Shredded pork tacos

A couple weeks ago, we picked up a couple Rick Bayless books at the library which has really be furthering our obsession with tacos and Mexican food. Our staples now include cilantro and corn tortillas as well as the normal avocados, onions, tomatoes, and the like. While discussing our menu for the coming week, I found a recipe in Molly Stevens' The Art of Braising that called for braised pork ribs in chipotles, red peppers, and tomatoes. The recipe even called for a possible additional step of shredding the ribs and putting them in tacos. Well, that was just too good to be true! Pork + tacos + my favorite, chipotles? Sold!

The braise itself is easy enough and typical of braises. Season the ribs and brown on all sides. Prepare the sauce. Combine together in a pan, cover with parchment and foil, and let cook for several hours. Then when you pull it out of the oven, it will look like this tastiness.

After the ribs have cooled enough, shred the meat with a fork. As Molly notes, shredding with a fork is way tastier than with a knife though for unknown reasons. While waiting for the ribs to cool, you take the sauce and simmer it to thicken it up a bit. While the sauce was good, I thought it could be a little sweeter. After watching so much Bobby Flay, I added his favorite ingredient, honey, and then left it to simmer. Actually, I forgot about it and let it simmer down to a pretty thick sauce but it was absolutely perfect. Before serving, (re)heat the meat and sauce separately and then mix together.

The sweet sauce is absolutely divine. The regular sauce is still good though. We topped our tacos, as you can see here, with shredded Oaxaca cheese, avocados, onions, and cilantro. J ate seven of them. That's a serious record.