But most people don’t have vertical spits at home, so the Milk Street development kitchen made another “good edit,” moving the meat off the spit and onto a sheet pan, cooking thin slices of saucy, fatty pork shoulder in a single layer, shingled under slices of fresh pineapple. The result is crispy bits of succulent meat and spottily charred fruit, ready to be scooped into corn tortillas and garnished with white onion and cilantro. (Watch our culinary production director Wes Martin make it on Instagram.)
How to make tacos on a sheet pan
It all starts with a sweet-and-spicy chili blender sauce. Slightly smoky, fruity-tangy guajillo and rich, rasiny ancho chilies bring mild heat with tons of flavor. Give them a soak to soften them up, reserving some of the chili-infused water. Blend both the chilies and their water with a quarter of a pineapple and a small handful of garlic cloves, along with a little sugar, cumin and oregano.
Toss this spicy smoothie with sliced pork shoulder, a wonderfully fatty cut of pork that chars beautifully while remaining succulent. Let it hang out while the broiler preheats and you slice up another quarter of a pineapple.
Line a baking sheet with some foil and distribute the pork slices in an even layer, then place the pineapple on top. The fruit will shield portions of the meat from the direct blast of heat from the broiler, so you get crispy edges and juicy, soft middle pieces—just like you would from meat cooked on a vertical spit roast. The pineapple caramelizes and crisps on the edges, intensifying its fruity sweetness.
Chop it up and serve it hot
The ordered nature of the traybake, fresh out of the oven, is quite pretty in its own way. You may be tempted to transfer the neat, fruit-topped slices directly to a tortilla, but that would be a mistake. The best way to serve this taco filling is the messiest: Transfer everything off the sheet pan and onto a cutting board, making sure to get as much sauce as you can off the pan, then chop it all up, evenly distributing fatty, crunchy bits with the tangy fruit. Tuck the mixture into warm tortillas and serve with chopped white onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime.
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