Pork Chilorio Tacos

Pork chilorio tacos! Where have you been all my life? My favorite of the mild dry Mexican chiles, chile ancho, paired with fresh orange juice, vinegar and spices. It’s a win, win situation for me! The first time I experienced chilorio was one of chef Rick Bayless recipes. I love the idea of adding citrus of any kind to my recipes and especially my chile sauces, salsa’s or recados. Chiles and citrus just work so well together. The most used dried chile in my Mom’s kitchen was chile ancho, so I kind of favor it when I begin to develop a new Mexican recipe. If you would like to spice up this recipe for pork chilorio, you could add some chile de arbol, japones, morita or chipotle. In some chilorio recipes, cooks favor adding chile guajillo or pasilla combined with the chile ancho. 

How can you resist enjoying all three tacos????

Some cooks prefer mixing the dried chiles for this recipe. Chile pasilla and guajillo can be mixed with the chile ancho. Get cooking!

As you can see with the chile ancho peppers above, the colors may vary. The peppers that are newly dried will be soft and pliable with a more red color through out and will yield a brighter red sauce. The older peppers will yield a dark red, sometimes chocolate looking color. Both delicious! Click Asado de Puerco recipe here to see the difference in colors of the chile ancho sauces.

Corn tortillas, homemade or store bought, can come in white corn, yellow corn and sometimes blue corn! The tortillas for this recipe were yellow corn. If you would like to try your hand at preparing them homemade click HOMEMADE Tortillas.

For a delicious Pork Roast Shoulder recipe click PORK! For a smaller quantity pork, I would suggest purchasing  a smaller picnic pork shoulder. Slice into large chunks and cover halfway with water in the crockpot. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, lime and Mexican oregano. Cook on low overnight or on high for 6 hours.

And for me, any pork taco calls for pickled red onions! Click PIBIL recipe onsite to see another tasty roast pork and my favorite habanero pickled red onion!

Pork Chilorio Tacos

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Pork, Tacos

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings: 6 Servings

Ingredients

For Chilorio Sauce

• pork lard or avocado oil
• 1/2 white onion roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic sliced
• 3 large chile ancho stems and seeds removed
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Mexican oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste

You Will Also need

• 3 tablespoons pork manteca or more oil
• 1 1/2 pounds shredded pork previously cooked
• Corn tortillas
• Pickled red onions
• Cilantro chopped

Instructions

Directions

• In a skillet, preheat 3 tablespoons of lard or oil to medium heat. After a minute, add the onions and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
• Tear the chile ancho peppers into smaller pieces. Add to the skillet with the onions and garlic. Toss the chiles to cook until they begin to blister slightly and become aromatic.
• Add the water and orange juice to the skillet. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Transfer all skillet ingredients to the blender. Add the remaining ingredients for the sauce into blender. Blend on high until very smooth. Taste for salt. Straining the sauce is optional, but not a must.
• In that same skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of pork manteca(lard) or oil to medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the shredded pork and fry, tossing as needed, until the pork begins to crisp in some spots. Mix in the reserved sauce to the pork. Continue cooking until it reduces and becomes thick. Some people like to add a little more pork lard to fry the pork in the sauce. Serve with warm tortillas, cilantro and pickled red onions.

Notes

In my opinion, the easiest way to approach recipes that require shredded meat is to cook the meat overnight in your slow cooker the day before. This way the meat will be flavorful and moist and ready to finish the recipe quickly.

Tried this recipe?Mention @pinaenlacocina or tag #pinaenlacocina!

Like this:

Like Loading...