On an episode of “Mex­ico – One Plate At A Time”, Rick Bay­less men­tioned his Pork Tinga recipe which appar­ently was the best thing ever accord­ing to his daugh­ter.  I filed that recipe in my men­tal “must try” recipe box.  The other day, while in the gro­cery store, I saw a gor­geous cut of pork that was on sale and thought “No time like the present” as I was crav­ing some seri­ously good tacos for dinner.

While it takes some time, I have to tell you that patience is your friend when it comes to this dish.  I caught the sous chef more than once pac­ing in front of the slow cooker due to the aroma waft­ing through the house.

Now, sub­sti­tu­tion wise – I could not find any Queso Fresco nor chorizo in the gro­cery store so I sub­sti­tuted a mild feta cheese and hot ital­ian sausage.  The fla­vors were amaz­ing and I also added some creme fraiche (or sour cream for a sub­sti­tute) to cut on the heat.  I’m still a novice when it comes to all things spice but this heat was “good heat”.  I could only han­dle one (big) chipo­tle pep­per and that lit­tle thing packs a punch!

This is tried & true and would be a great addi­tion to any Super­bowl fes­tiv­i­ties.  Now that’s a touch­down if I ever saw one.

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PORK TINGA WITH POTATOES, AVOCADO AND FRESH CHEESE

Recipe Cour­tesy of Rick Bayless

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 table­spoon veg­etable or olive oil
• 1 pound lean, bone­less pork shoul­der, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• 4 ounces chorizo sausage, removed from its cas­ing (I sub­sti­tuted Ital­ian sausage)
• 4  to 5 medium (about 3/4 pound total) red-skinned pota­toes, quartered
• 1 large white onion, sliced 1/4–inch thick
• 1 gar­lic clove, minced
• 1  28-ounce can diced toma­toes, in juice (prefer­ably fire-roasted)
• 2 to 3 canned chipo­tle chiles, en adobo, finely chopped
• 4 tea­spoons chipo­tle can­ning sauce
• 1 table­spoon Worces­ter­shire sauce
• 1/2 tea­spoon dried oregano, prefer­ably Mexican
• Salt
• About 1/2 cup crum­bled Mex­i­can queso fresco or other fresh cheese like salted pressed farm­ers cheese (or mild feta)
• 1 ripe avo­cado, pit­ted, flesh scooped from the skin and diced
• Warm corn tor­tillas (I used flour)

Direc­tions

Heat the oil in a stovetop-rated slow cooker liner over medium-high heat.  (If your slow cooker liner isn’t made from a mate­r­ial that can be used on a stove­top, use a very large (12-inch) non-stick skil­let.) Once the oil is very hot, add the pork and chorizo in an sin­gle layer and cook, stir­ring until the meat has browned, about  6 to 8 min­utes.  Turn off the heat and if you’re using a skil­let, trans­fer the meat and its juices into the slow cooker.  Add the potatoes.

In a large bowl, com­bine the onions, gar­lic, toma­toes, chipo­tles, adobo sauce, Worces­ter­shire, oregano and 1/2 tea­spoon salt.  Pour mix­ture into the slow cooker and stir to mix thor­oughly.  Cook for 6 hours at the high­est temperature.   

After six hours, gen­tly stir the tinga.  If the sauce seems too thick, stir in a lit­tle water.  Taste, and sea­son with salt if you think the dish needs it.   Scoop into a large bowl, sprin­kle with the fresh cheese and diced avo­cado, and serve with warm tortillas.

(Note, I made an avo­cado cream with a bit of lime to driz­zle over the top – delish)

Lin­ing Up The Ingredients

This Lit­tle Chipo­tle Packs A Punch!

All The Fix­ins’ To Go With The Pork Tinga

The Final Product…