Taco Tuesday ended up being on Thursday last week after Trader Joe’s rolled out their new Al Pastor (inspired) Diced Pork Shoulder. Real deal al pastor is of course cooked and shaved off a trompa, so we’re considering this one “inspired.” And it’s pretty good.
The meat is indeed diced (it’s hard to tell by looking at the package). And you just throw it in a skillet heated on high. You’ll see I used a stainless steel pan and it has enough fat in it that you don’t need extra for the pan. And in fact, there were 4-5 cubes of straight fat among the diced meat which I ended up picking out as it was cooking. It’s pork shoulder, to be expected, but it wasn’t anything crazy. I’ll be interested to see if others have the same experience. I did salt it at the end.
Then, pretty much everything else came from Trader Joe’s, except for the cilantro and onion. I used TJ’s corn tortillas, the new queso fresco, and the Mango Pineapple Pico de Gallo to replicate that pineapple al pastor sitch. I liked it. The marinade has a mix of guajillo, Hatch, and ancho chiles. It wasn’t overly sweet or spicy, but like I said, it did need a little salt.
Would I buy it again? Yeah, to mix up a quick and easy taco night, for sure.
Check out some other We Tried’s from Trader Joe’s: