Slow cooker pork chalupas recipe

If you like Mexican food but want a bit of a change from fajitas, fajitas, fajitas, then this is really worth a try. It's also very easy so a good week night option. This one will happily sit all day and doesn't take long to prep before work. 

Ingredients for 6:

• 1 pork shoulder roast (mine was boneless) - 1 1/2 lbs
• 250 g / 1/2 lb pinto beans
• 8 rings pickled jalapeno chillies
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 flour tortillas

Directions:

Put the roast into your slow cooker. Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl, then tip into the slow cooker, around and over the pork. Fill the slow cooker with cold water until  the beans are under the water by at least an inch. It doesn't matter if the roast is submerged or not. Cook on Low for  8-9 hours. If you do notice the beans getting dry (they might if your cooker is particularly fierce), then add a little more water, always keeping the beans submerged.

When the roast is fork tender and the beans are cooked, take it out, using two forks, and put into a bowl. Take out any bone, remove any excess fat and shred the meat with the forks. 

Using a ladle pushed down into the beans, drain most of the cooking liquid away and stir the meat back in. Check for seasoning and warm through for 15 minutes.

Serve with wheat tortillas and your favourite Tex-Mex garnishes - we like sour cream (isn't all Mexican food just a big excuse to eat sour cream?), avocado slices or guacamole, a splash of lime juice and some iceberg lettuce for some crunch. Grated cheddar might also be nice but we thought it was a bit rich to add yet more protein.

Verdict:

The effort to scrumminess ratio was very high on this! It was really, really good and I liked the pork and beans mix more than just one or the other on their own. It was lovely trying something new in the whole Tex-Mex range of food without having to go to any complicated lengths to do so. This was not super-spicy but did have some kick so you could ramp up the spiciness to your tastes. I suspect they have it a lot hotter in Mexico.