I love smoking wild hog and then cooking it down in a Crock Pot, pressure cooker, or Instant Pot. You end up with a trifecta of smoky flavor, fall off the bone meat, and a relatively short cook time. Smoking isn’t totally necessary for this recipe since you could just brown the meat and cook it for hours in the crock pot. That being said, I like smoking meat and the flavors it imparts.

There are two main ingredients to this recipe, the hog and the pickled peppers. I followed another recipe for my pickled peppers and the results were stellar. We’ve even added them to homemade pizzas with great effect. I used a combination of jalapenos, habaneros, banana peppers, garlic, onion, carrots, and sweet peppers. You can use store bought pickled jalapeno peppers if you’d like, but don’t be afraid to grow your own and experiment. In Florida, I had too many peppers to eat fresh last summer, which is what led me to pickling so many. They’re low maintenance and very productive, at least in the southeast. The hog I leave up to you. There are invasive wild hogs in 35 states across the U.S., so I encourage you to provide the meat for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. smoked hog meat (I used shoulders and one ham from a very small pig)

• 1 cup loosely packed pickled peppers (mine were halved and quartered so use half if chopped/minced and adjust to taste)

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons black pepper

• 2 teaspoons cumin

• 1 tablespoon chili powder

• One 12 oz can light beer (room temp)

• 1 cup chicken stock

• 1 cup dry quinoa/rice (with 2 cups water makes large serving for leftovers)

  • This is optional, but we enjoy adding quinoa to meals and having some on hand

• 1 can of white or yellow corn

• 1 bunch cilantro

• 1 can beans (variety your call, I used Pinto)

• Shredded cheese (optional)

• Flour or corn tortilla (your call)

• Hot sauce and lime

Instructions

• Make sure the surface of the meat is somewhat dry/tacky to allow seasoning to stick

• Coat meat with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder blend

• Set smoker to 250 degrees

• Smoke until meat reaches internal temp of 165 degrees (If your hog is lean, feel free to pull a little early to avoid drying out. The pressure cooker or crock pot will get the temp up anyway)

• Pull from smoker and place in crock pot or pressure cooker and add chicken stock, peppers, and beer

• Set Pressure cooker to high and start with 20 minutes, then evaluate and add more time if needed. You want the meat to shred easily with a fork. A good indicator of done-ness will be meat falling off the bone as you lift with tongs.

• If using a crock pot, set to high and check periodically to make sure more liquid isn’t needed. Again, aiming for fork-tender shredding.

• Now is a good time to follow the directions to make your quinoa (1 cup dry quinoa to 2 cups water, add to pot, bring to rolling boil, cover and reduce to simmer, should be done in about 30 minutes)

• While the meat and Quinoa are cooking, take a dry cast iron skillet and pour your drained canned corn in the pan. Try to distribute evenly so as many kernels are touching the pan bottom as possible. Gradually stir the kernels as you see them beginning to darken and char. Some will jump around a little bit so just be aware of that. Once the kernels have some char on all sides, set them aside.

• Open and drain your can of pinto beans, then add them to a large pot with the corn and quinoa. You can leave everything separate and go a la carte if desired, but we went for the mix. You can add the same blend of meat seasonings to the quinoa if you’d like, but I think the pickled peppers and meat offers plenty of flavor and salt.

• Rinse a few stalks of cilantro and pull the leaves off to use as greenery for each taco. I personally like the crunch from the stems, so I chop it all up and toss it in there.

• Use a dry cast iron skillet to heat your corn or flour tortillas. Once warmed, lay a bed of quinoa/corn/bean mix down, top that with your pickled pepper shredded meat, then top with cilantro and cheese if desired. If you like heat, add a nice kicker of hot sauce but take a bite first because depending on your pickled pepper ingredients, you might be surprised by the heat!

Finally, eat and enjoy!

-Kevin Johansen, Fall Obsession Pro Staff