Smoked Pork Taquitos

How to make Smoked Pork Taquitos Recipe - A New Year’s tradition at my house: bowl games, parades, and a bowl of guacamole the size of a space satellite dish.

Serves: 30

Ingredients:
5-pound bone-in pork butt
30 ct yellow corn tortillas
Canola oil for deep fryer

Chile Injection:
12 dried peppers (8 pasillas, 4 ancho)
1/2 medium onion
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup bitter orange juice
4 cloves of garlic
1 chicken bouillon cube
Salt and pepper

Mexican Rub:
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground oregano
1 tsp minced dried onion
1 tsp minced dried garlic

Chile Injection Method:
Roast the chiles on the grill. Do not burn them. Soak the chiles for 2 hours in a large container. Reserve 1 cup of the water the chiles were soaking in. Deseed all the chiles and place them in a food processor or blender.

Place all remaining ingredients into the blender. Add reserved water (more if needed). Blend until smooth.

Place the pork in a deep foil pan. Then use a meat syringe to inject the shoulder with the liquid marinade,
reserving 2 cups of marinade. Afterward, cover the pan with a sheet of foil and keep it in the fridge overnight.

Smoked Pork Method:
Prepare the smoker for 225 degrees F. Take pork shoulder out of the fridge and uncover. Drain any liquid out of the pan. Mix all Mexican Rub ingredients together and spread it evenly all over the shoulder. Make sure to get those folds and creases in between.

Place the pork butt on the smoker. I used pecan wood for smoke and I place a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the shoulder. Cook pork until it reaches 195 degrees F internal temperature.

Remove pork from the smoker and let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour or until it’s cool enough to shred.

Warming Tortillas:
Since the smoker won’t be hot enough to quickly warm the tortillas, I suggest using a top oven burner to warm the round yellow floppy discs.

Preheat the burner to medium. Place a tortilla on the burner and leave it for 10 seconds. Flip the tortilla to cook the other side for another 10 seconds. Don’t burn the tortilla!

Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer or completely wrap in aluminum foil so they remain soft as you cook all thirty tortillas.

Frying Taquitos Method:
Place a spoonful of shredded pork to one side of a warm tortilla and roll it up tightly. Repeat until all pork and tortillas are used. Stick a couple of toothpicks in each taquito to hold together.

Prepare a deep fryer with canola oil at medium to medium-high heat or 375 degrees F. In the deep fryer, cook about 4 taquitos at a time for 4 minutes.

Remove the taquitos onto a plate covered with paper towels to soak up the oil, discarding toothpicks when cooled.

Repeat this process until done. Serve taquitos with guacamole.