Craving pork tacos

[Nuke em]

Okay I know there is a Mexican name for it but I am to redneck to worry about it. When I lived in Cali as a child, I use to go to a Mexican friends house and his mama would make us pork tacos. The kind that you couldn't get enough of. The kind that smell so wonderful it would fill the house and you knew what it was as soon as you opened the door. The kind that you would take a homemade tortilla and slap on the gas stove to warm up and make it taste just right. The kind that when you held it up to take a bite, the juices would run down your hand and almost to your elbow before you could lick it off your dirty forearm. (Now I know why they called us dirty ole boys).
I have a craving for real authentic shredded pork tacos. I have found a couple of places in south jersey where I reside at now and a few in Texas, but not like authentic like Cali. No caso or Tex mex junk.
What I need and beg of is a receipe where I can take a hunk of pork and slather it with a spice rub (heat doesn't bother me) and smoke it. I have bags of dried peppers that I usually cut and grind so I would love to incorporate that into the rub. I've seen some receipes that says to put in a slow cooker (I think that is what mama did) but I want to smoke it and pull it. I've experimented a lil with the slow cooker but it wasn't enough flavor.
Will someone on earth please help me with a good receipe that I can smoke so that I can stop this craving (before I drive to Cali for a taco).
I would also like to take the pork and make homemade tamales. Out here they wrap em in banana leaves instead of corn husks. They have tons of corn fields out here and they still use banana leaves. (It's a Puerto Rico thing). Go figure

[Potkettleblack]

You're likely talking about carnitas:

http://www.rickbayless.com/the-pork-carnitas-recipe-youll-treasure-forever/

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/the-food-lab-how-to-make-crisp-and-juicy-carnitas-without-a-bucket-of-lard.html

I'm basing that on my time in Los Angeles, where the Mexicans are largely migrated from northern Mexico, and carnitas is kind of the default pork shoulder/whole pig recipe.

If you were reminiscing about Chicago, on the other hand, you'd have a 50-50 chance that you were thinking about cochinita pibil:

http://www.rickbayless.com/cochinita-pibil-on-the-grill-the-summer-recipe-youve-been-waiting-for/

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/05/food-lab-how-to-make-cochinita-pibil-mexican-pork.html

More Yucatecos and Michoacans here.

I like both. A lot.

[Nuke em]

Thank you very much. Very interesting articles. Wonder if I could combine them a little. Got my brain to turn some.
I wonder if there is a dry rub I could use. I was trying to stay away from the crock pot but like the idea. Wonder if I could smoke them instead of the crock pot idea without banana leaves.

I remember the days and nights of sitting round a pit full of fire watching my dad and buddies burn that put till morning getting coals going then covering with dirt then dropping pigs wrapped in foil and burlap bags then covering with more dirt and then wait for the magic to happen. Those were the good ole days. And tasty. The saying is true...
you learn a lot from your old man. He is wiser then you will ever be...

[Potkettleblack]

I think there was a thread around here with ideas on a rub for a carnitas style pulled pork.

If if you've never had it, I recommend going for the pibil style. Once you go pibil, had to go back to carnitas.