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I saw my friends from socal make these amazing Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos at the recent food festival and decided to replicate this recipe for Taco Tuesday! The tenderness and smokiness of the pulled pork mixed in with the charred and spicy homemade salsa verde and pickled onion make for an amazingly refreshing meal.
Want more savory taco recipes, check out my leftover prime rib tacos or a fan favorite the marinated steak tacos.
Table of Contents
- Ingredient List for Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos.
- Get the pork ready.
- Recipe Tip
- How to make homemade salsa verde.
- 2 Step Method for Making the BEST Classic Pulled Pork
- Remember to rest classic pulled pork when done.
- How to make pickled onions.
- Assemble the Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos
- Frequently Asked Questions:
- More Delicious Taco Recipe Ideas:
- Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos Recipe
Ingredient List for Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos.
- Pork shoulder: depending on how many people you are cooking for, try to stay under 10 lbs. Make sure to get a bone-in pork shoulder.
- Roasted veggies: use tomatillos, jalapenos, white onion, garlic and roma tomatoes for the salsa verde.
- Limes: adds a fresh burst of zestiness to break up the salsa heat from the roasted veggeis
- Seasoning: taco seasoning has the perfect balance of cumin, paprika and lime.
- Tortillas: I used flour street taco tortilla’s for this recipe. Corn tortillas will work great too.
- Red Onion: used to make pickled onion.
- Vinegar: the brine to pickle onion.
Get the pork ready.
This recipe is definitely not a last minute dinner choice. It is a process that needs time for the meat to cook through nice and slowly while containing the tenderness and flavorfulness of the pork as well as the seasoning that’s applied throughout.
Next, take a look at the fat cap. It should be no more than a 1/4 inch thick. Slowly trim off any extra layers of fat. Take your time and remove a little bit a time. This fat will not render down making for one unpleasant fatty bite.
When the fat is trimmed, we can now score the fat cap in a checkered pattern. Do not go too deep, just enough to cut through the fat. Scoring allows the seasoning and smoke to penetrate deeper into the meat locking in those amazing BBQ flavors.
Finally, coat the entire bone in pork shoulder with Tabasco Sriracha sauce which will work as a binder for the seasoning. This adds a delicate outer layer of spice to the pork.
Recipe Tip
If you are not a fan of mustard in general, use mustard or Worcestershire sauce as the binding agent.
For the seasoning, I use Dad’s Taco seasoning. It has the perfect balance of classic Mexican flavors with cumin, salt, lime juice and mild heat. DON’T BY SHY with the seasoning. This is a very large piece of meat. You don’t want bland pulled pork, coat heavily. Make sure to season all sides of the pork shoulder.
Pat the seasoning down vs. rubbing to avoid any of the spice from falling off.
Set aside the seasoned pork shoulder in room temperature for about 30 minutes and allow it to sweat which opens up the meat to absorb all those wonderful spices.
Dad’s Seasonings
Must have grillin seasonings!
How to make homemade salsa verde.
The salsa verde is a key component for this pulled pork taco recipe. To start off, char some jalapeños, tomatillos, serrano peppers, a roma tomato and white onion. On a foil sheet, place 4 cloves of garlic, drizzle some olive oil and salt, close shut and place it directly on the coals for roasting. Make sure to turn the veggies around every minute for an even char throughout.
Next, in a food processor, throw in the veggies along with a cup of water, chicken bullion, salt, freshly squeezed lime juice, green onion and a batch of cilantro. Blend it all together leaving a slightly chunky consistency for texture.
2 Step Method for Making the BEST Classic Pulled Pork
In order to make the best classic pulled pork, the cooking process requires most of the day to achieve tender, juicy and flavorful meat. The first step will give us that delicious smokey flavor and the next will get it fall apart tender.
The pork shoulder has a lot of fat and connective tissue that needs to render down. This takes time. Patience is key here.
Smoke low and slow
Preheat your grill or smoker to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and set it for indirect heat. I used my Weber Searwood Pellet Grill for this cook.
Place the seasoned pork shoulder directly on the grates and let if smoke away.
For the first 4 hours, leave the pork should on the grill. Do NOT peek. Let the grill do its magic. After that, you should start to check the bark and see if is not drying out. If so, pour a little bit of apple cider vinegar into a spray bottle and spritz the pork every hour. This helps keep the meat moist and helps prevent the bark from burning. It does not impact the flavor of the meat.
Depending on the size of the shoulder, you should estimate 1.5 hours/lb. Total cooking process will last 7-9 hours. By this time, the internal temperature on the pork will read around 170-175 degrees.
What makes pulled pork so tender?
The long smoking process is what makes the meat so tender, that it falls off the bone. In order to keep the moisture and prevent the protein from drying out, you need to wrap it for the final cook.
Once the grilled pork shoulder reaches 170 degrees, place it in an aluminum pan and pour half of the homemade salsa verde over the meat. Seal it off with a sheet of foil. The wrap will help keep all the moisture inside the cook and allow the sauce to penetrate through the meat and infuse it with all those amazing refreshing socal flavors.
Leave the salsa verde pork on the grill for another 2-3 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 204 degrees.
Remember to rest classic pulled pork when done.
When the pork is fork tender, it’s time for the rest. Move the wrapped pork into an insulated cooler or a turned off oven and leave it to rest for 1 hour. Remember, this is a very large piece of meat that has been on the grill for 7-9 hours. It needs time to allow all the juices to redistribute throughout the meat.
When it’s ready, start by removing the bone. If perfectly cooked, the bone should come out clean and without any resistance.
Keep the salsa verde pulled pork in the aluminum pan and using heat resistant gloves, start shredding the meat. I like using glove liners under my nitrile gloves for heat protection. Mix the pork with the rendered juices adding flavor to the dish.
How to make pickled onions.
I get asked a lot on how to make pickled onion. The process is very simple. Start off by slicing an entire red onion. Place the sliced pieces into a mason jar. Next, in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, water, white vinegar, sugar, salt, peppercorns and crushed red pepper. Pour the mixture into the mason jar and seal shut. Set aside for it to cool off while the pulled pork is still smoking.
Assemble the Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos
Finally, it’s time to enjoy the cook after many hours of cooking and patience! Take your taco of choice, corn or flour, place a hefty amount of pulled pork on it, add more salsa verde, top it all off with a pickled onion and cotija cheese and enjoy your salsa verde pulled pork tacos. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions:
No, just depends what your grocery store or butcher have. Bone-in will take slightly longer to cook vs. boneless but will provide more flavor. Bone-in also cooks more evenly. Boneless may have some well done parts since it’s not evenly shaped due to the bone being removed.
I prefer to use foil over butcher paper because it helps retain all the moisture which keeps the pork nice and tender. I use a foil pan to fold the shoulder, then wrap the top with a foil sheet.
More Delicious Taco Recipe Ideas:
If you tried this Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the📝 comments. I love hearing from you!
Salsa Verde Pulled Pork Tacos
Ingredients
Pulled Pork Ingredients
- 6 lbs Bone in pork shoulder
- 2 tbsp Hot sauce
- 4 tbsp BBQ rub
- 1/2 cup Cotija cheese
Salsa Verde Ingredients
- 6 tomatillos
- 2 Jalapenos
- 2 Serrano peppers
- 1 Roma tomato
- 4 Garlic cloves
- 2 Limes
- 1 Batch of cilantro
- 1 Batch of green onion
- 1/2 White onion
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Chicken bullion
- 1 cup Water
Pickled Red Onion Ingredients
- 1 Red onion
- 1 cup White vinegar
- 1 cup Water
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Crushed red peppers
Instructions
- Set up the grill for indirect heat at 250 degrees.
- Place the seasoned pulled pork on the grill and let it smoke for about 4 hrs or until it reaches 170 degrees internal temp.
- For the salsa verde, start off by charing the jalapeños, tomatillos, serrano peppers, roma tomato and white onion. Also on a foil sheet, place 4 cloves of garlic, drizzle some olive oil and salt, close shut and place it directly on the coals for roasting.
- In a food processor, throw in the veggies along with a cup of water, chicken bullion, salt, freshly squeezed lime juice, green onion and a batch of cilantro. Blend it all together leaving a slightly chunky consistency for texture
- For the pickled onion, start off my slicing an entire red onion. Place the sliced pieces in a mason jar.
- In a sauce pan, bring to a boil, water, white vinegar, sugar, salt, peppercorns and crushed red pepper. Pour the mixture into the mason jar and seal shut.
- Back to the pork. Once the grilled pork shoulder reaches 170 degrees, place it in an aluminum pan and pour half of the homemade salsa verde over the meat. Seal it off with a sheet of foil and let it continue cooking for another 2-3 hours until the internal temp of the pork is 204 degrees.
- Remove the bone and shred the meat, mixing it in with all the rendered juices.
- Assemble the taco per your liking with the pulled pork, salsa verde, pickled red onion and cotija cheese.
Notes
- Try to purchase a bone-in pork shoulder. Helps cook more evenly.
- If you are not a fan of mustard in general, use hot sauce or Worcestershire sauce as the binding agent.
- For the first 4 hours, leave the pork should on the grill. Do NOT peek inside. Let the grill do its magic. After that, you should start to check the bark and see it is not drying out.
- At this stage of the cook, no more smoke will penetrate the meat. It’s OK to finish the cook in the oven.
- Tenderness is key. This will help make the pork shreddable. The final temperature on a classic pulled pork can range anywhere from 200 to 205 degrees, so be patient. If the probe is not going into the meat smoothly, it’s not done. Keep cooking. This is where a lot of the mistakes are made. Pork is removed too soon and the meat ends up dry and tough.
Nutrition
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