Roast Pork Tacos with radish slaw, pickled onions and guacamole

Slow roasted pork and tacos? Uh yes please. Add some fresh, crisp, bright condiments to compliment the rich meat and you’ve got something. This has all the above and some. An ultimately easy recipe but it takes a little bit of time.  There’s some prep but once that’s done and the pork is in the oven there’s only a few things to do and you’re ready to serve. Start this earlier in the day and if you time it right it you will be ready when guests arrive with little additional hassle. I use a 1/2 portion of a boston butt in this recipe but a full butt would be fine, just add time. A pork loin could pass but it really doesn’t have enough fat to work as well. You could do this in a crock pot but times will be a bit longer and you’ll need to reduce the sauce in another pan. As always, click photos to embiggen.

Feeds: 4

Time: 3-3.5 hours – 30 mins prep, 2.5 to 3 hours cooking (increase time if you double recipe)

Ingredients:

Pork:

1  2.5-3 lbs pork boston butt, bone in

enough corn tortillas for 2 -3 per person

3 tbs olive oil

1 Ancho chile

1 Pasilla chile

1 Chipotle chile in adobo

1 white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small cinnamon stick

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 bay leaf

1 tbs cumin

2-3 cups chicken stock

1 lime, juiced save rind

1 orange,  juiced, save rind

Kosher salt and pepper

Radish slaw:

6-8 small radishes, jullianned

1/2  juice of lime

1 tbs olive oil

salt

fine chopped cilantro to taste

Pickled onions:

1 red onion sliced thin

4 tsp sugar

2 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp mexican oregano

1 tsp red chile flakes

Guacamole:

2 Ripe Haas avocados

1 small handful of cilantro, chopped

juice of 1/2 to 1 lime

1 tbs kosher salt (or more to taste)

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

And the fun part:

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Cover the dried chiles with hot water.

Salt and pepper the boston butt thoroughly. Don’t be shy.

Heat the olive oil over high heat in cast iron dutch oven or heavy stew pot. Add the pork and brown on all sides.

Remove the pork, add the onion, garlic and cumin. Cook until softened, about 5 mins. Scrape up all the caramelized goodness in the bottom of the pan.

Seed and stem chiles  and tear into pieces and add to pot with the soaking water.

Add chipotle with a little of the adobo sauce.

Add pork to pot

add juice of 1/2 lime and 1 orange

Add lime and orange rind to pot

Add cinnamon stick and bay leaf

Add chicken stock to almost cover pork

Bring to simmer, cover. Move pot to oven.

Cook for 2.5 -3 hours or until tender enough to shred with a fork.

Turn once.

While the pork is cooking…

Pickled Onions:

Add the vinegar, salt, sugar and chile flakes to a small sauce pan

Bring to a simmer, remove from heat and add the sliced onion.

Let sit until cooled, transfer to a pint mason jar and sit at room temp until pork is done.

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for a few weeks.

 Radish slaw:

Combine the julianned radish, 1/2 lime  juice, salt, olive oil and cilantro and let sit

Guacamole:

Slice the avocados lengthwise

Remove the pit

Scoop the flesh into a bowl’

Add the lime juice, salt, pepper and cilantro

Smashy smash until slightly smooth. A fork or a potato masher works well.

Back to the pork……

Once you can easily shred the pork with a fork remove it from the pot.

Strain the leftover juices and return to the pot. Reduce by 1/3 to 1/2

Pull the pork (shred it) with a fork. Discard the bone and any remaining concentrated areas of fat.

When the juice has reduced by 1/3 to 1/2  add the pork back to the pot, remove from heat, and cover.

Heat the corn tortillas in a tortilla warmer or any ceramic oven proof container or directly over the open flame of your stove. Microwaving with a wet paper towel works too, but, really? come on.

Fill each tortilla with pork, guac, radish, and pickled onion. Grab a beer of your choice and enjoy!