A taco is only as good as its tortilla, so if you’re gonna make Pork Carnitas, you best be making some homemade tortillas! Not to mention, once you toss that first tortilla in the pan, watch as it browns and bubbles, you’ll be hooked. Oh yeah, and they taste amazing!
This was my first time attempting tortillas, so I wanted to get a little practice, and find the perfect recipe before serving them to a crowd. I began scouring the internet for a recipe that had weights instead of cup measurements, as I always prefer to make dough recipes by weight. Alas I couldn’t find one, so I opted to try the most promising recipe out, weigh all the ingredients, and adjust everything accordingly. My first attempt definitely turned out too floury, so I adjusted that, and tried another batch. We were making improvements, but it called for pork lard, which I didn’t have on hand, so I used a mixture of butter and shortening, and the results were fairly good, but I wanted pork lard to do them properly! Fortunately, the pork shoulder came with skin-on, so I removed that, rendered it into pork lard, and whipped up the last batch of tacos! Success! It produced a very pliable dough, that wasn’t too floury, could be rolled super thin without breaking, and had beautiful, bubbly air pockets once they were toasted.
- 250 g all-purpose flour (2 cups)
- 5 g salt (1 tsp)
- 12 g vegetable oil (1 tbsp)
- 125 g warm water (1/2 cup)
- 50 g pork lard (1/4 cup)
- Alternatively, you can substitute shortening for lard, or use ½ butter, ½ shortening.
- Mix ingredients in a bowl, until loose dough forms.
- Bring to countertop, kneading dough until smooth about 5-8 minutes.
- Wrap dough with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Once dough has rested, portion out tortillas (portions will depend on how large you want them - I opted for a smaller tortilla, so I portioned them out to 25-30 grams each).
- Get a heavy cast iron pan on about medium heat (my dial was at 4), let it warm about 10 minutes before cooking the tortillas, adjust heat accordingly as you cook tortillas.
- On a lightly floured work surface, use a floured rolling pin to form the dough into a rounded tortilla shape.
- The dough should be quite strong and pliable, so you can roll it very thing, until it's slightly transparent.
- Place tortilla in cast iron pan, cooking for about 45 seconds, or until lightly browned and bubbling, then flip and cook for another 30-45 seconds.
- Place tortillas on a clean towel, stacking and keeping covered as you toast the rest. To keep warm longer, store the wrapped tortillas in a small pot with a lid.
- This recipe will make 15-18 small tortillas.
Aren’t those things beautiful!? Now go forth, host a Mexican taco night, and impress all your friends with homemade tortillas!
Bob
Want to host your own Mexican Taco Night?
Find all the recipes here:
How to Render Pork Lard (for tortillas)
