smoky pulled pork tacos

with pork crackling, red cabbage, pickled red onion, apple sauce, bbq sauce and kewpie mayo

This taco requires you to get up at 4am, fire up your smoker, chuck in a pork shoulder, then go back to bed and wait 12 hours or so.

However, I recognise not everyone has a smoker, or the inclination to spend 12 hours cooking their meat. I'm one of those people too. Luckily, Mr Pam loves to smoke meat and he takes it seriously. He will rise at stupid o'clock to do it, and he'll spreadsheet the process. He's really cute like that.

But if that's not you and you don't have a Mr Pam, you can use a slow cooker and get a decent result (albeit a different kind of smoky, but that's ok). Or you can go to the supermarket and buy ready made, ready pulled pork shoulder (a more expensive option).

All that out of the way, I really hate blog recipes that go on, and on... and on. So if you wanna just buy everything ready made from the supermarket and assemble it, skip ahead to the ingredients with my blessing.

But if you want to know how to make your own fillings, slow cook the pork, educate yourself with my tortilla tips, and other recipes for taco fillings that I use frequently, follow the links in the ingredients list.

Serves 6 and freeze leftover pork (or serve 12)

Ingredients

2.5kg pork shoulder, bone in

Pork crackling

Finely sliced red cabbage

Finely sliced radish

Pickled red onion

Apple Sauce

Good quality sticky sweet BBQ sauce

Kewpie mayonnaise

Corn or flour tortillas (head here for tortilla cooking tips)

Pulled Pork - Low & Slow Smoker Method

Season with a good quality dry rub of your choice.

We cooked our 2.5kg bone in pork shoulder to 96°c / 205°f using cherry wood chips. Once it's done, wrap it in foil and rest it for as long as you can. Shred it with two forks or bear claws.

If you're new to smoking meat and want to learn from the best (as voted by Mr Pam's #1 fan), ask questions in the comments, he's happy to help!

Pulled Pork - Slow Cooker Method

Before we bought a smoker, I used this pulled pork recipe from Taste, with just two tweaks... I use a good smoky, sticky sweet bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce, and for smoky flavour I add liquid smoke, which you can get from USA Foods.

Assemble

No one likes cold tortillas, so prepare them only after all your fillings are ready and on the table. Then...

Smear some apple sauce across your tortilla

Add pork, then cabbage and onion

Drizzle a little BBQ sauce

Top with radish slices

Squirt a little kewpie mayo to taste

Top with some pork crackling

Enjoy!

Handy Tips

• The pork shoulder will give you a lot more meat than you need, unless you're feeding 12 adults. But it's hard to find a smaller cut of this meat, and you can use the leftovers all week for sandwiches, salads, pasta, or freeze it for the next round of tacos.

• Leave the rind on and discard later - if you remove the rind before cooking, your pork will dry out. This applies for both methods of cooking the pork.

• Don't be tempted to use a cheap BBQ sauce. Use a good quality sauce usually meant for basting pork ribs.

• This particular recipe is unusual in that I've used 3 sauces - apple, BBQ and Kewpie mayo. Each one plays an important role, so don't skip them! The apple is a perfect marriage for pork and it cuts through all the other flavours with just the right amount of oomph. The BBQ adds sweetness and the Kewpie adds a creaminess that ties it all together. So don't omit any...but don't over do them or your taco will be a soggy mess. So take it easy, ok? Be cool.