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Pork shoulder braised down in tomatillos and roasted green chiles until it falls apart, shredded, then folded with SoCal Cremosa Fuego so the heat is built into the meat instead of sitting on top of it. Rolled tight in corn tortillas with melting Oaxaca cheese and fried until the outside shatters. They come off the pan crisp, stay crisp on the platter, and they get eaten standing up. Make the pork two days ahead and game day is twenty minutes of rolling and frying.

Ingredients

Chile verde pork

• 2½ pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil
• 1 medium white onion, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 pound tomatillos, husked and halved
• 2 poblano peppers, stemmed, seeded and halved
• 1 jalapeño, stemmed and halved
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ⅓ cup cilantro, chopped
• 3 tablespoons SoCal Cremosa Fuego

To roll and crisp

• 18 corn tortillas
• 1½ cups shredded Oaxaca or Monterey Jack
• Neutral oil for the pan
• Toothpicks

Fuego dipping crema

• ¾ cup Mexican crema or sour cream
• 3 tablespoons SoCal Cremosa Fuego
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• Pinch of salt

To finish

• Crumbled cotija
• Chopped cilantro
• Lime wedges

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Pat the pork dry and season it all over with the salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high. Brown the pork in two batches, about 4 minutes a side, and set it aside. Crowding the pot steams the meat instead of browning it, so give it room.
3. Add the onion, garlic, tomatillos, poblanos and jalapeño to the same pot. Cook 8 minutes, until the tomatillos slump and give up their liquid.
4. Stir in the cumin and oregano and let them toast 30 seconds. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean.
5. Return the pork and any juices, cover, and cook in the oven 2 hours, until it pulls apart with a fork.
6. Lift the pork out. Mash or blend what is left in the pot with the cilantro into a chunky green sauce. Shred the pork, fold in just enough green sauce to coat it, then fold in the Cremosa Fuego. Keep the rest of the green sauce for the table.
7. Warm the tortillas until they are pliable, 20 seconds a side in a dry skillet, and keep them stacked under a towel. A cold tortilla cracks the second you roll it.
8. Lay a tortilla flat, run 2 tablespoons of pork and a pinch of cheese along one edge, roll it tight and pin it with a toothpick. Repeat.
9. Film a large skillet with oil over medium high. Fry in batches, seam side down first, about 2 minutes a side, until deep gold. Drain on a rack. Paper towels trap steam and soften the bottoms.
10. Whisk the crema, Cremosa Fuego, lime juice and salt together.
11. Pull the toothpicks. Pile the taquitos on a platter, scatter cotija and cilantro over the top, and put the Fuego crema and the reserved green sauce alongside for dipping with lime wedges.

Tips

Roll them tight. A loose taquito unrolls in the oil and dumps the filling into the pan.

Oven route works too. Brush them with oil and bake at 425°F for 18 to 20 minutes, turning once. Less crisp, less mess, no standing over a skillet while the game is on.

The pork is better on day two. Braise it Saturday, roll and fry Sunday, and the hard part is already done.

Freeze them rolled and unfried on a sheet pan, then bag them. Fry straight from frozen, about a minute longer per side.

Cremosa Fuego goes in twice on purpose. Folded through the pork it puts heat inside the roll, and in the crema it hits again on the first bite.