Slow Cooked Puerto Rican Style Pulled Pork Tacos

Oooooh baby! Is there anything better than the love that goes into a hunk of meat slowly cooking all day long while you are off at work, or play, or whatever?  You anxiously come back home after that long day spent distractedly hoping that the 6 lbs of meat you tossed in the cooker will actually cook enough at that low heat….and are immediately greeted by the warm embrace of the luscious smell of spices in the air and the promise of a melt-in-your-mouth meal in the very near future. Show me a crock pot, and I will show you smooth ceramic body of love!!

This weekend, I had some friends coming into town for an event they were throwing, and their flight was arriving super late Friday night, so I knew the dining options would be limited. Taking into consideration how busy the weekend schedule would be, I decided to revisit this awesome recipe that I had first tried St. Patty’s day because it was so good, so easy, and made a large quantity of food that could be nibbled on all weekend.

(Making Spanish style rice in a rice cooker!! Awesome, will share this soon….)

As my friends dug in, I was so filled with happiness and satisfaction to be able to feed those I love. I think that this intense desire to provide food for others comes from the fact that meals were always such a priority for events in my family. If people were coming to visit or we were having a party, the shopping cart would be over-flowing during our weekly grocery trip with enough food to feed an army. My mom would spend the evenings beforehand cooking up big vats of soups or marinating bins of meat in preparation to fill our home with good food for our guests.

I remember helping her out and thinking my mom was crazy for having to go so overboard all the time, but she looked at me over the steaming pots and said, simply: “It is always better too have too much food for your guests than not enough.”  Looking back, I realize that even when we were poor and I was wearing hand-me-downs from boys or home-sewn outfits, I don’t ever remember lacking for good things to eat or having parties with anything less than a feast spread on the table. To my family, good food was paramount in welcoming guests and celebrating occasions properly.

I guess that is why when I moved away from home to fly off on my own adventures, feeding people and communing over food has remained such a priority and such a source of satisfaction for me. In my first apartment after college when I moved to Texas where I knew no one, one of the first items I bought was a dining table & chair set from the Salvation Army, because I said to myself: “ I will be hosting dinners and cooking for people here!” The wooden table was scratched and missing a leaf; the chairs were straight out of some 70’s hotel, but they provided the place around which I slowly gathered new friends over simple meals seasoned with much laughter and love.

So today, I continue with my quest to feed the entire world (no sense in aiming low, right?!), by sharing this lovely recipe with all of you. Mucho props to the recipe author, Meseidy, for such a great tasting and simple dish!!

The meat is so, so flavorful and works great in tacos, on rice, or even in breakfast tacos.

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

Pork:

• 4 lbs Pork Shoulder/Butt Roast
• 6 cloves Garlic, pressed
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1.5 TBSP Olive Oil
• 1.5 TBSP White Vinegar
• 4 tsp Salt

Accessories:

• Corn tortillas
• 1 onion
• 1 cup chopped chilantro
• 2-3 limes
• Salsa of your choice

Instructions:

1. Combine everything except meat in a small bowl and stir to combine into a watery paste.
2. Rub this paste all over the roast, place the roast in a large bowl, cover, and marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.
3. When ready to cook, place roast in a large crock pot and turn heat to low. Cook for 8 hrs.
4. While the pork is cooking, you can use this time to prepare any fixings for the pork you would like: spanish rice, chopped cilantro & onion, lime wedges, salsa, etc.
5. When the 8 hrs is up, the meat will be falling off the bone, and the roast will be sitting in all of it’s delicious juices. No need for extra liquid!
6. Use 2 forks and shred the meat either in the crock pot, or on a cutting board and then adding the shredded meat back into the pot.
7. Lightly toast your tortillas over the stovetop.
8. Invite your friends over and dive in!

For dinner, I served the tacos with Spanish rice, mango pineapple salsa and a plate of chopped up cilantro, onion, basil and lime wedges.

For breakfast the next morning, I added scrambled eggs and just a little bit of shredded smoked gouda.

All in all, an awesome dish to feed lots of people easily!

Enjoy!