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Tacos al pastor

From WikiTacos, the taco encyclopedia · Taco type
Also known as: Pastor, Tacos de trompo (in some regions)

Tacos al pastor are tacos of thinly sliced pork marinated in a chile and achiote adobo, stacked on a vertical spit called a trompo, shaved to order onto small corn tortillas and usually finished with pineapple, onion, cilantro and salsa. The style grew out of the spit-roasted meat brought to Puebla by Middle Eastern immigrants and took its modern, red-marinated form in Mexico City.

Contents
  1. History
  2. Preparation
  3. Variations
  4. Recipe
  5. Where to try it
  6. Reviews
  7. See also
  8. References

History

The dish descends from the spit-roasting tradition of the eastern Mediterranean. After the First World War, families from the Middle East, among them people later known in Puebla as the Tabe and Galeana families, arrived through the port of Veracruz and settled in the city of Puebla. Accounts gathered by Chilango describe how Zayas Galeana Antar was encouraged to sell kebab-style meat and replaced lamb with cheaper, more available pork, while his wife Esperanza Águila prepared a thick chipotle salsa to go with it. Around 1930 these were sold in Puebla as tacos orientales, the ancestor of both tacos árabes and tacos al pastor.

The Puebla version carried no red adobo, no pineapple and no cilantro. The transformation happened in Mexico City in the second half of the twentieth century. Alejandro Escalante's La Tacopedia, as cited by Chilango, credits El Huequito, opened in 1950, as the first city taquería to use the al pastor name and to marinate the pork in a paste of dried chiles, vinegar and achiote. El Tizoncito, opened in the Condesa neighborhood in 1966, also claims to have created the taco as it is known today, including the slice of pineapple; Publimetro attributes the El Tizoncito recipe to a founder known as Doña Conchita. Food writer Alonso Ruvalcaba has argued that nobody knows who first used the name and that the recipe was probably refined by several cooks at once, possibly second-generation Lebanese Mexicans. The rival claims remain unresolved.

The name itself means shepherd style, a nod to the spit-roasted lamb of the original immigrant cooks.

Preparation

Pork, commonly shoulder or a fatty cut near the head and neck, is sliced into thin sheets and marinated in an adobo of rehydrated dried chiles such as guajillo and ancho, achiote paste, vinegar or citrus, garlic and spices including cumin, oregano and clove. The slices are pressed one over another onto a vertical skewer to form a cone, sometimes with an onion at the base and a pineapple at the top. The trompo turns in front of a gas or charcoal flame, and the taquero, called a pastorero, shaves crisp outer layers directly onto a small doubled corn tortilla, then flicks a sliver of pineapple from the top of the spit onto the meat.

Where a trompo is not available, many taquerías and home cooks cook the marinated meat on a griddle, which Ruvalcaba groups as a separate pastor guisado style.

Variations

Mexico City recognizes several sub-styles, from lightly marinated purist versions to deeply red, spicy ones with plenty of pineapple. Al pastor is also the filling of gringas, which pair the meat with melted cheese in a flour tortilla, and of many campechano and alambre combinations. In Baja California and much of northwestern Mexico the same spit-roasted pork is usually called adobada, and in Tijuana it is often topped with guacamole rather than pineapple. In Monterrey a closely related spit-roasted pork is sold as tacos de trompo. Al pastor has also become one of the most common taco fillings in the United States.

Recipe

Makes About 24 small tacos · Time: Marinate overnight; about 1 hour cooking

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg boneless pork shoulder, partially frozen and sliced 5 mm thick
  • 4 guajillo chiles and 2 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
  • 50 g achiote paste
  • 1/2 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 2 whole cloves
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled and cut into thick rounds
  • 24 small corn tortillas
  • 1 white onion and 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
  • Limes and salsa verde to serve

Steps

  1. Toast the chiles briefly in a dry pan, then soak in hot water for 15 minutes and drain.
  2. Blend the chiles with the achiote, pineapple juice, vinegar, garlic, oregano, cumin, cloves and salt until smooth.
  3. Coat every pork slice in the adobo, stack in a container and refrigerate overnight.
  4. For an oven trompo, skewer a pineapple round onto two wooden skewers set upright in a loaf pan or on a baking tray, then stack the pork slices tightly on the skewers and top with another pineapple round.
  5. Roast at 200 C for about 1 hour, until the outside is browned and the internal temperature reaches 70 C. Rest 10 minutes.
  6. Grill or broil the remaining pineapple until lightly charred, then dice it.
  7. Shave thin slices from the outside of the stack and crisp them for a minute in a hot skillet.
  8. Serve on warm doubled tortillas with pineapple, onion, cilantro, lime and salsa.

Without a spit, the marinated slices can be cooked in batches on a very hot griddle and chopped, in the manner of griddle-cooked pastor.

Where to try it

Reviews

Reviews and tips open at launch. Readers will be able to share where they found the best version of this and how they make it at home.

See also

References

  1. "La historia del taco al pastor es la versión taquera de Romeo y Julieta". Chilango. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  2. "Historia de los tacos al pastor en la Ciudad de México". Publimetro México. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  3. "Tacos Árabes". Rick Bayless. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
Categories: Mexico City cuisine Pork tacos Puebla cuisine Spit-roasted dishes Street food Taco types