hornian
1,000+ Posts
Homemade is in quotes for a reason.
I was in H-E-B this afternoon, and I saw something new: pre-marinated carne al pastor. I think most of you on here are familiar with tacos al pastor, but it's marinated/rubbed (I don't know that it's actually a marinade, it's more of a "paste" and as I understand it, the pork actually doesn't need to marinate at all, if you make your own rub you can put it on the pork right before you cook) pork - it's also called carnitas in some joints.
And they were a good deal - $1.99/lb, so $6 for 3 lbs of meat.
Anyhow, since H-E-B's pre-marinated fajitas are money, I wanted to give these a shot. They aren't perfect, and you'll still get better tacos al pastor at places like Curras and Gueros (I still contend that the tacos al pastor are the only things on the menu at Gueros that is worth the wait), but you'll definitely have a lot worse tacos al pastor at many places around the state (I'd say the meat tasted better than the al pastor at Fuel City in Dallas IMO) .
With that accidental discovery in the meat section as my inspiration, I went around the store collecting the other necessities:
Onion
Cilantro
Limes
Avocados
Tortillas (unfortunately my H-E-B didn't have any corn tortillas ready)
Here's my "begin" picture:
And a close-up of the package in case you want to look for them at your local H-E-B:
Start by dicing up half of the onion and all of the cilantro, and then mix it all together (I don't have a picture of this, but after this pic I put the onion/cilantro mix in a tuppaware, squeezed in half of a lime, and stuck it in the fridge while the meat cooked):
Then, you put about a lb of the meat in your skillet (which has about a tblsp of cooking oil already heated up in it); it's hard to tell at this point, but that's a bunch of little pieces/strips of pork in there:
The meat has a lot of moisture in it, and if you've ever had tacos al pastor, you know that it's not supposed to be "juicy" - so cook out most of the moisture; you don't want to burn the meat and dry it out, but you want it a little crispy. This picture shows steam coming off the skillet as you cook out most of the moisture:
Keep cooking it, for probably 10-15 minutes total until it looks like so:
Heat up your torts (again, corn are better but I didn't have any):
And then make your tacos. Put some meat down, top it with the cilantro/onion mixture, add a little bit of sliced avocados (these weren't particularly ripe, but it was the best they had at the store tonight), and then just before you eat your taco, squeeze some lime on top of it all (hence the lime slices):
Not bad, not bad at all. They would have been better with corn tortillas, and the avocados could have been more ripe, but other than that pretty darn good.
The meat itself is great, I really like the spice of the rub that's on there - it kind of sneaks up on you, it's more of a cumulative heat that builds up rather than something so hot up front that all you taste is "hot." I've never made my own al pastor tacos before to compare the rub to a true homemade al pastor, but compared to several good restaurants around Austin/San Antonio/Dallas, it holds up well. And the fact that you don't have to dice the meat up yourself is always a plus, like it or not.
H-E-B has another winner, and the meat would be very good as a base for plenty of other dishes.
I was in H-E-B this afternoon, and I saw something new: pre-marinated carne al pastor. I think most of you on here are familiar with tacos al pastor, but it's marinated/rubbed (I don't know that it's actually a marinade, it's more of a "paste" and as I understand it, the pork actually doesn't need to marinate at all, if you make your own rub you can put it on the pork right before you cook) pork - it's also called carnitas in some joints.
And they were a good deal - $1.99/lb, so $6 for 3 lbs of meat.
Anyhow, since H-E-B's pre-marinated fajitas are money, I wanted to give these a shot. They aren't perfect, and you'll still get better tacos al pastor at places like Curras and Gueros (I still contend that the tacos al pastor are the only things on the menu at Gueros that is worth the wait), but you'll definitely have a lot worse tacos al pastor at many places around the state (I'd say the meat tasted better than the al pastor at Fuel City in Dallas IMO) .
With that accidental discovery in the meat section as my inspiration, I went around the store collecting the other necessities:
Onion
Cilantro
Limes
Avocados
Tortillas (unfortunately my H-E-B didn't have any corn tortillas ready)
Here's my "begin" picture:
And a close-up of the package in case you want to look for them at your local H-E-B:
Start by dicing up half of the onion and all of the cilantro, and then mix it all together (I don't have a picture of this, but after this pic I put the onion/cilantro mix in a tuppaware, squeezed in half of a lime, and stuck it in the fridge while the meat cooked):
Then, you put about a lb of the meat in your skillet (which has about a tblsp of cooking oil already heated up in it); it's hard to tell at this point, but that's a bunch of little pieces/strips of pork in there:
The meat has a lot of moisture in it, and if you've ever had tacos al pastor, you know that it's not supposed to be "juicy" - so cook out most of the moisture; you don't want to burn the meat and dry it out, but you want it a little crispy. This picture shows steam coming off the skillet as you cook out most of the moisture:
Keep cooking it, for probably 10-15 minutes total until it looks like so:
Heat up your torts (again, corn are better but I didn't have any):
And then make your tacos. Put some meat down, top it with the cilantro/onion mixture, add a little bit of sliced avocados (these weren't particularly ripe, but it was the best they had at the store tonight), and then just before you eat your taco, squeeze some lime on top of it all (hence the lime slices):
Not bad, not bad at all. They would have been better with corn tortillas, and the avocados could have been more ripe, but other than that pretty darn good.
The meat itself is great, I really like the spice of the rub that's on there - it kind of sneaks up on you, it's more of a cumulative heat that builds up rather than something so hot up front that all you taste is "hot." I've never made my own al pastor tacos before to compare the rub to a true homemade al pastor, but compared to several good restaurants around Austin/San Antonio/Dallas, it holds up well. And the fact that you don't have to dice the meat up yourself is always a plus, like it or not.
H-E-B has another winner, and the meat would be very good as a base for plenty of other dishes.
