With its rainbow of flavors, this pork tacos recipe colors your meal with unmatched excitement. Each bite brings a mixture of spicy, savory, sweet, and tangy zings, coupled with different textures that liven up the taste buds like no other. Best of all, the steps are as effortless as can be, so you’ll have no trouble whipping up a few plates to make up an unforgettable meal.
Why We Love These Pork Tacos
- Extraordinary flavors: The pork is seasoned in robust Mexican spices and cooked to a slight crisp, imparting a delectable spicy and savory complexity. Meanwhile, the veggies color the taste buds with a vibrant mixture of sweet, tangy, and slightly fragrant flavors. Everything is laid inside crispy tortillas that crumble beautifully in the mouth.
- Easy to make: You can make these pork tacos in just 20 minutes with little to no trouble. Just quickly fry the pork, toss the veggies, bake the tortillas, put everything together, and voilà!
- Healthy: As street food, tacos aren’t always known to be healthy. However, with this recipe, we’ve selected and portioned all the ingredients to ensure the food offers not only excellent flavors but also nourishment.
- Great for many occasions: With filling ingredients and gorgeous flavors, these tacos make excellent dinners. Double or triple the portions, and you can have a crowd-pleasing snack perfect for game days, get-togethers, and all sorts of parties.
Ingredients You Will Need
Here’s everything we used to put together these delicious pork tacos:
- Pork: We chopped pork shoulders into small pieces and pan-fried them to a crisp. This cut is quite juicy, so there’s a bit of contrasting softness. If you want something quicker and with less fat, try tenderloin.
- Salsa: For a flavor-bursting fiesta, our salsa included tomatoes, red onion, bell peppers, corn, cucumber, and cabbage.
- Condiments: The dish’s deep heat comes from a mixture of paprika, cayenne pepper, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder, dried oregano, and ground black pepper.
- Lime juice: To squeeze in a zesty brightness to the overall taste of the tacos.
- Tortillas: We used corn tortillas and baked them for extra crispiness and sturdiness.
Other Toppings for Pork Tacos
Much like other tacos, these are also incredibly versatile. If you want to switch things up and try out different topping combinations, here are a few of our suggestions:
- Salsa
Our recipe’s salsa can easily be customized to fit your liking. Add some mangoes, pineapples, or peaches for a summery and tropical flair that instantly brightens the taste buds. Avocados are never a bad idea if you want something a bit more subtle. And as far as Mexican dishes go, black beans and red beans almost always fit right in.
- Cheese
Crumbles of feta cheese, shredded jack cheese, or cotija cheese are fantastic for giving the dish striking finishing notes. Their tangy and milky tastes seamlessly melt into the party of flavors and create the most pleasant undertones.
- Sauces
For a hint of creaminess, top these tacos with dollops of sour cream, guacamole, avocado crema, tahini sauce, or cilantro sauce. Want something with more intensity? Try salsa taquera, salsa verde, or this buffalo sauce.
FAQs
- What are the differences between pork tacos and carnitas?
There is often confusion between the two because they’re both Mexican dishes with pork as the main ingredient. However, as the name suggests, pork tacos are Mexican tacos with pork fillings. The meat is often seasoned with various Mexican seasonings and fried or grilled to a crisp.
Carnitas, on the other hand, refers only to the meat itself, which is later used as a filling for tacos, burritos, etc. The dish is made by seasoning pork shoulders with herbs and spices, then braising or simmering until they’re tender enough to pull apart. We’ve got an Instant Pot Pork Carnitas Recipe if you want to learn the differences firsthand.
- How healthy are these pork tacos?
It provides a decent amount of protein (25.5 g), with pork as the main ingredient. The variety of vegetables—corn, cucumber, bell pepper, cabbage, tomatoes, and red onion—also offer various other essential nutrients, such as fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Moreover, adhering to our nutrition standards, we were also mindful of the ingredient portions. Each serving’s vital dietary components are kept at moderate amounts—around 484 calories, 6.2 g saturated fat, and 597 mg sodium.
How to Store and Reheat
Store these pork tacos in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. Note that as leftovers, they might be slightly soggier. Keep any unused salsa separated, and only add it after the tacos have been reheated.
You can reheat these tacos on the stovetop over medium heat or in the microwave covered with a dry paper towel (to prevent them from drying out).
What to Serve With Pork Tacos
These pork tacos would make excellent main courses for Taco Tuesdays. Serve them with a side of Pico de Gallo or Migas to make a complete Mexican feast.
Other Delicious Pork Recipes
- Instant Pot Kalua Pork Recipe
- Breakfast Burrito Recipe
- Instant Pot Pulled Pork Recipe
- Air Fryer Pork Tenderloin Recipe
How to make Pork Tacos
With its rainbow of flavors, this pork tacos recipe colors your meal with unmatched excitement. Each bite brings a deep and diverse taste complexity that livens up the taste buds like no other.
- cook TIME 10 mins
- prep TIME 10 mins
- total TIME 20 mins
- COURSE Side Dish
- CUISINE Mexican
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 484 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 16 oz pork shoulder
- 4 oz corn
- 4 oz tomato (diced)
- 1 oz red onion (diced)
- 2 oz red bell pepper (diced)
- 4 oz cucumber (diced)
- 4 oz cabbage (sliced into ribbons)
- 1/2 cup coriander
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 8 6-inch corn tortillas
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
INSTRUCTIONS
Prep
Dice the tomatoes: Half the tomato lengthwise and remove the stem, then scoop the seeds out. Cut each half into 1/4" strips, then each strip into small cubes.
Dice the onion: Cut the onion in half lengthwise. Turn the half vertically and make thin slices but leave the root intact. Then turn the onion horizontally and push the knife crosswise into the slices. Then, thinly slice to make small, diced pieces.
Dice the bell peppers: Slice the sides of the bell peppers lengthwise, then cut each slice into large strips. Line the strips horizontally then slice them into large cubes.
Slice the cabbage: Lengthwise slice the cabbage in half, then again into quarters. Remove the core by making two diagonal incisions on the sides. Lay the quarter flat and thinly slice crosswise into ribbons.
Dice the cucumber: Slice the cucumber in half crosswise and cut off the tip end. Hold the half upright and slice it lengthwise into planks. Slice each plank into sticks and crosswise slice the sticks into small cubes.
Slice the pork shoulder into bite-sized cubes.
Cook
Cook the pork: In a pan over medium heat, put 3 tbsp olive oil, wait for it to heat up then add 16 oz pork shoulder, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne, and 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning. Stir everything around for a few minutes until the meat turns white and fully coated in seasonings.
Make the salsa: In a large glass bowl, add 4 oz corn, 4 oz tomato, 1 oz red onion, 2 oz red bell pepper, 4 oz cucumber, 4 oz cabbage, 1 tbsp lime juice and 1/2 cup coriander then toss to mix.
Lay the tortillas: Preheat the oven to 375 °F to prepare for step 4. Turn your muffin tray upside down then arrange the corn tortillas in between the hollows.
Bake the tortillas: Put the muffin tray into the middle tray of the oven and bake at 375 °F for 4 minutes.
Add the fillings: Once the tortillas are done baking, remove them from the oven and fill them with the salsa and cooked pork.
Garnish and serve.
NUTRITION
Luna Regina
Writer, Author