Asian Pork Tacos start with warm, soft flour tortillas that get loaded up with a sweet-and-spicy pork/ veggie blend. Drizzle on the best spicy mayo sauce for the perfect finishing touch!
Not sure about spicy pork tacos? Try our citrusy, carnita-inspired Ground Pork Tacos with a lime crema instead!
Asian Pork Tacos
We can’t get enough of these tacos — they’re certainly unique, and insanely tasty! Plus, we’ve loaded them up with tons of hidden veggies which not only adds nutrients, but it also helps to stretch out the meat further, making this dish more budget friendly.
And while these tacos are a bit spicy, there is a good amount of sweetness to balance out the spice so it’s not too overpowering.
Quick Tip
When browning the pork, let it cook undisturbed in the skillet for a bit; we want to avoid stirring too much at the start, so it can get a nice brown crust. Browning equals flavor, so the more browning, the more flavorful the pork will be.
Asian Pork Tacos Filling Notes
- Ground pork: We recommend an 85/15 blend for these tacos.
- Mushrooms: The diced mushrooms add a nice texture and umami flavor while also helping the pork stretch further. We’re also “sneaking” in some veggies — win, win! Really, any mushrooms will work fine, and we typically use Baby Bella or Crimini.
- Green onions: Separate the greens from whites — whites get sautéed with the mushrooms and greens add a finishing garnish.
Shortcuts
- Minced ginger and garlic: For a quicker prep time, use Dorot’s® crushed garlic and ginger cubes. (Check if your local store carries them; they’re typically found with frozen veggies in the grocery store.)
- Matchstick carrots: Again, we like to use a timesaver here — get shredded carrots from your store; this is so much faster than cutting your own matchstick carrots.
- Shredded cabbage: Instead of shredding a whole cabbage, grab a bag of already shredded cabbage — easy and it cooks down so quickly! (The only ingredient on the package should be green cabbage; avoid the veggie blends.)
Asian Pork Tacos Stir-Fry Sauce
The sauce that gives the pork and veggies all the amazing flavor is so quick and easy to make, using pantry staples!
- Cornstarch: This thickens everything nicely, adding a rich, glossy finish to the pork and veggies.
- Soy sauce: We like using Kikkoman’s® regular soy sauce (not lite/low-sodium) in this sauce. Lite soy sauce doesn’t offer enough seasoning (saltiness).
- Low-sodium chicken broth: It’s important to use low-sodium to control the saltiness. (There is a good amount between the soy sauce and hoisin sauce.)
- Chili-garlic sauce: This ingredient balances the sweetness of the hoisin sauce and adds spice to these Asian Pork Tacos. Without this ingredient, the flavor will be lacking, but if you’re sensitive to spice, you can slightly reduce it (noting that flavor will be missing). If you don’t have access to this sauce, we did test this recipe with sriracha sauce and while not the same, it worked too. (We liked 1 tablespoon of Sriracha best.)
- Hoisin sauce: It’s discussed below under the section “What is Hoisin?”
What is Hoisin?
If you aren’t familiar with hoisin sauce, it’s a condiment made with fermented soybean paste, spices, and other ingredients — it’s sometimes called Chinese BBQ sauce. It adds an umami Asian flavor with sweet, spicy, and tangy elements. It’s very fragrant and makes a pungent sauce, the star of these tacos.
I’m pretty picky with hoisin sauce and have found a lot of brands to be fairly lackluster or overpowering in flavor. Hands down our favorite and what we recommend for these Asian Pork Tacos is Lee Kum Kee’s® sauce (not sponsored). If there is a brand you know you love, feel free to use that, otherwise, use Lee Kum Kee’s for best results.
Spicy Mayo
The spicy mayo is the perfect finishing touch to these Asian Pork Tacos and it is so simple to make. We use more chili-garlic sauce, mayo, and some limes — and that’s it! If you’d prefer to not make the sauce, the tacos will still be tasty, but we’d recommend drizzling a few lime wedges on top to add a needed acidity and freshness.
Tortillas
Flour tortillas are best in this recipe and we prefer the smaller or street-sized flour tortillas best. These TortillaLand® tortillas are our favorite — they’re easy, so fresh tasting, and completely perfect right off the heat (not sponsored).
If you aren’t using the fresh tortillas, we recommend charring or warming the tortillas first, using one of the methods below:
- Quick char the tortillas: Spray both sides of the tortillas with olive oil cooking spray and char the tortillas directly over the gas flames for a few seconds. Use tongs to flip until tortillas are lightly charred and soft. Immediately fold the tortilla in half (so it will fold into a taco nicely later) and set aside under a tea towel to keep them warm and pliable.
- Warm the tortillas in a nonstick skillet. Spray both sides of the tortillas with olive oil cooking spray; cook for about 10-15 seconds, flip and cook for another 10-15 seconds. Immediately fold the tortilla in half (so it will fold into a taco nicely later) and set aside under a tea towel to keep them warm and pliable.
- Warm tortillas in the microwave. Wrap a few tortillas in paper towels and microwave until warm and pliable, about 20 seconds.
More Taco Recipes
- Fish Stick Tacos with baked or air-fried fish sticks!
- Korean Beef Tacos with a cabbage slaw
- Ground Beef Naan Tacos with a cooling yogurt sauce
- Asian Chicken Tacos with a mango slaw
- Chipotle Chicken Tacos with quick-pickled red-onions
Asian Pork Tacos
Ingredients
Pork & Tacos
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil or vegetable oil
- 2 cups diced mushrooms see note 1
- 1 bunch green onions divided
- 1-1/2 pounds ground pork 85/15
- 1-1/2 tablespoons minced ginger
- 1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 cups shredded carrots or matchstick
- 1 (10-ounce) bag shredded cabbage see note 2
- Flour tortillas see note 3
- Lime wedges optional
- Cilantro optional
Stir-Fry Sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/3 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce see note 4
- 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce see note 5
Creamy Sauce (Optional)
- 1/2 cup mayo see note 6
- 2 juicy limes
- 2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
Instructions
- Zest limes with a zester to get 1/2 teaspoon zest. Juice the limes using a citrus juicer to get 3 tablespoons lime juice. Set aside.
- Combine mayo, lime zest, lime juice, and 2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce. Season with a tiny pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth; cover and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
- Wash, dry, and dice mushrooms into small pieces. Thinly slice green onions and separate into 2 parts—the white and the green. Mince ginger and garlic.
- Heat sesame oil in a large cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add in the mushrooms and the white portion of the green onions. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms soften, 3–4 minutes. Press the mushrooms and onions to the edges of the pan.
- Add pork to the center of the pan. Brown the pork, breaking up as you cook until it's mostly cooked through, 3–5 minutes. At this point, add in the ginger and garlic and continue to cook and break up the pork until it's no longer pink—about 2–3 minutes.
- While the pork is cooking, whisk together cornstarch and soy sauce in a medium-sized bowl until completely smooth. Once smooth, add in chicken broth, hoisin sauce, and 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce. Whisk until smooth and set aside.
- Add in the cabbage and matchstick carrots. Stir for 1 minute and then add in the sauce. Cook and stir until the sauce is thickened and glossy and veggies are tender, about 2–3 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the green onion tops.
- Cook tortilla shells or warm through (see note 7). Load up tortillas with 1/4 cup (38g) meat filling and then drizzle on sauce. If desired, top with fresh cilantro and serve with lime wedges to drizzle on top. Enjoy promptly! If you fill each taco with 1/4 cup meat you should get about 28 tacos!
Video
Recipe Notes
- Quick char the tortillas. Spray both sides of the tortillas with olive oil cooking spray and char the tortillas directly over the gas flames for a few seconds. Use tongs to flip until tortillas are lightly charred and soft. Immediately fold the tortilla in half (so it will fold into a taco nicely later) and set aside under a tea towel to keep them warm and pliable.
- Warm the tortillas in a nonstick skillet. Spray both sides of the tortillas with olive oil cooking spray; cook for about 10–15 seconds, flip and cook for another 10–15 seconds. Immediately fold the tortilla in half, so it will fold into a taco nicely later, and set aside under a tea towel to keep them warm and pliable.
- Warm tortillas in the microwave. Wrap a few tortillas in paper towels and microwave until warm and pliable, about 20 seconds.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made these tonight for 1st time…a definite keeper flavors were amazing
I am so thrilled you loved these Asian Pork Tacos! Thanks so much Karen! 🙂
We loved these tasty tacos!
So happy to hear this! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Thank you for this great recipe. We had it in bowls over rice and it was really good.
Couldn’t get the chili garlic sauce so we used the plain chili sauce and added some garlic…
So thrilled you enjoyed this recipe! Great idea to serve it over rice 🙂
This recipe is amazing! I used cooked shredded pork because that’s what I had and it worked just fine. I love the flavors and the bit of zip. Would also be good over rice or on a lettuce leaf.
So happy to hear you enjoyed these! Shredded pork sounds great 🙂 Thanks for the comment CJ!