#Trompo al pastor how to#
#Trompo al pastor full#

The beautiful thing about this recipe is that you can choose to be fancy and make it trompo style, as shown here, or you can simply cook it on the stove.

#Trompo al pastor full#

Find his Chuck's Food Shack columns on our subscriber site, To read more from Chuck, become a subscriber.This Carne Al Pastor will blow your mind! It is full of flavor and absolutely delicious. Recipe: At-Home DIY Pork Trompo Al PastorĬhuck Blount is a food writer and columnist covering all things grilled and smoked in the San Antonio area. And the finished product shaved off cleanly onto a hot tortilla the same way it does at a Mexico City restaurant. The grill provided easy access to the meat to regularly spritz it with pineapple juice to give it added flavor.Īs it cooked, the meat took on wonderful outer char and whiffs of pineapple filled the Food Shack. But I tried it on a pellet grill with post oak pellets to add smokiness. Perez recommends cooking the al pastor in the oven because it’s easier to maintain a consistent temperature. Then layer the meat like blankets, so that each piece is pierced by all the skewers, top it with another slice of pineapple and place the tower in an aluminum pan. I used wooden marshmallow roasting sticks from Academy. The regular wood skewers you find at the grocery store are not going to cut it you need something thicker. Start with a base of two thick slices of pineapple and insert two to three thick wood or metal skewers to give it a solid enough foundation that won’t lean or buckle under the weight of the stacked meat. “The vinegar and the acids in the juice will get into those thin strips of meat, and really push that flavor of the other ingredients into it.”Īssembling the trompo is a lot of fun. “The marinade is the real key, and ideally, you are applying it for at least overnight,” Perez said. On : Make your own Pollos Asados Los Norteños-style chicken at home Guajillo chile powder, oregano, garlic, cumin and salt are also mixed into it with vinegar and orange or pineapple juice. Al pastor gets that signature red color from the achiote paste, the same ingredient used to make the pollos asados that are so beloved in San Antonio. Your butcher may even slice it for you if they aren’t too busy.

It’s inexpensive (usually priced around $2 pound), has wonderful flavor and a good amount of fat. Pork shoulder, also called pork butt, is the most commonly used cut for al pastor. What doesn’t change much is the way to prep the meat.

#Trompo al pastor how to#

On : Chuck’s Food Shack: How to grill a seafood bounty of Alaskan king crab legs and lobster tailsĪt home, whether you are using the grill or the oven, it requires some improvisation. Restaurant trompos are large cooking units like vertical rotisseries that cook the meat slowly as it spins. There’s just one problem with the trompo style: it’s not very practical for the home cook. “By cooking the meat vertically, it bastes in its own juices and gives it that crispy crust.” 1 taco of Mexico City, and ranks right up there as one of my favorites,” said San Antonio chef Alejandro Aziel Perez, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio and owner of The Last Slice pizza restaurant. Once pork was substituted, the method exploded throughout Mexico and the iconic taco was born.

The classic deep red hues of the meat, combined with the shaved white onion, cilantro and pineapple chunks on a fresh corn tortilla makes for love at first bite.Īl pastor has an interesting history that dates back to the 1930s when Lebanese immigrants in Puebla, Mexico used the method of slowly cooking strips of lamb meat stacked on a vertical rotating spit. The classic tacos al pastor shaved off a trompo has to rank among the tastiest and most popular tacos on the planet. Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less 6 of6įood Shack's Chuck Blount prepares condiment bowls to serve with his trompo al pastor tacos. Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less 5 of6Ĭhuck Blount prepares to slice the trompo al pastor he grilled for three hours. Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less 4 of6Ī pineapple juice spritz is given to the trompo al pastor meat. The al pastor meat is shaved off the skewers for tacos. Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of6 Trompo al pastor is prepared in the wood grill using a makeshift tower of pork, pineapple and wooden skewers.

Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of6 Al pastor tacos are served up with shaved onions, cilantro and lime wedges.