Braised Pork Tacos

To carry on with my braising kick- I decided for Halloween that I would braised a pork shoulder, low and slow, "carnitas"style. (Sadly for the trick or treater's, I was not planning to share.) We were planning to be out and about visiting some friends so I decided I could cook the pork in the crock pot, it'd be ready to go when we got home for a late dinner. I purchased a 6 lb bone-in pork shoulder from Harris Teeter which was far more than I needed, but that's what they had. In my large dutch oven, I heated a few tablespoons of oil over medium high heat and browned the pork on all sides. I then transferred the pork to my crock pot which is thankfully, quite large. Into the same dutch oven (leaving all of the brown bits in the bottom from the pork) I sauteed some onion and garlic. (I had chopped one large onion and four garlic cloves together in the food processor.) Once the onion started to look translucent, I added: 2 tablespoons Ancho Chile Powder 1 tablespoon regular Chile Powder 1.5 tablespoons Cayenne 2 tablespoons Cumin 5 bay leaves I mixed the spice mixture into the onions and then added approximately 4 cups of water. I cooked the mixture for 10 minutes or so- letting the flavors start to marry together- before pouring it over the pork shoulder in the crock pot. I set the crock pot to high and cooked the pork for one hour. I then turned the crock pot down to low heat and let it go for another 6 or 7 hours. By the time we were ready to eat- the pork was perfectly tender and falling off the bone. I turned the crock pot off and let the meat cool some in the braising liquid before shredding the meat with a fork. I transferred the meat to a large dish and ladled some extra sauce over it- not so much that it was swimming, just to add some extra flavor. We served the pork with some classic store-bought taco fixins. Corn tortillas, pico de gallo, guacamole, shredded cabbage, and Monterrey jack cheese. They were juicy and absolutely scrumptious. I actually got the idea from Tyler Florence's Pot Roast Taco recipe- he braises beef shoulder in a similar way. Definitely a keeper make-ahead recipe. More exciting than your average ground beef variety taco but still easy to pull together to feed a crowd or a few tipsy candy-giver-outers!