Forget those boring ground meat tacos and make these delicious Slow Cooker Asian Pork Tacos instead!! The pork shoulder cooks all day until fall apart tender in the tastiest sauce that is a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy.
Guess what? I finally made a dinner that my daughter not only ate, but she actually told me it was really good! She actually liked it AND said so. I made it a couple of weeks ago and am just finally posting it because it took me that long to pick myself up off the floor after fainting from shock that she liked something besides tater tot casserole or chicken nuggets. I don't care if you are entertaining, wanting to make a super easy family dinner, or needing something to take to a pot luck, these Slow Cooker Asian Pork Tacos are exactly what you need to cook up.
How do I make tender pulled pork in the slow cooker?
Making pulled pork that is fall apart tender is simple but does require one key piece of equipment. You will need a good quality meat thermometer to ensure that you pork has reached the proper temperature.
I get a lot of questions and comments from people when they make my regular pulled pork recipe stating that it was tough and wondering what went wrong. Was it a bad cut of meat? Is there a flaw in the recipe?
Nope. To make tender pulled pork you need to ensure that your meat cooks all the way through to an internal temperature of 205 degrees F. This means that depending on the size of your pork shoulder, the temperature of your particular slow cooker, how many times you open the lid, etc. you will need to adjust your cooking time. Go by temperature of the meat, not the clock.
What do you put on pork tacos?
Well, if we are talking about seasoning the pork, you can go almost any direction you desire. I've got this more traditional pulled pork taco recipe here, but for these tacos I wanted to get a little creative.
To top off these tacos, we need a cool and refreshing salsa, and I can't recommend pineapple salsa enough.
Slow Cooker Asian Pork Tacos
Ingredients
- 3 pound pork shoulder, boneless
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 15 oz canned diced pineapple drained
- ½ jalapeño pepper seeded and diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped red onion
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- ½ teaspoon dried cilantro
Instructions
- Add pork to slow cooker
- Whisk together soy sauce, hoisin, brown sugar, Sriracha and ginger and pour over pork
- Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 until internal temp of pork reaches 205 degrees
- Remove pork and shred, set aside
- Add ¼ cup of cornstarch whisked with ¼ cup of water until smooth to slow cooker
- Return pork and stir everything together
- Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes until sauce is thickened
- Toss together pineapple, jalapeño, onion, lime juice and cilantro
- Serve pork on flour or corn tortillas or as desired and topped with pineapple salsa and Sriracha sour cream (see notes)
This was awesome, thank you! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes, my slow cooker is my s time of year.
‘Savior’ this time of year