Pork Tacos

Monday night I made “pork roast with apples and onions” from Pioneer Woman for dinner.  It was delicious but way more than Craig and I need to eat in 1 sitting.  Which means leftover pork – so much that I even froze some for another day down the road but there was still plenty for a 2nd meal this week.  I started check food blogs that I love and am following and discovered “chipotle pork tacos” at Our Best Bites.  I realized I have most of those ingredients and I was inspired to know what I was fixing tonight.  My biggest changes was using already cooked pork roast and lemon juice instead of lime, some of the ingredient amounts differ also.

Now you need to realize I was using pork roast that had already been marinated in apple juice and beef stock which I believe help make this a sweet pork taco.  I can not guarantee how different if would be if you used left over pork from another recipe, hopefully it is just as good.

A couple of other items that just add to the deliciousness of these pork tacos was using fresh uncooked tortillas from Costco and cooking up my own tortillas.  Fresh tortillas is definitely the way to go.  When you purchase them from Costco you get enough tortillas to feed an army or a very large family with guests.  The packaging says not to freeze but Aimee told me that Nate and her have frozen them before and they come out of the freezer just fine.  Just plan to thaw overnight in the fridge instead of zapping in the microwave.

One more thing is I served them with Archer Farms Pineapple/Peach Salsa from Target – my all time favorite salsa.  Have you tried it yet? Oh my goodness, I am so in love with this salsa.  I encourage you to try it but if you don’t love it just use your favorite salsa – Craig used a regular tomato salsa on his tacos.

This was a quick and easy recipe to put together for dinner.  Craig came hope at 5:25 and informed me he needed to be to an interview at church by 6:00 pm.  I had not even started dinner yet. I was able to get the whole meal on the table by 5:45 which left him 10 minutes to eat.  We did use pretorn lettuce and Craig shredded the cheese which helped save time. But I was able to cook the tortillas and chop, grate and saute everything within 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded pork (leftovers)

1 garlic clove minced

1 Tbs. lemon juice

2 green onions, diced – all the way up including the green

1 Tbs. brown sugar

1 tsp. chipotle peppers adobo sauce

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 slices of a whole red onion – quartered

olive oil

tortillas – fresh cooked (if possible)

condiments – sour cream, cheese, lettuce, salsa, your favorites

Directions:

1. Heat frying pan to cook tortillas.  Cook tortillas following directions on the packaging.

2. Heat frying pan to cook red onions, spray with olive oil spritzer.

3. Saute red onions lightly.

4. While red onions are sauteing; mince garlic clove, dice green onions, and squeeze lemon juice. Mix together in a bowl along with oregano, brown sugar, kosher salt and chipotle sauce.

5. Shred pork if it is not already done.

6. Pour garlic, onion, lemon juice, oregano, sugar, salt and sauce mixture in with red onions.

7. Add shredded pork.  Stir to incorporate flavors.  Heat to warm pork throughout; perhaps about 5 minutes.  Stirring occasionally.

8. While pork mixture is heating.  Grate cheese, set table, and place taco condiments and lettuce on the table.

9. Eat with warm tortillas with your favorite taco condiments.

This made about 4 tacos, depending on how full you fill your tacos.

Now a little secret about the chipotle pepper in adobe sauce.  This comes in an 8 oz. can and gives you enough for about 10 recipes or so.  The more you add the spicier and hotter your food will be.  I have used between 1 tsp and 1 Tbs, which was way too hot for my mouth leaving tingly lips for a several minutes.  Just be warned.  There is plenty in each can, but you can freeze the sauce.  At Our Best Bites she gives some great tips about freezing the sauce, you can find them here. I had not followed this and just measured out Tbs. and put 1 or 2 per baggie.  Another tip, it gets hotter after being frozen, just warning you.  And don’t forget to label your baggie or you will be pulling it out of the freezer wondering when you frozen some little creature’s heart.  I am just saying.