Spaghetti Tacos

If you or your children were pre-teens circa 2009, you will know iCarly. If you really know iCarly, you know the iCook episode where the gang whips up some spaghetti tacos. Due to this episode, Ben has been pushing hard for spaghetti tacos for years, to no avail. Well, this was Ben’s lucky day. I rebranded pork carnitas and fideo as “spaghetti tacos,” and we were off to the races.

If you start the crockpot in the morning before work, our version of pork carnitas can be done on a weekday, hopefully without clogging every last artery. We serve them on flour tortillas instead of corn because it is what Ben and I prefer. We made homemade tortillas, because I can knock them out pretty fast, and they are so, so good.

Weeknight Pork Carnitas

1 pork shoulder with fat cap scored, cut in 2 inch chunks

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Juice of two large oranges

1 orange, quartered

4 garlic cloves, halved or smashed

3 bay leaves

2-3 limes

More salt to taste

Place pork chunks in crockpot. Distribute salt evenly over pieces, turning to coat. Place all other ingredients except limes in crockpot and cook on low 8-10 hours.

Remove meat to cutting board to cool, retaining fat in crockpot. Cut or shred meat, which  should be fall-apart tender. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, add enough retained fat (or cooking oil) to coat the bottom of the skillet, and cook pork until shreds are brown and crispy, turning once, salting, and squeezing on lime juice to taste. We did ours in three batches on a griddle.

If you are not familiar with fideo, you can think of this dish as Mexican pasta, I guess. The only time I had it growing up was at a Mexican restaurant in La Junta, Colorado. I never saw it again until our family was in Alliance, Nebraska, on our epic western adventure in 2011. 

Fideo

1/4 cup cooking oil, divided

1 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 14-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes, diced

1/2-1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 1/2 cups chicken broth, divided

7 ounces fideo noodles

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in pan over medium heat, and sauté onion until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Cook until very thick, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes.

Transfer tomato sauce to blender and blend until very smooth. 

In a clean pan, heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add fideo and toast until pasta is brown and toasted, about 4 minutes. Add blended tomato sauce and remaining 1 cup chicken broth to fideo, and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook about 10 minutes, or until fideo is tender.

Next time, I will add more chicken broth for a soupier fideo. Don’t get me wrong, ours was good, but it wasn’t exactly what I remember. I’m going to keep tinkering with the recipe.

Our tortilla recipe can be found in the recipe index.