How to Make Citrus-Braised Pork Tacos from Scratch

[Music] traditional cochinita pibil is a Mexican dish made by marinating a whole suckling pig and bitter orange juice and a blend of warm spices overnight and then the pig is wrapped in banana leaves and slowly pit roasted mm-hmm and it is delicious for sure but many of us don't have a pit in our backyard much less can easily get our hands on a suckling pig or banana leaves so we wanted to find an easier way to make this authentic Mexican dish all right and so a lot of recipes we found really did not use suckling pig the more modern recipes and they used different cuts like a pork loin or some use spareribs but we found that the pork shoulder also known as the pork butt is really the best here we have a three pound boneless pork butt we're gonna cut it down into 1-inch cubes and get rid of some of that excess fat that's on the inside you want to leave a little fact that fat is flavor that looks pretty good I'm gonna leave the meat here and start building a good base of flavor that cochinita pibil is known for I have two tablespoons of vegetable oil that's nice and hot and you can see it sort of shimmering on the surface so I'm gonna add to the pot one chopped onion we're just gonna let this cook until it softens that takes about five minutes mmm you can see those onions are nicely softened and starting to get a little golden so now we're gonna add some of the classic flavorings and a cochinita pibil that was three cloves of minced garlic and now some of the warm spices that are also traditional this is a teaspoon of ground cumin teaspoon of oregano look how beautiful that oregano it's beautiful you're gonna see whole leaves in there mine looks like old grass clipping mmm this is half a teaspoon of ground allspice a little cinnamon half a teaspoon of cinnamon we're gonna let this cook for about 30 seconds to really let those spices bloom mmm and that quick blooming and oil is always a good idea any time that you're adding spices to the pot really enhances their flavor and so now we're gonna add a replacement for annatto so annatto or those little seeds often used in Mexican cooking they have an earthy flavor and really lend a rosy color to dishes but they can be hard to find so instead we're using some tomato paste this is the third of a cup we're gonna cook this in the pot till it really starts to brown that takes about 45 seconds you can see that fun building up on the bottom of the wrong room that tomato-paste you want to keep stirring it so it doesn't burn in goes the water this is one and a half cups of water mmm you start scraping up all that flavor off the bottom of the pot that's good it stops the cooking there mm-hmm a minute ago I didn't think it could smell any better it's smelling even better so as you mentioned earlier usually the juice of bitter oranges is included in this dish again hard to get your hands on but don't worry we're gonna use some orange juice concentrate this is a core cup so we're gonna have that along with a little vinegar this is two tablespoons of distilled white vinegar stir that right in we're also gonna add a little bit of wish to sheer sauce this is one and a half tablespoons of which this year so now we're gonna add not one not two not three not four but five bay leaves we found that the inada we were missing a little of that flavor it has a very bay leaf light flavor so bay leaves for a great substitute interesting a little salt this is two teaspoons of table salt last but not least a little pepper that's a teaspoon of black pepper alright that looks pretty good now time to add the pork to our pot so you notice we didn't brown the meat before we made the sauce which is traditional for a braise what we're gonna do instead is cook this uncovered in the oven and as the sauce reduces the meats gonna Brown just gonna bring this up to a simmer so cochinita means little pig Peppa bill is about the cooking method the underground ovens where pit cooking happened we're known to the Mayans as peep so the dish is prepared and then were called pibil unfortunately we don't have a peep in this kitchen but we do have an oven and that even heat will help cook this meat through nice and evenly until it's nice and tender it takes about two hours 300 degree oven I'm gonna go in there every once in a while and give it a good stir sounds good [Music] time to make some toppings for our tacos sounds good no no we're not going pre-made stuff or making everything from scratch you know it we're gonna start with some pickled onions and they're very easy to make here I have 1 small red onion and I'm just gonna slice it thinly I'm gonna cut off the tip in the root take off this papery outer skin now we're just gonna slice it thinly and pull the poll the layers are curved so I'm gonna curve my knife as I chop along there's one thinly sliced onion and in this saucepan I have 1 cup of white distilled vinegar - then I'm add a little sugar and this is the third of a cup of white sugar sweetness our mhmmm little salt this is 1/4 teaspoon of salt I'm just gonna bring this to a boil to dissolve that salt and sugar you can see all that is dissolved I'm just gonna pour this boiling mixture over the onions I'm gonna cover this with plastic wrap help trap some of that steam and help those onions soften and voila pickled onions they just need to sit here for about 30 minutes we're also gonna make it this our own habanero sauce the base is just water so that's a cup of water 1 chopped tomato and 1 chopped carrot you can add a whole habanero but for us I'm just doing half to get started I took the seeds out too so it's not gonna knock our head off now we're gonna add a little onion that's 1/4 cup of chopped onion 1 garlic clove and just a little bit of salt this is 1/2 a teaspoon so we're just gonna bring this to a simmer and cook it for about 10 minutes until those carrots are good and tender i simmered this and let it cool for about 5 minutes and now we're gonna blend her up we're gonna add our asses right at the end keep that nice fresh flavor and for acid I'm talking about the tablespoon of white vinegar one 1/2 teaspoons of fresh lime juice and we're gonna blend this until it's nice and smooth all right let's take a good look steamy mmm-hmm very spicy beautiful color isn't that pretty how easy was that here have a little taste right season it with salt and pepper just a little bit oh I'm not good that is really good isn't that amazing so much better than what you can find at the store has that fresh flavor of the habanero that's nice and bright but then the vegetables add sort of a sweet grassy flavor it's definitely it's definitely there's some heat in there I'm glad you only added a half of habanero right oh ho that's no good that is a most excellent pivot bubbling around the top you can see how well browned the meat got in the oven since the pot was uncovered and that is without any prior browning mm-hmm love it time-saver now the fun part bay leaf watch there are five of them in there so we gotta get five of them out before we start mashing that meat now the best part of this is how easy it is to turn these cubes of meat into shreds with a potato masher just go in there I was gonna use my teeth and they're so tender you can see they just mush right down into nice tender shreds of pork incredibly tender so we're gonna put this back over medium-low heat and cook it for just a couple minutes until the sauce really coats all that meat and reduced down you can see that little bit of liquid or on the edge that's just a little bit of that pork fat you don't want to lose that that's where all the flavor is because you think about all those spices there fat soluble so their flavor is in that fat we're just gonna set this aside while we toast up some tortillas put them right on the gas burners I like to get a little bit of char around the edge and all at once you can smell mm-hmm Oh stick corn oh yeah one last addition to our pork to really bring out some fresh flavor and that is one tablespoon of white vinegar we're just gonna stir this in oh all right I'm not gonna make you wait any longer thank you thank start with one sure oh oh you got a nice little chunk pork there yes I did so some of these pickled onions and hot sauce yes please I just do a little thank you cuz it's pretty spicy yes it is I'm juice thank you and we're keeping it simple today we're not loading it with tons of things so we don't really taste that pork mm-hmm napkin for you last but not least no I was gonna say do you do the head turn sideways oh ho that's good you're not amazing the pork has so much flavor the tomato paste doesn't taste like tomato paste it actually tastes like it's charred tomato so good so the next time you're hankering for a cochinita pibil you can skip the taco truck and make your own at home start by braising savory pork foot with aromatics warm spices and orange juice concentrate for a boost of bright citrus simmer it all in the oven until the meat is fall apart tender and then use a potato masher to quickly shred it serve with a quick condiment of homemade pickled red onions and a spicy habanero sauce and there you have it from Cook's Country savory succulent citrus braised pork tacos and no taco truck required maybe beep thanks for watching cooks country from America's Test Kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say I now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later alligator [Laughter]

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 49,015

Rating: 4.8930163 out of 5

Keywords: cochinita pibil, cochinita pibil recipe, recipe, recipes, citrus-braised pork tacos, citrus braised pork tacos, braised pork tacos, braised pork, tacos, pork tacos, citrus pork tacos, taco recipes, how to braise pork, how to make tacos

Id: 3h0jPpYlCS8

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019