Grilled Chicken al Pastor Tacos

It is Tuesday, you are having tacos but you are looking to do something a little different. Grilled chicken al pastor tacos are exactly what you are looking for as they add a that twist to Taco Tuesday but yet simple and full of flavor. The marinaded chicken thighs combined with the diced pineapple will have you coming back for seconds and make this a Taco Tuesday staple in your house.

What Is al Pastor?

The al pastor we will be making today is more of a central Mexico dish. If you are doing internet searches you may easily get it confused with the Lebanese shawarma and while our grilled chicken al Pastor tacos may have some origination from the Lebanese version, they are not the same. The Lebanese version will usually consist of lamb over a spit fired grill, served over a flour pita. This dish we are making is full of flavor with the combination pineapple, chili and other spices. The signature flavor is the pineapple, as it is part of our marinade and also added to the tacos.

Grilled Chicken al Pastor Marinade

The first thing you are going to do is get started with the marinade. You will want to give the chicken about 4-5 hours before pulling and getting on the grill. For this recipe you are going to use chicken thighs. They have more flavor than chicken breasts and are less likely to dry out. Prior to making the marinade I would suggest shaving off some off the excess fat on the thighs. Once you have that complete we can start with the marinade.

We are going to use the following ingredients for the al pastor chicken marinade:

• 12 oz of Pineapple juice
• 1 tsp of FlatIron Sweet Heat (this is a great combination of Scotch Bonnet, Ancho Chile and Red Bell)
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic (feel free to use fresh garlic or powder but I would lean minced or fresh over the powder, if possible)
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tsp. of oregano
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tbsp. of fresh cilantro

Take these ingredients and combine them in a bowl. Once mixed well, you can either add the thighs into the bowl to let them marinade or put the thighs ad the marinade in a Ziploc bag. My preference is always a bag, that way you get mix the marinade around, rotate the meat in the bag to ensure everything is getting good coverage.

After 4-5 hours of marinade time you can go ahead and remove the thighs and prep for grilling.

Grilled Chicken al Pastor

This is the easy part. Once you remove the chicken thighs from the marinade, you are going to get your grill going on about medium-high heat. You will put the chicken thighs on and keep them on for about 6-7 minutes on each side. While each grill may differ a bit, as well as your placement on the grill you can always gauge based on the IT of the chicken thighs. You always want to ensure you reach an IT of 165.

While your chicken is on you are going to need some pineapple for this recipe so you will want to slice it up and prepare to throw it on the grill. After the chicken is done, I would suggest putting the pineapple on the grill. Keep the pineapple on the grill for 5 minutes or so. After 2-3 minutes on each side you can pull it off. Keep the pineapple on unless it is tender and easily pierced with a fork.

Now with the chicken thighs and pineapple grilled and pulled we can move onto the final preparations.

Grilled Chicken al Pastor Tacos

First thing we will now do is to dice up the chicken thighs. Set them off to the side once they are diced up. They are pretty much ready to serve once diced. You can them move to the pineapple and dice them up as well. In a similar fashion, once diced you can put to the side as they are pretty much ready to serve.

The remaining items you will need for these tacos are the following:

• a purple onion, diced (depending on size of the onion and how many tacos, you will need about half the onion)
• Cilantro, chopped
• flour tortillas
• Salsa and hot sauces of your choice

As soon as your prep is completed go ahead and serve while hot. From the adults to the kids these tacos will be a hit.

If you are looking for some other meal ideas take a look at some of these suggestions:

• Persian Kabobs
• Grilled Flank steak for Fajitas
• Smoked Shrimp and Peach Kabobs
• Smoked Roast Beef

I hope you enjoyed this Grilled Chicken al Pastor Tacos recipe. We always appreciate any comments, likes or shares of the recipes you made and enjoyed. Thank you for being here and keep that smoke rolling!

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