Slow Cooker Korean Pork Tacos

These tacos are my take on Korean barbecue. They certainly aren't authentic Korean food, but they do incorporate a lot of the delicious sweet, salty and spicy Asian flavors in an easy-to-make slow cooker recipe. These are delicious topped with sweet pickles, so I suggest making my refrigerator pickle recipe a few days out to have them ready to top these tacos.

Let's start with the ingredients.  You'll need a pork loin along with soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, Sriracha brown sugar, cornstarch, black pepper, fresh ginger and garlic.

Add half a cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, pinch of black pepper any where between half a teaspoon and a tablespoon of Sriracha (depending on how hot you like it.) to your slow cooker.

I highly suggest buying the toasted sesame oil. It's not cheap, but if you keep it in the fridge it lasts a long time. It is great in so many Asian dishes.

I like to use a rasp to grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger and three gloves of garlic into the slow cooker. You could also chop it finely.

It sticks on the bottom of the rasp, but you can easily scrape it into the slow cooker.

Fresh ginger can be kept in a freezer bag and you can pull it out to grate as needed. 

Stir the mixture together and put in the pork.

Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours until the pork pulls apart easily with a spoon.

For serving, we'll use flour tortillas. You can use another type of flat bread if you prefer. I like to use matchstick carrots and fresh cilantro or parsley to top. If you'd prefer, you can grate or julienne the carrots yourself.

Fill the tortillas with the meat and sauce.

Get out those pickles we made earlier.

Add the pickled cucumbers, peppers and shallots to your taco. You could also have the topping raw, but I really think it needs the acid from the pickles.

 

Now let's add the carrots for crunch and a sprinkle of cilantro or parsley.

 

If you like, spoon a little more of the cooking liquid on top. Now serve.

 

You may not have some of these Asian ingredients in your pantry just yet, but it's worth it to get them. Having them on hand opens up a whole new world of cooking.