GORGEOUS CRISPY SMOKED AL PASTOR! You NEED to Try This! | How To

what is up you guys it is susie  from heygrillhey.com and today we   are cooking one of my recent favorite  recipes on the smoker it is a smoked   al pastor thinly sliced pork butt that's marinated  with all these delicious spices and seasonings   and then slow smoked with some  grilled pineapple put it in some tacos   the flavor profiles are going to blow your mind  it is the ultimate kind of mash-up flavor food and   i totally dig it i think you guys  are going to love it too let's do it i love al pastor tacos it's kind of a really  original mashup food with traditional mexican   flavors and an eastern european cooking  style that's that stacked thinly sliced   meat on a vertical rotisserie or spit and  we're gonna mash it up even further and   kind of take it into the barbecue world and  cook it on our smoker so we get all those   smoky flavors into the meat it's absolutely  delicious and first we need to build our marinade   and we got a few ingredients so look at  the ingredients list at the website or   on the app and follow along while we make  this beautiful super delicious al pastor   okay medium sauce pan over medium heat  i'm gonna melt two tablespoons of butter and to that i'm going to add a  quarter cup of diced white onion   and about four cloves of minced garlic would you like to set up that other camera   already smells good that's all  we need butter onions and garlic we're just gonna let this cook over  medium heat for two to three minutes   until the onions are soft and all  of that garlic is fragrant fragrant we don't want to like brown it  though we're not going for browning   to our buttery oniony garlic glorious goodness  we're gonna add in a half a cup of chicken stock two of these chipotles in adobo sauce just  from the can these are smoked jalapenos   and they are amazing we probably added  about two tablespoons of the adobo sauce   we're also gonna add in two dried ancho chilies i should really start opening these before we film   yeah yeah yeah maybe i should  it's fine everything's fine we're just gonna put the whole  thing in there stems and all and let these simmer in the stock for the next  five minutes or so what that's going to do is   partially rehydrate these ancho chilies  so that we put everything in the blender   it's not going to be chunky or hard pieces  of ancho they're going to be soft and really   just incorporate well to the whole marinade that smells really good smells really good all  right our ancho chilis have started to suck up   some of the moisture from that chicken stock  it's time to add the rest of the ingredients for   our marinade we're going to add in one and a half  tablespoons of kosher salt one tablespoon of sugar two teaspoons of mexican oregano   two teaspoons of cumin a third cup of white vinegar and last but not least akiotay paste and this  is kind of a secret ingredient that really gives   all of the color like that super  vibrant color to uh al pastor   it comes in both a powder and a paste but one of  the main ingredients in here is a natto seed which   is really just going to give it that insanely  vibrant red that you just don't see anywhere else   you need about a tablespoon and a  half all right give this all a stir   while it's up to a boil bring the ingredients  together and then you want to reduce the heat   and let this simmer for four to five minutes so  that all of those flavors start to meld together all right our marinade has been  simmering for the last four minutes   i'm just going to turn off the heat and we  want to let this cool all the way down to room   temperature because you do have to handle those  anchors and you don't want to burn your fingers   and then we get to puree it into that smooth  beautiful red pasty marinade for our pork shoulder while our marinade is cooling down let's talk  about the cut of meat that we're using for this   al pastor i am using a boneless pork shoulder  and i actually had my butcher cut this for me   but you can cut it at home if you have a  really sharp knife i just took it down to   about a quarter inch thickness all the way across  and this is about six pounds of pork shoulder the   recipe calls for four but the marinade can cover i  think about six or seven pounds of meat if that's   as much as you would like to do i want this all to  be a uniform thickness so having the butcher slice   it was really nice but i also want it to kind of  be square so that when we stack it it gets really   even right now i have really long rectangular  pieces so i'm just going to take my knife   run it down the middle so that  i have these even kind of square   pieces that will perfectly stack on our  vertical pit spit vertical spit that's the word beautiful i think pork shoulder is the perfect  cut for this particular cooking method because   it has all this yummy yummy fat on it  and so it'll be really really flavorful   and as it roasts the outside kind of drips  down we're going to use that drippy fat to   baste and get crunchy on the edges and tender and  delightful on the middle in the middle i'm excited   we're just going to transfer our pork into a big  big bowl where we can easily marinate and i'm   going to separate each piece of pork because when  it's sliced sometimes it likes to stick together   and i want to make sure the marinade gets  on every single piece of the pork shoulder   our beautiful marinade has cooled enough  for us to move this into the blender   first thing that i'm going to do is just  remove the stems from these ancho chilies   because they're a little bit woody and they  won't break down in the blender and they're   not going to add a ton in terms of flavor so just  hold it down with my spoon lift up the stem and   it comes right off i'm just going to pour the  contents of our pan into a blender jar carefully save every drop like liquid gold and go all right that's good to me  smells really good to me also   we're just gonna take our smooth pureed marinade  pour that over our pork butt in our big bowl and   mix with our hands until that bright red gorgeous  seasoning paste is all over every piece of meat just like we separated each piece when  we were putting them into the bowl   make sure you're pulling them apart so  you get all of that marinade in between   each piece of meat it's super important for the  cooking process later because we're going to stack   each piece individually and we want the seasoning  on every single side of every piece of pork the meat looks perfect the marinade is evenly  distributed i'm going to cover this up with some   plastic wrap get it into my refrigerator and let  it marinate now you can go with as little as four   hours on the marinade i'm gonna push mine to 24  hours because i just want to shove as much flavor   into that pork shoulder as i can so we'll see you  guys back here tomorrow another wrap for the day   all right you guys our al pastor marinade in the  bowl is out of the refrigerator and it is time   to start cooking now i'm gonna skewer  this guy on this cool little uh skewery   plate situation it's called a trompo king but you  can also do this on a rotisserie i've even seen   people use uh four skewers and stack it up tall  on a baking dish and make that work so there are   multiple ways to go about stacking and cooking  your al paste store i have a smoker preheating   to 275 degrees fahrenheit i really like using  cherry wood for this recipe i think it gives a   really great reddish color that adds to what  we've already got going on in the marinade   but you can use apple you could use hickory  if you really wanted a super prominent smoke   you could go with something like mesquite and i  think that would be super delicious but basically   all we get to do now is take all this  marinated meat and stack it up on this skewer   and keep turning it as we go until  it's all even and beautifully stacked   so this guy just has a skewer that screws into the  bottom i tested this on my smoker and the tall one   will fit so that's what i'm going to use because i  don't know how tall this guy's going to go there's   also a smaller option so just make sure whatever  you're using that it's going to fit on your smoker   now as i'm layering the meat on remember how  we kind of had rectangle shapes i'm trying to   alternate one way and then the other and i'll even  kind of squish the pieces so that it gives me kind   of a round roundy uniform shape it's not going  to be perfect which is fine we just don't want   any big pieces of meat like overhanging the other  we want them to all kind of play nicely together   all right some of these guys might just  have like see this it's just like an end   little string of fat you can go ahead and pull  those off because you don't want them just like   hanging loose down the sides or they'll kind  of block some of the yumminess that's going to   be happening from the smoker to the meat so  if there's any big you know hanging downies   hanging downies i kind of have like a thick super  meaty piece that i'm going to cap it off with all right on to the smoker this is going to  take about four hours at 275 uh that's how   long it takes when i do four pounds like i said  this is a little bit closer to five and a half   six so i'm going to start checking at four but it  might take a little bit longer closer to five or   five and a half but we're looking for an internal  temperature of 145 degrees here which is different   than what you're typically going to see a pork  shoulder cooked to but because it's sliced thin   because of the marinade it's going to be super  tender and have the most amazing bite in the tacos oh i have one more note are you ready for my  other note remember how we talked about all the   fattiness in here dripping down into the pan this  is why the pan is so important i'm actually gonna   come out with a basting brush every 30 minutes or  so sop up all of the yummy fatty goodness from the   bottom of the pan and baste it around this stack  of meat now if you're on a rotisserie make sure   that you put a like aluminum pan or something  underneath so that it can catch the drippings   it will self-baste so you might not need to baste  during the cooking process but if it ever looks   like it's drying out on top or the sides go ahead  and grab the juices from the bottom of the pan   and baste to your heart's content it's going to  develop a really dark caramely bark on the outside   and it's just i can't wait for  you guys to see it it's so pretty oh i swear it fit last time there we go al pastor  has been smoking for about four hours i really   do think this is going to take about four and a  half hours so i want to get my pineapple spears   on the grill next to the alpaca store so  they can pick up some of that smoky flavor   and color so we're gonna take the top off  our pineapple we're gonna save it because   the pineapple top becomes the crown on top  of our beautiful roasty al pastor goodness   i'm just going to take off the bottom take  off the outsides and then cut it into wedges so here's the deal with the way that i do my  pineapple some places like to layer the pineapple   in with the meat some places like to do  it just on top and slice it with the meat   i really like the char grilled flavor that gets  smoky when this is actually on the grill itself so   i do mine separate i feel like you get  more pineapple pieces and everybody gets   to choose how much pineapple they want in their  little al pastor taco and i just think the ease   of it is really high up there so that's why i  cut mine into wedges and grill it on the side i'm just going to flip these after  about 15 minutes or so and let them go   until that alpaca store is at 145 degrees   alpaca store is at 145 internal i stuck the  thermometer right into the center the deepest part   of the meat and then pulled it out slowly so that  i knew i was hitting that 145 all the way through   it's time to get the meat and the pineapple  off of the grill big gloves look at that color it's so beautiful and it definitely looks a little  bit dark on the outside there's some sugar in the   marinade it's nice and barky and crunchy but when  we cut into it your mind is going to be blown   there's like these little rivery veins of that  bright red marinade okay my mouth's watering don't   tell me show me here's here's what we're gonna  do because we want this to be pretty you've got   the top of the pineapple that you reserved just  carefully work that guy onto the top of your spit i'm going slow because i don't want to stab  myself okay just because it looks festive right we'll get some of our roasty pineapple and i've  also got my taco tray kind of set up with some   cilantro some lime some white onions and then i  just heated up some tortillas you can use corn   you can use flour whatever you like the most  and like i said i'm gonna chop my pineapple   a little bit because i like every taco  to have a little bit of pineapple on top oops i love grilled pineapple we've hit  moment of truth time toppings are all ready   this has been resting for about 10 minutes  and that means that we get to slice into it   and make some tacos now there are a few  tricks to cutting this you want to start   on the outside use soft gentle sawing motions  with your knife and you want your pieces to be   pretty thin you don't want to just hack straight  into the center of this thing we want to carve   the outside of it off and let all of the meat  fall into this basin where all of our delicious   juices have been collecting  during the cooking process now if you ask me these are just the  perfect little shreddy pieces of delicious   porky all pastor goodness oh my gosh  okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay the flavor is amazing you were certainly getting  the smoke from the last four and a half hours of   this being on the smoker but all the flavors  of that marinade are coming right through   it's juicy because it wasn't cooked to very  high of a temperature but it's still incredibly   tender it has this perfect mouth to almost a  little bit of a snap let's make a taco got my pork   some pineapple   cilantro for me   some white diced onion i love a squeeze of lime  this is a whole moment right here look at that now i'm about to take a bite that is certainly  too large to be flattering but i want you guys   to give this recipe a try at home i really really  hope you do and if you do snap a photo it is so   gorgeous it deserves to be seen on social media  use the hashtag heygrill hey that way i can see it   and cheer you on on your journey to becoming a  backyard barbecue hero we'll catch you guys next that's time wanna try some wow man that's so good for real one of  the best tacos i've ever had man thank you to this amazing culture for developing  such incredible flavors seriously unreal wow

Channel: Hey Grill Hey

Views: 247,427

Rating: 4.8960934 out of 5

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Id: PRkBnKEI7oM

Length: 20min 19sec (1219 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021