We're totally enamored of tacos here at Chez J, and to celebrate my Viking oven getting fixed on Wednesday as well as have a simple meal that would celebrate the New Mexico green chiles we were roasting that day, I made the one dish we could cobble together without the rest of a working kitchen: pork and green chile tacos. The ingredients required is a short list: corn tortillas warmed and crisped slightly on the grill, hot slices of oven roasted pork and strips of green chile tossed lightly marinated with olive oil, vinegar, salt and Mexican oregano. Often there will be a little grated Monterey Jack cheese in there, but in the interest of lowering our overall fat consumption this time we skipped it and didn't miss it.
Note that no lettuce or chopped tomatoes are needed: good as either is and neccessary as I consider them to some taco combinations, here they would only dilute the primary and complementary flavors of a perfect slice of hot roast pork and the layering of the seasoned green chile strips. Think of these tacos as chile verde without the liquid--the only addition I allow is a few sprigs of cilantro.
But you can put whatever you like in your tacos, which is why this is a recipe for just the pork. It's one of my own original creations, one that arose out of a love for Mexican carnitas style pork and envy of the beautiful, natural red color of Chinese red-cooked pork. It had been my original intent to create a longer-cooked pork for chunking/shredding into traditional carnitas, but when I got that crusty, naturally red exterior nailed down I didn't have the heart to break it up, so I scaled things back to where I still get the colorful, crispy exterior I want but with a more traditional juicy-but-completely cooked roast pork interior that's just perfect for slicing. The color and the heady aromas of garlicky fatty pork goodness make this the most popular taco filling of all whenever I do a casual taco bar dinner for friends.
A note: I use garlic salt for this preparation, and it's the #1 reason I even have garlic salt in the house (I'm not a fan of premixed spices or dried garlic). It, and particularly the Lawry's brand which allows you to get a lot of garlic flavor without oversalting, has a flavor that just WORKS for this and salt plus fresh garlic would honestly not be as good. As well, the garlic salt adds to the crusting.
One 2-3 lb hunk of trimmed pork shoulder or boston butt
garlic salt
olive oil
dried oregano (Mexican preferred, of course)
Rub the meat with olive oil, sprinkle with a bit of dried oregano and then coat generously with garlic salt. Rub the spices onto the meat and take care to rub or push it into as many crevices as possible. Place the meat in an open baking dish (porcelain and clay work best, I use my Romertopf, bottom only) and plop into a cold oven. Set the temperature to 200 F and leave for an hour. Then increase the heat to 400 F and roast for an additional 20 minutes. You've now set the color. Rotate the meat to recoat it with fat at this point, returning it to its original position, and roast for about 40 additional minutes. Remove from oven, allow 10 minutes to rest, then slice and serve while warm.
