The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

The reason is pork tacos.

The Journey:

This recipe requires a can of beer. Pretty much *any* can of beer. So use whatever you have, but I don’t see any particular reason to use a *good* can of beer.

I have had pork tacos before, but these have a magic trick. The magic trick is not to drink the other 5 cans of beer. That is not a magic trick; it may or may not help you enjoy pork tacos.

The magic trick is that, after you cook the pork all day in the crockpot, you cook it again. All the little pork pieces get crispy and delicious, and this is a waaaay better magic trick than drinking 5 beers.

(I remind you, the beer was “Name Tag”. Excuse me, “Name Tag Classic”. The magic trick would be keeping 5 cans of Name Tag Classic down.)

Crispy, crispy, criiiiispy pork

The Verdict:

This makes an amazing taco, and a lot of them too, so it’s good for serving a lot of people. We have served it to company. We have served it for birthday parties. We have served it for Christmas dinner. I am not joking.

This is a taco worthy of Christmas dinner.

The Recipe:

Recipe adapted from The Yummy Life.

• 4 lbs.-ish boneless pork roast
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, minced
• 2 cups salsa verde (store bought, or homemade)
• 12 oz. beer

1. Place pork in slow cooker. Pour on the beer. Also add beer to pork (ha ha). Sprinkle on the black pepper; top with the garlic, onions, and salsa verde.
2. Cover and cook on high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, or on low for 7 – 9 hours, until fork tender.
3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
4. Transfer cooked pork to cutting board and shred it using two forks; discard fat. Degrease the cooking liquid left in the pan.
5. Spread out the shredded pork in a large, shallow baking pan. Pour up to 3 cups of degreased cooking liquid over the pork.
6. Bake uncovered for 30 min. or until crispy pieces appear on top. Remove from oven and stir. Return to oven for 30 minutes or until crispy pieces appear again on top. Repeat baking, crisping, and stirring in 20 min. intervals until all or most of the liquid is gone from the bottom of pan. For a moister meat, cook until approx. 1/4″ liquid remains on bottom of pan, stirring remaining liquid back into the shredded pork. For dryer/crisper meat, cook until all liquid had cooked away.