Pork and Bacon Tacos

I am excited to share this recipe with all of you.  I know I missed national taco day last week, but better late than never.  This taco is my best effort at recreating a favorite of mine and Mr. Insanity’s from when we used to actually go out to dinner.  We would go to our favorite Mexican Restaurant, sit at the bar to talk to our favorite bartender, and both order up the Tacos Caseros. Now we have many kids and getting out to dinner is near impossible, so I had to get to guessing in the kitchen and make my own version of our favorite dish. I love all kinds of tacos, but when you get bacon into the mix it is really just brilliant!  And, as a bonus, the margaritas that I used to order at my favorite little restaurant are now sold by the bottle so it really feels like we are on a date rather than at home surrounded by four kids.  These tacos are quite tasty, and even though they are not exactly like the original, they get two thumbs up from the hubby.  I start these the day before to get the pork marinating.  I found bone in pork chops on sale this week so that is what I used today – I just removed the bones and some of the fat and got that into the freezer for some other use at a later date.  You could use tenderloin, or pork loin too for this recipe. Whatever meat you use, just cut it into thin cutlets.  The marinade starts with adding some minced onion, garlic, spices, salt and dark brown sugar to a large plastic bag.

To that I add a pepper from a can of chipotle in adobo.  I chop this pepper up finely but this is what it looks like out of the can.  Do your best to fish out a whole one with a fork.  I also add a tablespoon of the liquid to my marinade.

Then the juice from one lime and some olive oil go into the bag. I zip it up and shake vigorously before I add the meat, then after adding the meat I squish the bag moving all of the liquid around it.

So after I let that sit overnight I am ready to get these tacos made.  I fry up the bacon – how can anything bad come out of that?  I cut the bacon up into small pieces and fry it over a medium low heat.  While my bacon is going I chop up a few poblano peppers and onion.

Once my bacon is crisped up, I scoop it out onto some paper towels.  I pour out the bacon grease and keep it close by.  I put a couple of tablespoons of that wonderful bacon fat into a new pan and start to saute my peppers and onions.  I use my bacon pan to start cooking up my marinated pork chops.  

I have to cook the pork in a few batches and I remove the slices to a cutting board as they finish up cooking.  I let the slices rest for a few minutes and then cut the pork into small bite size pieces. I then add the pork and the bacon to my peppers and onions.  I let them mingle together over a low heat for a couple of minutes.

You can use this right away, or if you wanted this can definitely get put in the fridge for later.  If you wanted to make everything to this point over the weekend you would have prepped for a ten minute dinner later in the week.  When ever you are ready for your tacos, you need to get that reserved bacon grease out and slather a little onto a hot griddle or in a pan.  Lay out your taco shells and add some cheese.  I am using chihuahua cheese, but cheddar or pepper jack or whatever your favorite melting cheese would totally work well.  

Just a little cheese, then a little filling.

Top with a little more cheese and fold the tortilla into a taco.  Just let the cheese melt for about 30 seconds before flipping the taco to melt the cheese on the other side.

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