Slow Cooker Pork Tinga Tacos

I'm super excited about a new cookbook that I received as a Christmas gift from my inlaws. Rick Bayless (some of you may know him as the winner of the very first Top Chef Masters on Bravo or by his three famous Chicago eateries) is the guru of authentic Mexican cuisine. His book "Mexican Everyday" is packed with simple yet delectable sounding Mexican food that doesn't require a dozen ingredients you've never heard of before. There will be a ton of mexican food going on at the Lacy house in 2011!

John and I decided to try the Pork "Tinga" tacos in the slow cooker and they were fantastic and super simple to prepare. I tweaked a few minor things. For example we used pork tenderloin instead of boneless pork shoulder which lightened things up a bit. I threw in some sweet potato with the regular potato. We also ended up doing about one and one half times the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins-just under 3 pounds total- cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

1 medium size russet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1 medium size sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1- 28oz can and 1-15 oz can of diced tomatoes

5-6 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped

1 large white onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 1/2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon of kosher salt 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

*The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of chipolte canning sauce which I skipped because I wasn't sure if he meant the adobo sauce or something entirely different...

First you scatter the potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker. Next layer in the cubed pork and finally, mix the remaining ingredients (minus the cilantro) together in a large bowl and pour over the pork. Cook on a high setting for 6 hours until the meet is falling-apart-tender. I stirred everything up every two hours to be sure it was cooking evenly. Then I kept it on warm for another hour or so until we were ready to serve- adding the cilantro at the very last minute.

I made some fresh guacamole for snaking on before dinner and we used the rest of it to garnish our tacos. With this recipe, I prefer corn tortillas fried lightly in a bit of vegetable oil (this makes them a bit less likely to fall apart believe it or not) but I had small flour tortillas for my guests as well (as you can see in the picture, John always has makes one of each). I also had some crumbled queso fresco, fresh cilantro and Jack's salsa (THE BEST) for folks to use for taco building.

Though you can make a lovely meal of the tacos alone, on the side I served some Mexican style rice and black beans and some sauteed onion and rainbow chard. *My sister is a vegetarian and Rick Bayless had a yummy recipe for tacos of spicy sauteed onions, greens, and queso fresco. She made her tacos with that and I sampled some on the side with my pork tacos. With some black beans for protein, I think she was a happy camper!

This recipe could easily serve 8-10 people. I ate it "chili style" the next day over rice garnished with some fresh sliced avocado, salsa and fresh cilantro. You could add a can of black beans for the last hour of slow cook time and have an amazing soup/stew for tailgating. It actually really is light yet perfectly satisfying if you go the tenderloin route.

Can't wait to sample more recipes from the book! I'll be sure to report back when I do. Happy New Year Everyone!!!