Do you have a recipe? Did you just do indirect heat on the grill?
Usually when I make something like this, I'll look around at a few recipes to get an idea where they're going. If there are ingredients I don't have, or will have trouble getting, or just don't want to use, I improvise. This recipe was no different. That's why I'm calling it "al pastor style".
I used a 4lb boneless pork shoulder, skin off. Slice it across the grain. My knives aren't great, so I couldn't get it real thin, but it was still fine.
Marinade (mix this all together):
- 1 C orange juice (most recipes said called for pineapple. I saw a couple that said OJ was more authentic. I didn't have pineapple juice, probably wouldn't use a whole can, and OJ doesn't have bromelain, so I went with OJ)
- 3/4 C white vinegar
- 1 head of garlic chopped up
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp chili powder (scaled back from 2 because my wife doesn't like spicy as much as I do)
- 2 tbsp cumin
- half a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped up until it's pretty much a paste (I removed as many seeds as possible, again, because of the wife)
Mix that all together, throw it in a bag with the pork slices. Let marinate overnight.
I saved the used marinade, cooked it down to reduce it and make it safer for use.
You're going to need to figure out a way to get this to stand up. I used 3 wooden skewers in a triangle, then threaded everything on. Thick slice of pineapple on the bottom, stack the pork on top (each slice may not be big enough to hit all 3 skewers, so just be mindful of keeping the pork pile as even as possible), thick slice of pineapple on top.
Indirect heat (I had a small pile of coals on each side with some wood). 250* for like 3 hours. very now and then I'd open it up to make sure it didn't fall over. I'd brush the cooked down marinade over the pork when I checked on it.
Next time I do it, I'll probably slice off the outsides of it and then let the inside cook up a little more. But it was a good mix of crispy bits on the outside and softer pieces in the middle. Wife also like the inner pieces more because they didn't have the marinade brushed on. I chopped it all up (including the cooked pineapple pieces) and served it with a pineapple salsa verde for tacos.
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