Confit Pork Tacos - The Recipe
Foolproof, easy to do, delicious and packed full of flavour… what more can you want in a taco!?
These pork tacos are the perfect treat meal that you can cook for family, friends or any large gathering. They’re no doubt always received incredibly well and work fantastically as part of a bigger spread or as standalone tacos. Foolproof, easy to do, delicious and packed full of flavour… what more can you want!?
I vividly remember trying these for my first time in Mexico city a few years ago… standing outside a taqueria on a warm evening, ordering plates after plates, topping them with spoonfuls salsa roja or salsa verde, sipping them down with an ice cold Pacífico… this is one of those core memories that you never forget! I have been craving that experience ever since, but unless you find yourself in Mexico city, it is pretty hard to find that elsewhere. In this recipe I will show you how to get very close to the real deal, which you can then feast on with those around you to create more special memories.
The main element of this dish is the Carnitas, a Mexican classic, consisting of confit pork (slow cooked in oil) that is then crisped up and served in freshly made corn tortillas, topped with a refreshing salsa of your choice. Here I’ll be showing you how I like to make these myself at home, whilst incorporating a few different workarounds to make it that bit more accessible if you need.
These tacos sum up the perfect bite of food. In every mouthful you’re hit with an explosion of various flavours. So what makes them so tasty?
Fattiness & Saltiness from the confit pork shoulder, with pops of sweet caramelisation from grilling them at the end
Acidity & Sweetness from the refreshing and zingy salsa
Savouriness & Smokiness from the freshly made corn tortillas and charred pineapple
The list could go on…
Essential Ingredients Explained
Pineapple: This fruit really is the star of the show. It is the essential ingredient that brings this whole dish together. Without it, you still have wonderful melt in your mouth pork carnitas, however just by itself you can run the risk of the pork being too rich. This is where a salsa is key. The pineapple here plays its part in cutting through this fattiness of the pork with the sweet, acidic and smoky notes, and paired with the other few ingredients in this salsa, it makes for the perfect topping to the carnitas. Alternatives: mangoes or tomatillos
Masa Harina: This is the flour that we will be using to create some amazing homemade corn tortillas. Using this is the most accessible way to make them at home, unless of course you are nixtamalizing it yourself. This process is also doable at home, however you just need the correct type of corn which can be particularly difficult to source outside of Mexico. Not any regular corn would do as they all have varying textures and tastes, with some faring better to nixtamalization than others - there’s over 200 different types of corn around the world, so picking the right one isn’t so straightforward! Masa harina is therefore what makes this process all the more accessible. It is simply a dried form of the corn dough that would have been previously made though nixtamalization, but all we then do is rehydrate it with some hot water, season it with some salt, and press into our on tortillas. Corn tortillas Alternatives: Good quality shop bought corn tortillas (if based in the UK, you can get these from Cool Chile Co.). I would 100% recommend using corn tortillas over flour tortillas as the nutty flavour and savouriness that they add to this dish is unmatched
Pork Shoulder: Also know as pork butt, this is the traditional cut of meat that is used in carnitas. It has the perfect balance of meat to fat ratio, and fares very well under long cook times. Once confit in the pork lard and caramelised under the grill / broiler, this turns into the most wonderful melt-in-your mouth bite. Alternatives: Any other cut of pork with a bit of fat: ribs or leg. I would advise against going for a lean cut as it risks turning dry and not anywhere near as juicy.
Coca Cola: Although not traditional, this has become as staple ingredient in many Mexican homes when making carnitas. One could argue that this is now the authentic way, considering how many people use this ingredient . Similar to that of the orange juice, the coca cola adds a lovely sweetness and depth of flavour to the pork after it has confit. If you can get hold of it, use Mexican coca cola because this contains cane sugar instead of the more processed sugar you get in other coca cola around the rest of the world. This cane sugar makes it taste 10x better! Alternatives: Replace the quantities of coca cola with equal parts orange juice instead.
Lard: The essential component needed for the pork confit. Whilst you can use any fat here, lard is packed with flavour therefore I would always recommend using this if you can. Alternatives: Any other flavoured fat - beef tallow works wonders. If you can’t access any of these, regular vegetable oil would work too.
So, now you know the background of this dish and why I love it so much, let’s move onto the recipe..