Slow Cooker Pork Tacos

Not chocolate, not toast, but definitely BLISS.  This was my second time around on this recipe, and with a couple of very minor tweaks, it brought an entire group of ladies to complete, blissful, swooning silence at the dinner table over the weekend.  We started out with tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and fresh lime margaritas, and finished off with the Passionfruit Pound Cake and Cinnamon Caramel Almond Brownies of the previous two posts.  And then played some mean rounds of dominoes to work it all off!

Slow Cooker Pork Tacos (adapted from Food Network)

• 3 whole ancho chiles, dried
• 2 whole pasilla chiles, dried
• 1 whole guajillo chile, dried
• 4 cloves garlic, with peel
• 6 chipotles in adobo sauce
• 1/2 medium white onion, roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried mexican oregano
• 3-1/2 cups organic low sodium chicken broth
• 4 pounds boneless pork shoulder (boston butt), trimmed of large pieces of fat and cut into chunks
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• corn, flour, or whole grain tortillas, warmed for serving
• toppings: crumbled cotija cheese, chopped cilantro, lime wedges, chopped onion, sour cream, salsa, cabbage

Put the whole chiles and garlic in a bowl and microwave briefly until soft and pliable.  Stem and seed chiles; peel garlic.  Transfer to blender.

Add the chipotles, onion, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, honey, vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt and the oregano to the blender; puree until smooth.  Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over high heat; add the chili sauce and fry, stirring, until thick and fragrant, about 8 minutes.  Pour in the broth and reduce until slightly thickened.

Season the pork all over with salt and pepper and transfer to a large slow cooker or dutch oven.  Add the bay leaves and cinnamon stick, then pour in the sauce.  Cover and cook on high in slow cooker for about 5 hours, or at 350 in the dutch oven approximatly 2 hours 15 minutes, (uncovered for the last 30 minutes).

Discard bay leaves and cinnamon stick.  Shred pork with two forks, season with salt and pepper if needed.  Serve in tortillas with toppings.

Coming up next on Chocolate & Toast . . . Chocolate Labrador Sugar Cookies!