Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa – topped with sriracha mayo, obviously! Quick and easy to make.
Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
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OMG just made this for dinner and it is possibly my favourite recipe I’ve tried this year. Will definitely become a staple in our house. Thank you!
Kirsti
Ha-looooo!
And welcome to today’s episode of Tacos Are The Best Food Ever featuring Caramelized Pork Tacos.
I don’t mean to be super obvious here, but we have some really delicious things going on in the food department right now that you need to know about. Starting with thin strips of caramelized pork tucked into a soft corn tortilla, moving on to fresh cucumber pineapple cilantro salsa, and finishing with a chili mayo sauce over the top because SAUCE RULES THE WORLD. 🌎
I’m just a little obsessed.
Watch How To Make Caramelized Pork Tacos
Click here to see the step-by-step web story instructions for this recipe!
Ingredients For This Recipe
Pork
My choice for this is boneless pork loin, but I would imagine something like pork tenderloin would work as well. Either way, thinly sliced is key!
Aromatics
One of my favorite trios – shallots, garlic, and jalapeño. Flavor perfection.
Fish Sauce
This might seem unnecessary but is VERY NECESSARY. Fish sauce adds some saltiness and a good punch of umami, and just really brings the flavors over the top.
Sugar
Sugar is the key to making things caramelized – don’t skip it!
Pineapple Salsa
Oh, this salsa is so good. A mix of pineapple, cucumber, cilantro, red onion, lime juice, and salt. Simple and perfect.
Fixings
Once your pork and salsa are ready, all that’s left is to assemble! Gather your tortillas, some chopped cilantro, squeezes of lime, and chili sauce.
Scrappy Is Best
When I read the book Bread and Wine (affiliate link) a long time ago, one of my favorite concepts/takeaways from the book was this idea that anything can be made into a few certain super-flexible recipes.
Soup, for example. Just about any combination of random ingredients that might happen to be hiding in the depths of the produce drawer of the fridge can probably be made into soup. It might be a scary soup – I’ll give you that. But with a little water, a little salt, a few spices… no biggie. You’ve got a basic soup.
Or stir fry. Assuming you have some sort of grain or rice – or maybe not even because you’re just going to create more of a stir-fry-meets-hash situation? I wouldn’t be mad – you can almost guarantee that any random ingredient combination can become something resembling a stir fry.
And that’s sort of how I feel about these pork tacos, in the most scrappy, hungry, wonderful way.
How To Enjoy These Pork Tacos
These are coming to your face today in TACO FORM. Make no mistake – taco form is the original. This is where it’s at. Warm tortilla stuffed to the brim with all those colors and textures and the Sweet Salty Spicy trifecta. But if you’re a person who sort of takes these things called recipes and runs with them into crazy food places (👋 hiii), this is an open invitation for you to reincarnate these tacos into a new food form.
After we devoured the tacos themselves, I found myself bringing this combo back to life in SALAD FORM (toppings + meat over greens with the chili mayo as dressing), and then in STIR FRY FORM (toppings + meat + leftover quinoa, fried into something that resembled the most delicious sweet and savory fried rice) which was really, really good.
And then there was the DIPPED WITH CHIPS form, but that’s really only for the select few who have a refined enough palate to really appreciate that kind of sacred food wizardry.
Start with the tacos, though, okay? Sizzle up that meat and chop up your salsa and drizzle with spicy chili sauce – just think of it as your gateway to greatness.
More Taco Yum
- Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch Slaw (you NEED!)
- Walnut Chorizo Tacos with Pineapple Salsa (totally vegan and so good)
- Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Garlic Cilantro Lime Slaw (the perfect summer dinner right here)
- The Best Chicken Tinga Tacos (literally though, the actual best!)
This recipe inspiration is coming to us from the extremely talented Stephanie Le of I Am A Food Blog! Here’s her original caramelized pork taco recipe and here’s her beautiful, drool-worthy cookbook, Easy Gourmet (affiliate link), which is full of recipes like dis. Mwah! 😘
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Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 tacos (depending on the size of your tortillas) 1x
Description
Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa – topped with sriracha mayo, obviously! Quick and easy to make! Naturally gluten free.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Pork:
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño, diced with ribs and seeds removed
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 18 ounces boneless pork loin, sliced into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
For the Pineapple Salsa
- 1 cup chopped pineapple
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 red onion or shallot, chopped
- a squeeze of lime juice
- a pinch of salt
For serving
- 8 tortillas
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 lime, sliced into sections
- chili sauce (1/4 cup mayo and 2 teaspoons hot sauce like sriracha)
Instructions
- For the pork: Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, and jalapeño – saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat to high and add the pork and the fish sauce – stir fry for a few minutes until the pork is no longer pink. With the heat very high, add the sugar and water and stir once – then let the pork caramelize by not stirring it for about 1 minute. Repeat this process until the pork is nice and golden brown.
- For the salsa: Toss everything together in a medium bowl.
- For the tacos: Warm the tortillas quickly in a skillet with a little bit of oil. Arrange the pork between 6 tortillas and top with the salsa and the chili sauce.
Equipment
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Notes
For the chili sauce, combine two parts mayo and one part hot sauce (more or less depending on how hot your hot sauce actually is – I used Sriracha which is just moderately spicy). Whisk to combine or shake in a jar. Add water if needed to thin out the consistency – serve over the tacos.
For leftovers, store each element (pork, salsa, and sauce) separately.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: taco recipe, pork tacos, pineapple salsa, pork recipe
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best taco recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Gluten-Free Jalapeño Lime Main Dishes Meat and Chicken Most Popular Stovetop Summer Tacos
June 22, 2020
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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You had me a caramelized pork! Love!!!
Thanks Lindsay!
These just made me so hungry! I love tacos!
ME TOO if you can’t tell 😀
We made these for dinner tonight. We raved about how easy and yummy they were. I love that there’s very little actual cooking (great for summer!) and they’re done in no time at all! I immediately began imagining all the ways I could use that pork in other dishes (salads, bowls, pork lolipops). Your recipe never disappoint! Thanks so much!
Yes! Love those other ideas for the pork! Thanks for sharing, Ann! 🙂
I love these tacos! Awesome!
Thanks Mary! Appreciate that!
I just can’t get enough of these tacos!! They are so pretty. I’ve got pork in the crockpot right now to make jerk tacos for dinner. Just looking at your tacos is making me way to excited for dinner.
Mmm Jerk Tacos! Well played.
Um yes Please! There is a very good possibility that I will be making these this week!
Thanks Emily! I hope you like them!
Slow cooker adaptable?
We haven’t tried, but I’m sure you could adapt the recipe to make it into a pulled pork type of dish!
You had me at pork! 😀
New to this blog and was wondering if you can reveal where to find those metal taco holders???
Thx
Hey Sharon! I bought mine on Amazon – here’s the link! I’ll link it in the post, too. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085XRAC0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&&&&&&&linkCode=sl1&tag=recipepost-20&linkId=363dceda0e9ee1503bad2e53aa151bb5 This one holds 3 tacos and its $8 – the ones I have only hold 2, but it looks like those are sold out.
Wow these look incredible. Tacos are a continuing obsession of ours, we cannot get enough! Thanks 🙂
Thanks Lauren! hope you like them!
Sauce suggestion: If you like some heat, combine a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce with a cup or so of mayo in a food processor. This will give you a similar size to this recipe, but one that has a much greater depth of flavor than just using Sriracha.
You’re always full of good ideas, John!
Ah, the endless options we have with taco’s! I will for sure be trying these. Maybe even tonight! And I also need a metal taco holder…..
yes you do! I went back and linked them in post! 🙂
Wow! This looks BEYOND amazing!!! Yum!
Thanks Anna!
“SAUCE RULES THE WORLD” but today – so does this caramelized pork!
haha thanks Shashi!
This looks so amazing!!!
Thanks! appreciate that!
STOP IT. Why do you have to be sharin’ this deliciousness when I ain’t in my kitchen to make it?!
Haha and when you were talking about all the ways to use this dish I was thinking CHIPS….and then you mention the chips…you are on my level of food love, Lindsayyyy<3
This is why we jive!
Oh my goshhh!!! This sounds fabulous! !
Thanks Angie!
I’ve always thought that tacos could probably bring about world peace. These look amazing! I’m trying them soon!
Bahaha – genius!
Love the idea of this…but it is categorized under gluten-free….those tortillas are not! I’m going to do it in the salad version!
Hope you enjoy it, Marianne! If you need the tacos to be GF, there are brands of corn tortillas that work. Hope that helps! 🙂
THIS. This is what has been missing from my life! Holy moly. I’ll take these with a side of guacamole. 😉
God these look good! Lindsay – I think with your food styling, you could make just about anything look amazing. I’ll be trying these. Thanks for sharing!
I just finish devouring your tacos they where so delicious my family loved them. They are now in my favorites . Your pictures are always so beautiful too.
Glad you enjoyed them!
More taco night options FTW! I love pulled pork and pairing it with pineapple is one of my favorite combos! I made your pulled pork with pineapple for a party once and it was such a hit!
Great! Hope you enjoy these, Jessie!
Do I have to use the fish sauce? I’ve never used it and didn’t want to buy a jar unless it makes a hug e difference in flavor.
Thanks
I was wondering that too!
You could sub soy sauce if you’d prefer. 🙂
This sounds incredibly delicious! Cant wait to try!
We are entering spring in our side of the world, so I’m totally psyched about these summery recipes. These tacos are going to make my family soooooo happy! Can’t wait to surprise them with it. 🙂
Hope you enjoy them, Sune!
Oh, I am so hungry and these pictures make things worse… I have to have tacos soon again. Very soon!
YAASSSSS This has so many of my favorite things in it!!! That drizzle of spicy mayo sent me over the edge, though. Love it!