Al Pastor Traeger Hack

Recipe
April 19, 2021

Al Pastor Traeger hack montageThe Vitals:
the recipe: Al Pastor Traeger Hack
the smoker: Traeger Ironwood 885 
the time: about an hour
the full nelson: too damn fun not to try

Lazy Sunday cookouts have been a running theme in my backyard lately. On Sundays, like in this Instagram Reels post, I’ve been hitting up my neighborhood carniceria. Their selection of marinated meats and salsas are damn tasty when I don’t feel like dedicating a weekend for the prep. And it gave me a reason to try out this Al Pastor Traeger hack.

Al Pastor Traeger hack ingredients

Let the carniceria do the work

I picked up some pork adobado at my carniceria. These super thin pork chops tend dry out on the grill so they aren’t part of my typical rotation. But stacked up vertically with a pineapple base . . . that gave me reason to give them a second chance. Plus, this being a Lazy Sunday, I’ll let the butchers do the marinating for me.

Al Pastor Traeger hack trompo 1

Al Pastor Traeger hack trompo 2

Make your own Trompo

In case you didn’t know, “trompo” refers to the vertical rotisserie that Al Pastor is cooked on, and is a descendant of Shawarma by way of Lebanese immigrants who came to Mexico back in the day.

First I sliced off the top and bottom of a pineapple to use as my trompo base. I grabbed two wood skewers and carefully jabbed through my pineapple. Because of height, I had to clip my skewers so it could fit in the Traeger. Grab a ruler and measure to be safe and definitely keep some gardening shears on standby.

Al Pastor Traeger hack trompo cooking

Trompo needed a haircut

I had to take a little off the top too. So I have my Al Pastor Trompo a haircut. All in all, it still looked pretty good. I slammed the lid and let this ride at 350 for about an hour. You want to aim for a temp of 145-160 degrees, and to be honest, 160 would have been way passed juicy so I yanked it at 145. It’s safer to cook pork till 160 but with heat carryover, you should be fine pull at 145.

Al Pastor Traeger hack trompo carving

Carving time

The one downside is that the chops had bones. So I couldn’t shave it right off the trompo. Al Pastor shaved thinly off the trompo is a game changer, in fact I’ve posted about it before like at this legendary taco joint in Vegas. Still these tacos worked out pretty well. And the meat was very juicy.

Al Pastor Traeger hack tacos 2

Al Pastor hacked.

This is too fun not try at home. It makes for a show stopper on the ‘gram + the carniceria does all the prep work. The only tricky part is getting the trompo made. And that’s kinda fun like in an Arts & Crafts meets meat way.

I do want to try this with my own marinade and get boneless pork steaks so I can shave off the trompo. But I’ll save that for a slightly less lazy Sunday . . . I suppose I’ve got one of those coming up in the near future too.

 

Share this:

Leave a Reply

4 responses to “Al Pastor Traeger Hack”

  1. […] really compliments rich carnitas or meaty steak and chorizo tacos. I even like it on Al Pastor, like this recipe hack I shared last […]

  2. Barbara Leeds says:

    What’s the vertical clearance inside three TRAEGER?

    • admin says:

      GREAT question! I can get a beer can chicken in there no prob. It’s just shy of a foot(12″) in the arc of the barrel.

  3. […] Al Pastor Traeger Hack – Ali Khan Eats […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Updates

Join the list and get new stuff right when it drops: