Puebla, Mexico
Tacos al Pastor
Mexico's most famous taco — a Lebanese shawarma spit, transplanted to Puebla, dressed in chiles and pineapple.
In repertoire since Mar 2026
Two cuisines, three generations.
Lebanese immigrants brought the vertical spit to Puebla in the 1920s. Their children swapped lamb for pork, added achiote and chiles, balanced the meat with grilled pineapple. By the 1960s, pastor had become the most-eaten taco in Mexico — a dish whose family tree runs straight from Beirut to Mexico City.
2 · Plant
Then, the plants.
Each ingredient held water and minerals, built sugar out of light over weeks or months, ripened, and was picked. A few ingredients (salt, water) came from a different elemental story.
- Ingredient
Pork shoulder
1.2 kg pork shoulder, sliced 5 mm thick across the grain
Thin slices, not cubes — al pastor is shaved off a spit; we approximate by stacking sliced pieces.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Guajillo chiles
4 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
Mexican dried-chile farm - Ingredient
Ancho chiles
2 dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Achiote paste
3 tbsp achiote paste
Annatto-based red paste from the Yucatán — this is what makes pastor pastor-coloured.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
White onion
1 small white onion, quartered (for marinade); plus 1 white onion finely diced (for topping)
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
White vinegar
80 ml white vinegar
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Pineapple juice
120 ml pineapple juice (reserve the fruit for the grill)
Bromelain — the enzyme in pineapple — tenderizes the meat through the marinade.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Cumin
1 tsp ground cumin
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Mexican oregano
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Pineapple
200 g fresh pineapple, sliced 1 cm thick
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Corn tortillas
8 small corn tortillas (12 cm), fresh
Two stacked under each taco — the tortilla is structural in al pastor.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Cilantro
1 small bunch fresh cilantro, leaves picked
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Lime
2 limes, cut into wedges
Origin not yet authored
3 · Cook
Then, the kitchen.
Heat, time, salt, fat, acid — the recipe that turns the ingredients into something more than their sum.
4 · Plate
Puebla, Mexico
Tacos al Pastor
Mexico's most famous taco — a Lebanese shawarma spit, transplanted to Puebla, dressed in chiles and pineapple.
The taco that made it onto every international menu, and the one that tells you the most about Mexican food’s openness to migration. Al pastor would not exist without the shawarma; the shawarma would not have become Mexican without the pastor.
The Lebanese-Mexican community in Puebla still calls some versions tacos árabes — the original, before the chile marinade and the pineapple. Pastor is the next generation. Same spit, different flavour.
Two tortillas.
Stack two tortillas under the meat. One alone tears under the juice; two together hold. This is not optional — every taquero in Mexico does it, and the recipe is wrong without it.