#tingas

You've never heard of tingas, right? Neither had I. Let me tell you, they are amazing and once you make them, you'll keep them in the rotation. I did!

Tingas are a tomatoey (not a word, I know) shredded pork that is full of flavor and downright delicious. We saw this recipe made on America's Test Kitchen one night and hubby asked, "are you gonna try that?" to which I replied, "ummm, yeah!". I'm proud to say that we make this dish together. I start the process with boiling the meat and then he takes over once it's time to shred. Teamwork!

It starts with 2 lbs. of pork butt boiled with onion, garlic and thyme. I get the butcher to cut it into cubes for me, which is nice if yours will do it. The meat boils for 90 minutes and then you shred it once it's nice and tender.

When you drain the juice from the eat, you're left with this golden pork broth that you'll use later. It was so pretty and looked rich and flavorful. I threatened to drink some with a straw, but let's keep it real. I was just trying to make the hub cringe.

I LOVE chipotle peppers in adobo and use them often. I had just used some the night before, so I had a can open and ready for business! This recipe called for 2 chopped chipotles (you can also use chipotle powder if you have it), but hubby added some of the adobo to add more spice. It came out just right. And for the record, they are pronounced CHEE-POAT-LAY. If I hear one more person say CHEE-POLE-TAY, I'm gonna scream! My dad is Mexican and even he says it wrong. Annoying.

So after you shred the meat (a potato masher works great!), you cook it with chopped onion in olive oil. Once the meat gets a bit crispy, you add in the chiles, spices, broth and tomato sauce to simmer.

The meat will still be juice when done. Just remove the bay leaves and serve! The entire process takes a while because of the initial boiling, but once you get it into the pan to fry, it moves quickly.

I cut lime wedges, avocado, lettuce and yellow heirloom tomatoes as garnishes the first time. Hubby put his fave jalapeno hot sauce on them for extra kick.

The meat was juicy enough that it stuck to the tostada nicely and you didn't need a base of beans to keep it on the shell. The meat was spicy, sweet and full of flavor. Bonus: the house smelled amazing that evening and even the next day!