30-Minute Al Pastor Style Tacos

Hey, what’s up? Clearly, I really like al pastor tacos a lot because I’ve shown you guys two different ways to make them. But both of those recipes were made with pork and both took a long time to get right.

Why You’ll Love This

Clearly, I really like al pastor tacos a lot. This time it’s only gonna take 30 minutes. This is weeknighting.

Ingredients

For the Tomatillo Style Salsa

• half of a white onion, small diced (roughly 75 to 100 grams)
• poblanos, small dice (100 grams, about one whole poblano or two to three jalapenos)
• fresh tomatillos, peeled and medium to large chop (five to six medium-sized fruits, 400 grams)
• garlic (five to 10 cloves, 15 to 20 grams)
• salt (five grams)
• water (50 grams)

For the Al Pastor Marinade

• pineapple (50 grams, fresh or canned)
• orange juice (100 grams, about two fruits worth if fresh, or store-bought OJ)
• water (25 grams)
• white distilled vinegar (25 grams)
• sugar (20 grams)
• salt (20 grams)
• achiote annatto paste (30 grams)
• oregano (2 grams)
• garlic powder (5 grams)
• cumin (5 grams)
• chili powder (10 grams)

For the Tacos

• boneless, skinless chicken thighs (2 pounds)
• fresh pineapple (two planks)

Instructions

1. To get started, I’ll grab a flat shallow bowl like this one, into the freezer.
2. For now, I need to chop the vegetables for my salsa.
3. To make that, I need a small diced half of a white onion.
4. Once it’s all diced up, I’ll scoot it into a high-sided saucepan like this.
5. Size-wise, I’m going with a small dice on these poblanos, just like the white onions.
6. Into the saucepan it goes.
7. For the tomatillo part of this tomatillo salsa, I peeled five to six medium-sized fruits and then gave them a medium to large chop.
8. I’ll add in 400 grams of fresh tomatillos, and once I do, I’ll scoot them into my saucepan.
9. Lastly, using my garlic press, I’ll add in five to 10 cloves of garlic.
10. Then in goes five grams of salt and 50 grams of water.
11. Next, I’ll drop this pot on the stove over medium-high heat and bring it up to a simmer.
12. That should take two to three minutes, and once we’re there, I’ll lower the heat to medium-low, pop on a lid, and then cook for about 10 minutes or so.
13. I’ll turn off the heat again.
14. From here, we need to make our al pastor marinade.
15. For that, I’ll grab a high-sided container, and into that, I’ll measure 50 grams of pineapple.
16. Behind that, I’ll add 100 grams of orange juice.
17. Then 25 grams of water, 25 grams of white distilled vinegar, 20 grams of sugar, 20 grams of salt, 30 grams of achiote annatto paste.
18. Next, I’ll add in 2 grams of oregano, 5 grams of garlic powder, 5 grams of cumin, and 10 grams of chili powder.
19. Now, the immersion blender goes in, and I’ll puree this until everything is well combined and there is no longer large chunks of annatto and pineapple floating around.
20. For the meat, I’m making a chicken version of this traditionally pork or lamb-based dish.
21. Today I’ve got 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and I’m throwing them into a medium bowl.
22. Now, in goes about half of my marinade, or let’s say about 100 grams or so.
23. Then, I’ll save the rest of this for something special a little bit later on.
24. Using some tongs, I’m going to hop into the bowl now to get everything nicely coated.
25. Once my chicken is well coated in the marinade, I’m going to grab a half sheet tray lined with foil and then lay out the thighs.
26. I’ll lay them out together in a 4×3 pattern right in the middle of my tray edge to edge.
27. Then, I’m going to put the chicken on the sheet tray.
28. I’m going to lay down two planks of fresh pineapple.
29. I’ll throw my sheet tray under the broiler and let it rip for about five minutes before I come back and check on it.
30. While that cooks, let’s check on our salsa.
31. It’s been about 10 minutes or so, and as you can see, the tomatillos have softened and turned saucy.
32. Now, we need to evaporate some of this excessive moisture in here to get things nice and salsa-y, so I’ll leave the lid off for now and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat while I thank the sponsor of this video.
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48. After five to eight minutes under the broiler, my thighs are looking pretty good, but these broilers always tend to have hot and cold spots, and the front here needs a little bit more color.
49. So I’ll rotate the tray and throw it back under the broiler for five more minutes.
50. After that five minutes, I’ll flip the chicken over so that we can get some char on the backside.
51. I’ll leave the pineapple as it is, though, because that needs a little bit more color.
52. Then once the thighs are inverted, I’ll throw this tray back under the broiler for five to eight more minutes or until the backside is well charred.
53. While that cooks, let’s check one more time on this tomatillo salsa.
54. As you can see, after about 15 to 20 minutes of cook time, it has evaporated down, into a thicker consistency that actually looks like a salsa.
55. I’ll call this done.
56. Remember that cold bowl?
57. I’ll grab that and fill it with my hot salsa.
58. I’m pretty sure this isn’t gonna crack it because it hasn’t happened to me yet, and I do this pretty often.
59. I guess fingers crossed, we’ll see how it goes.
60. But yeah, cold bowl obviously will make hot salsa cold fast.
61. I’m hungry, and I wanna make sure that my salsa is ready for taco time.
62. So to make double sure, I’ll throw this bowl into the freezer to cool for five to 10 minutes while I finish up the taco meat.

Cooking Tips

• Most marinades don’t really do anything to make meat more delicious.
• Yes, the salt and acidity in there will alter the structure of the meat, and that might tenderize it a little bit, but overall, the flavors in the marinade won’t go deep inside.
• So, I make marinades thick like this one so that they stick to the outside of the meat and so I can actually enjoy their flavor.
• The pieces here should be close in size and thickness to the chicken thighs.
• That will make sure that they get caramelized at roughly the same rate as the chicken.
• If they were sticking up too close to the broiler, that fruit sugar would burn super fast.
• These broilers always tend to have hot and cold spots, and the front here needs a little bit more color.
• Cold bowl obviously will make hot salsa cold fast.

cold bowl obviously will make hot salsa cold fast. I’m hungry, and I wanna make sure that my salsa is ready for taco time. So to make double sure, I’ll throw this bowl into the freezer to cool for five to 10 minutes while I finish up the taco meat.