When I say this is probably the BEST meat filling for tacos, burritos, tostadas or just about any Mexican dish I mean it. What makes it even tastier is that it's so easy to cook, it doesn't require any hard to get ingredients as they can all be found in large supermarkets.
You can swap the meat out for beef, pork or chicken if you prefer but in my experience the fattiness of a lamb shoulder only enhances to flavour of the dish.
Prep time 30mins
Cook time 4hours
2kg lamb shoulder joint
1.5tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper
1 large onion, peeled and sliced in to rings
1 Large orange, sliced (plus another one for the marinade)
1 bunch of fresh coriander, about 70g roughly chopped (remove the stalks and use in the marinade recipe below)
For the marinade
8 garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
2 large dried ancho chillis, soaked in boiling water for 5mins, drained and then remove the stalks
Juice of 1 large orange
2tbsp dried oregano
1tsp ground cumin
2tsp ground coriander
1tbsp mild chilli powder (less if you want it more mild)
1tbsp chipotle chilli paste (can be found in most supermarkets with the rest of the mexican ingredients)
3 spring onions, root end discarded and the rest roughly chopped
Use the stalks from the coriander, roughly chopped
Juice of half a lime
1/2tsp salt
Splash of water, about 100ml
Preheat the oven to 170ºc fan.
Make the marinade by adding all go the marinade ingredients in to a bowl and use a hand blended to blitz until smooth and well combined, alternatively you can use a blender or food processor.
Rub the lamb shoulder with the olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Brown the lamb on all sides in a frying pan on a medium to high heat, set aside.
In an oven proof dish with a lid, layer the sliced onion and orange on the bottom. Add half of your chopped coriander, 1 tbsp of you marinade and 150ml of water.
Lay your browned lamb shoulder in the pot on top or the onion and oranges etc and pour over the marinade, ensuring the lamb is completely covered. You'll probably only need half of it so save half and freeze it for another day. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 8weeks.
Place the lid on the oven dish and place on a baking tray and in to the oven for around 3hours or until the meat is falling off the bone. Check on it ever hour or so the make sure there is still a layer of liquid in the bottom, you can carefully add 100ml of water if it begins the dry up (whether you need to do this will depend on how tight your lid is and how much steam escapes)
Once your meat is beautifully soft and fallen off the bone all you will need to do is carefully remove the joint from the oven dish, discard the bones, gristle and any really large lumps of fat and then just shred the meat. Spoon over some of the cooking liquor from the oven dish (make sure you don't get too much fat, although a little adds to the flavour) to ensure the meat stays lovely and moist.
Have a taste, you will find it may need a pinch of salt, I always like to add a squeeze of fresh lime and some freshly copped coriander to lift the flavour.
Serve however you like. We like it simply in a soft corn taco with guacamole, a splash of hot sauce and some finely diced tomato and any remaining chopped coriander.
Any slow cooked meat is perfect.
