Crazy delicious pork tacos in the slow cooker or oven – great for tacos, nachos, burritos.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. My heart belongs to tacos. Always has always will. Sorry wife. Sorry kids.
I don’t really have a favorite stuffer either. I’ll throw anything in a tortilla – beef, tofu, veggies, socks. It doesn’t really matter to me.
When I want pork in my tacos, and I’m being especially lazy, this is the recipe I make. This is one of those recipes that you pull out of a magazine and say you’re gonna try and you actually do. I don’t even remember which magazine it came out of because it was so long ago. I changed it a little bit to suit me, but not too much.
There are 2 reasons why, even after all these years, it’s still on rotation. One, because I do it in my slow cooker. Great if you’re lazy. (No judgment.) No muss, no fuss, and almost no mess. The other is because, despite the few simple ingredients, the flavor is impressive. Really, really impressive. But I mean pork – it’s impressive all on its own. It doesn’t need that much help.
But now that I’m putting it down into words, there’s more than 2 reasons. I always happen to have everything in my kitchen except the pork. Love it when that happens.
The very last reason, is that it makes a lot. It’s just me and the wifey so we can have tacos, her very special wet burritos (does that sound icky?), nachos, over rice, freeze it, whatever. Or you can serve it to a crowd with literally no work.
Per my magazine square, these crazy delicious pork tacos are done in the oven. If you don’t have a slow cooker put it in the oven. I don’t do it that way and never have. I just put in my slow cooker and forget about it. You can do it in the pressure cooker, though I haven’t tried it. I like it in the slow cooker and I don’t want to f&*! with it.
One last thing before we do this – you can use whatever jam/preserves you have. Well, not plum or blueberry or grape. Think bright, like anything orange/yellow in color. I’ve used marmalades, jams, preserves. Peach, apricot, pineapple. Right now my absolute favorite for this is Maggie’s Farm’s Pineapple Pepper Jelly. It’s like it was made just for these pork tacos! But whatever you have lingering in your fridge, as long as it’s orange/yellow and doesn’t have mold, use it!
Crazy Delicious Pork Tacos
Ingredients
- 2.5-3 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of fat
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 heaping cup preserves/jam/jelly – peach, apricot, pineapple
- sliced, jarred jalapenos, to taste banana peppers if you don't want heat
- 1 red onion, chopped
EXTRAS
- tortillas, chopped cilantro, lime, sour cream, onion
Instructions
SLOW COOKER
-
Set slow cooker on low, place the lid on, just to start heating it up while you prep.
Mix together the salt, pepper and cumin.
-
Place 2 large sheets of aluminum foil down, one on top of the other. Make sure it's big enough to create a pouch for your pork.
Place the pork in the center of the foil and season on all sides with the salt, pepper, and cumin. Make sure to season on all sides and massage it in a bit.
Spoon the jam/jelly over the pork, turning to coat. Scatter the jalapeños and onion on and around the pork.
Fold the foil around the pork and crimp the edges to seal tightly. Place it in the slow cooker. Cook on low until fork-tender, about 8-10 hours.
-
Carefully unwrap the pork, move to a platter or bowl to shred, reserving the juices and veggies. Using two forks shred the pork. Return the pork back into the juices with the onions and jalapeno peppers and toss. Eat!
OVEN
-
Heat oven to 300° F. Mix together the salt, pepper and cumin.
Place 2 large sheets of aluminum foil down, one on top of the other. Make sure it's big enough to create a pouch for your pork.
-
Place the pork in the center of the foil and season with the salt, pepper, and cumin. Make sure to season on all sides and massage it in a bit.
Spoon the jam/jelly over the pork, turning to coat. Scatter the jalapeños and onion on and around the pork.
Fold the foil around the pork and crimp the edges to seal tightly.
Place in a baking dish and cook for about 4 hours, until the pork is fork-tender.
-
Carefully unwrap the pork, remove, reserving the juices.
Shred the pork and transfer to a bowl. Pour the cooking juices, onion, and jalapeños over the pork and toss!
EAT!
Recipe Notes
You can easily do this the night before. Just follow the directions above, but don’t put it on to cook. Put your pork pouch in the fridge in a dish. When you get up, just pop it in the slow cooker, put on low and come home to the smell of fabulousness!
WANT MORE TACOS???
I’ve got shrimp tacos, flank tacos, faux tacos, carne asada, carnitas and more carnitas!!!
I totally agree; You can never have enough tacos! This sounds so great! I never thought to add jalapeno relish to the pork and I have to do this next week now!
Congratulations! Your post was featured this week on Full Plate Thursday,489. Thanks so much for sharing you talent with us and come back to see us soon!
Miz Helen
Yum, great idea using jam or jelly!
Please tell me where you purchased and how you prepared your tacos for this recipe – thanks!
Hey there Bonnie! I use Mission extra-thin corn tortillias and I fry them in a bit of oil – it makes them extra special! I get the tortillas everywhere, even Walmart!
Is there any chance you would consider uploading a video showing how you fry your tortillas?
I am very inexperienced with Mexican cuisine, and I’m not sure I could duplicate those amazing-looking tortillas!
I will have a video up this Friday for this dish and how I prepared the tortillas. But I can try to explain in the meantime…
I put about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan. Heat the oil up over medium high heat. When you stick the end of a wooden spoon in the oil and small bubbles form around the spoon, it’s hot enough.
I folded the tortillas in half and put it in the hot oil, laying on one side. I kind of put my wooden spoon inside of it, every now and then, to keep it open. When it starts to get puffy and crisp, I turned it over to the other side. There are
” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>taco fryers you can get that will hold it open for you.
Looks delicious, going to try it! In the picture your taco shells look so puffy and crispy! What tortillas do you use and how do you prepare them?
Thanks Judy! I love to use the Mission extra thin corn tortillas. I fried them in a little bit of oil to get them all nice and puffy. I don’t ALWAYS eat them like that, but it’s my favorite way. You can either stuff them, then fry them in a little bit of oil in a pan or you can fry them then stuff them. They’re also delicious just toasted a bit or even oven baked with the stuffing in them.
Oh, and I get them any and everywhere – Wal-Mart, Publix, or your local grocery.