Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Tacos are made with juicy flavorful pulled pork, cheese, pico de gallo, slices of avocado, sour cream, and cilantro. It’s a meal that involves minimal active preparation time but makes lots of food.
These Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Tacos are made with pork shoulder cooked in a slow cooker with tomatoes, peppers, and spices. This is one of those perfect Sunday meals. It’s a recipe that yields a lot of food and the leftovers can be eaten throughout the week.
When I make pulled pork, I like to start things off by using the pulled pork to make tacos. You can add any taco toppings you like. I like to add cheese, pico de gallo, avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.
After taco night, I use the pork to make other meals like sandwiches, burritos, or quesadillas. I love that you can keep using the meat to make new meals.
Pork shoulder is the best cut of pork to use for this recipe. Pork shoulder and pork butt are the same cut, which confused me until I learned that a “butt” was the name of the storage barrel that was used for shipping pork shoulder. In summary, the cut comes from the shoulder but you might see it labeled “pork butt” or “pork shoulder” at your grocery store. It can either be sold boneless or bone-in. I purchased a 3.5 pound bone-in pork shoulder, the bone was just one large piece of bone that was easy to remove after the meat had cooked.
I opted to quickly sear the pork before putting it in the slow cooker. This step is optional, but I think it helps to add a little extra flavor to the meat. If you don’t have the time, or want to keep the mess to a minimum, you can skip straight to using the slow cooker.
It is easy to customize the spice level of the pulled pork. Once the meat has cooked to the point of being easy to pull apart, transfer it into a bowl, pull out the bone, and shred the meat with two forks. Use a slotted spoon to scoop up as much of the diced poblano pepper, onion, and tomato in the bottom of the slow cooker as you want.
When you add just a couple scoops of the peppers the meat has a mild spice. The more of the peppers you add the more spice you will add. If you want to make it extra spicy you can add in jalapeños or use extra cayenne pepper.
How to Make Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Tacos:
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Tacos
Ingredients
- 3.5 pound Pork Shoulder (either boneless or bone-in)
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 small White Onion, chopped
- 1 (14 ounce) can of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilis
- 4 cloves of Garlic, minced
- 1 Poblano Pepper, chopped
- 2 teaspoons Chili Powder
- ½ teaspoon Ground Red Pepper (Cayenne)
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- about 2 cups of Chicken or Vegetable Broth
- Tortillas
- Mexican Cheese
- Avocado
- Sour Cream
- Cilantro
Instructions
Optional Step 1: Generously coat the pork with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over high heat. Add the pork and sear all sides until lightly browned.
In a large crockpot, combine the onion, diced tomatos, garlic, poblano pepper, chili powder, ground red pepper, and paprika. Whisk together. Add the pork (if you didn't sear it, coat it with salt and pepper first).
Next add the broth until it just covers the pork. This is the trick to really tender pork.
Turn the crockpot on to low, and let it work its magic for 6 hours.
After 6 hours, remove the pork from the crockpot, and place in a bowl. Using 2 forks, shred the meat, this is an easy task since the pork is so tender. Remove the bone if there is one.
Use a slotted spoon to scoop the onion, tomatoes, and peppers and some of the juices in the crockpot over the shredded pork.
To assemble the tacos, fill tortillas with the pork and add cheese, avocado, sour cream, and cilantro on top.