chopped
- ½ cuppineapple, finely diced
- lime wedges
- salsa verde, for serving
- 1
Place the dried guajillo and ancho chilies in a heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water and let soak for 15 minutes until soft. Drain.
- 2
Add the soaked chilies, chipotle peppers, pineapple chunks, vinegar, garlic, achiote, cumin, oregano, and salt to a blender. Blend on high for 60 seconds until completely smooth.
- 3
Place the sliced pork in a large bowl or zip-top bag. Pour the marinade over and toss to coat every piece. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- 4
When ready to cook, remove the pork from the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. Heat a cast iron skillet over the highest heat your stove can produce until smoking. Add the oil.
- 5
Working in batches of 6–8 pieces, sear the pork pieces for 90 seconds, flip, then another 60 seconds. The edges should be deeply charred and the centers just cooked through. Transfer to a cutting board and rest. Repeat with remaining pork.
- 6
Once all pork is cooked, chop the seared pieces into ½-inch bite-sized pieces.
- 7
Warm the corn tortillas in the same hot pan for 20 seconds per side until they soften and develop brown spots.
- 8
Build each taco: warm tortilla, generous pile of pork, scattered diced onion and cilantro, a few small pieces of fresh pineapple, and a squeeze of lime. Serve with salsa verde on the side.
Nutrition
Per serving · estimated
- Protein32 g22%
- Carbs48 g34%
- Fat28 g44%
More detail
- Fiber6 g
- Sugar8 g
- Saturated fat9 g
- Cholesterol105 mg
- Sodium920 mg
Nutrition values are estimates based on standard ingredient databases. Actual values may vary depending on brands, substitutions, and serving sizes.
Real pastor is shaved off a vertical spit (the trompo) — pork shoulder marinated in chiles and pineapple juice, stacked into a tower, rotated next to a flame, and shaved into tortillas as it crisps. It is one of the great cooking techniques of the world, and you cannot replicate it at home.
What you can do is take the marinade — which is the heart of the dish anyway — and apply it to thinly sliced pork shoulder, then sear it hard in a screaming-hot cast iron skillet. The result is not technically pastor, but it tastes very, very close.
The marinade
Three dried chilies form the base: guajillo for color, ancho for sweetness, and chipotle in adobo for smoke. Soak the dried chilies in hot water for 15 minutes to soften, then blend with pineapple, vinegar, garlic, and spices. The pineapple is critical — it provides both flavor and an enzyme that tenderizes the pork.
Marinate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The chilies need time to penetrate.
Slicing the pork
Use pork shoulder, not loin or tenderloin. The shoulder has the fat content this dish needs. Trim any large outer fat caps but leave the marbling. Slice into pieces about ⅛ inch thick — thinner than you might think. The slim pieces char fast and stay juicy.
A trick: freeze the shoulder for 30–45 minutes before slicing. Slightly firmed-up pork is much easier to slice thinly than raw pork at full temperature.
The cook
Cast iron, smoking hot, almost no oil. Pork goes in, do not crowd, leave it alone for 90 seconds, flip, another 60 seconds, out. Work in batches of 6–8 pieces. The pieces should have hard char on the edges and pink in the middle — that is what you want, not gray and uniform.
Serving
Small corn tortillas — not flour, not big flour. Warm them on the same skillet for 20 seconds per side until they get soft brown spots. Pile the pork on, top with finely diced white onion, abundant chopped cilantro, a tiny piece of grilled pineapple, and a squeeze of lime. That is it. No cheese, no sour cream, no lettuce.
Salsa verde on the side. Beer in the other hand.