Ground Pork Tacos

August 2041. The first Hatch chile roast in my own Las Cruces backyard. Papá brought his grill — he has a drum smoker he built himself twenty years ago and keeps in a shed that also contains three other devices for cooking outside — and we set up in the backyard on a Saturday morning and roasted fifty pounds of Hatch green chile that he'd picked from his own plants and thirty pounds I'd bought from the farm stand on the highway.

He showed me things about the roasting I hadn't been doing. How long he lets the coals build before the chile goes on. The distance from the heat. The exact shade of blackening that tells you it's done versus overdone. Small things that I've been doing approximately right for twenty years but that, watching him, I see I've been getting slightly wrong. He didn't say wrong. He just showed me. That's his teaching method. Has always been his teaching method. Show you the right way and let you figure out the correction yourself.

Lisa roasted her own batch for the first time — I've been doing this since we married and this was the first year she joined me at the grill rather than just receiving the finished product. She said: I want to know how to do it myself. She wore gloves and a work shirt and stood at the grill with the same patience she brings to a canvas and she was, by the end of her first session, getting it close. Papá watched her work and said: she's quick. I said: she's always been quick. He said: I know. I always thought so. From the first time I met her, I knew.

After eighty pounds of chile came off the grill that Saturday — peeled, bagged, and cooling on the kitchen counter — dinner had to use some of it right away. That’s the rule in this house: the first roast of the season earns its place at the table the same night. Ground pork tacos are what I always come back to, because the fat in the pork carries the chile’s heat and smoke in a way nothing else does, and because Papá taught me that the best thing you can do with good ingredients is get out of their way. Lisa made the same call independently before I even brought it up — she said, we’re using the chile tonight, right? I said: obviously.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4 (2 tacos per person)

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
2 roasted Hatch green chiles, peeled, seeded, and chopped (or 1/4 cup canned diced green chile)
1/2 medium white onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable oil)
8 small corn tortillas, warmed
1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges
Salsa verde or hot sauce, for serving

Instructions

Warm the skillet. Heat oil in a large cast-iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering, about 2 minutes.
Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and lightly golden, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Brown the pork. Add the ground pork to the skillet, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Cook undisturbed for 2 minutes to develop a light crust, then continue breaking up and stirring until no pink remains, about 6–8 minutes total.
Season and add chile. Drain any excess fat if needed, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Stir in the cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper. Add the chopped roasted green chile and stir to combine. Cook another 2 minutes so the spices bloom and the chile heats through.
Taste and adjust. Taste the filling and adjust salt and cumin as needed. If the chile is mild, add a pinch of cayenne for heat.
Warm the tortillas. Char corn tortillas directly over a gas flame or in a dry skillet for 20–30 seconds per side until pliable with light char marks. Wrap in a clean towel to keep warm.
Assemble and serve. Spoon pork filling into each tortilla. Top with cotija, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately with salsa verde or hot sauce alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Ground Pork Tacos — Cooking with What the Roast Gives You