Thanks to ground pork, these easy pork tacos come together fast. You can even make the filling in advance.
Watch the Video
Related: You can also use ground pork to make our Swedish meatballs.
Why I Love These Pork Tacos
It’s no secret that we love tacos around here. We’ve made them with shrimp, beef, roasted veggies, and most recently, shredded chicken. But even though we’ve shared some taco recipes with you, we’ve always missed pork! Thanks to these crave-worthy tacos, that’s been remedied and you know what? They might be my current favorite.
- These pork tacos are FAST and very easy to make.
- The taco filling can be made and safely stored up to three to four days in advance.
- They are adaptable to your favorite taco seasonings. I love using our homemade blend, but you can easily swap that out for your favorite store-bought blends.
- You can add just about anything to the top of the tacos. I’ve shared my favorite pork taco toppings below.
Pork Taco Ingredients
The ingredient list for these easy tacos is short, which so I’m hailing this as one of the best recipes for dinner we’ve shared. Here’s what you will need:
- Ground pork or use a bulk pork sausage. Chorizo is excellent, as well. We use chorizo to make these chorizo scrambled eggs.
- Oil or butter for cooking the ground pork.
- Taco seasoning makes them taste amazing. I use our homemade blend, but you can use a store-bought seasoning blend.
- Flour or corn tortillas, as well as your favorite taco toppings. Try our recipes for homemade corn tortillas or homemade flour tortillas.
Our Homemade Taco Seasoning Blend
As mentioned above, I love using our taco seasoning for these tacos. Of course, you can use store-bought, but I highly recommend our blend. It’s flavorful and easy to make, plus you can store it for months in your spice cabinet.
Most of the ingredients are likely already sitting in your spice cabinet. Here is a list of the spices you will need:
- Chili powder — We recommend our homemade chili powder. Your favorite store-bought chili powder works, too.
- Ground cumin — This adds an earthy, smoky flavor. It is common in Tex-Mex, Mexican, and curry recipes.
- Hot smoked paprika — This adds a hot, smoky flavor. Chipotle chile powder is a great alternative.
- Ground coriander — This adds a light, citrus flavor.
- Cayenne pepper — This adds heat. Add as much or little as needed for your desired spice level.
You could stop there, and the tacos will be absolutely delicious (promise). However, if you want to knock these pork tacos out of the park, add mushroom powder.
I know that mushroom powder sounds odd, but trust me, it adds a savory, meaty flavor to the party. Mushrooms naturally add umami, which is why we include mushroom powder in our blend. It makes it taste incredible. You can read all about it in our taco seasoning recipe — we even share how to make it.
How To Make The Best Ground Pork Tacos
These tacos are simple to make, and, as I mentioned above, you can make the filling days in advance. Here’s what I do to make them:
- Brown the ground pork in a skillet with oil or butter.
- Stir in taco seasoning and water (or use broth).
- Cook until the pork is cooked through and the water reduces and coats the pork.
- Serve in warm tortillas with your preferred toppings (I’ve shared mine below).
My Favorite Taco Toppings
You can never have too many toppings for taco night, right? So, here’s a list of my favorites:
- I love a layer of mashed avocado or guacamole
- To add some creaminess, try thinned-out sour cream. I mix sour cream with a small squeeze of lime. For a dairy-free option, try our vegan dreamy tahini sauce.
- I love adding zesty pickled onions. They take an hour to make but last in the fridge for a couple of weeks (I add them to everything).
- Salsas are always welcome, try our roasted tomatillo salsa or for fresh salsa, try this pico de gallo.
- Shredded cabbage or a simple cabbage slaw like this cilantro lime coleslaw would be amazing.
More Easy Taco Recipes
- Shredded Chicken Tacos with tender chicken and a bright and creamy cilantro sauce (the sauce is so good).
- Chile Butter Shrimp Tacos with chile butter shrimp, mashed avocado and a quick and crunchy slaw.
- Shredded Beef Tacos (made in the slow cooker) the beef for these tacos literally falls apart, it is irresistible.
- Roasted Veggie Tacos featuring roasted spiced vegetables, black beans, and a creamy cilantro sauce (100% vegetarian, 100% delicious).
Easy Ground Pork Tacos
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Thanks to ground pork, these easy pork tacos come together fast. We recommend making our taco seasoning with chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and cayenne pepper. If you’re using store-bought taco mix, watch out for adding additional salt. Often the store-bought packages already have salt added, so you might not need to add any extra salt.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For the Tacos1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pound ground pork or bulk ground sausage
1 to 2 tablespoons taco seasoning, see our homemade taco seasoning
1/4 cup water or more as needed (can substitute broth)
Salt to taste
Optional ToppingsShredded cabbage, see notes
1 large avocado, pitted and mashed
2 tablespoons sour cream, see notes
Pickled onions, see our pickled onions recipe
Pico de gallo, see our pico de gallo recipe
Tomatillo salsa, see our roasted tomatillo salsa recipe
Lime, quartered
Directions
- Prepare Pork
1Heat a wide skillet over medium heat, then add the oil. When the oil is hot, press the pork down into the pan, spreading it out as thin as possible so that it browns evenly on one side for about 5 minutes.
2When it begins to brown on one side, use a wooden spoon to break the pork into small crumbles. Continue to cook until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes.
3Toss one tablespoon of taco seasoning with the pork. Taste a small crumble to see if it needs more seasoning and adjust from there — when using our homemade taco seasoning, we use two tablespoons.
4Stir in the water and let it come to a simmer. The mixture will thicken and coat the pork. Taste, and then season with extra salt if needed.
- Assemble Tacos
1Wrap the tortillas in two stacks with aluminum foil, then place them in a 350° F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
2Fill each warmed tortilla with pork and your favorite toppings. We particularly love these with mashed avocado spread onto the bottom of each tortilla, then topped with pork, cabbage, pickled onions, and sour cream.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Cabbage: Raw shredded cabbage is a great option, but try our Mayo-Free Cilantro Lime Coleslaw for more flavor. Salting the cabbage before adding the dressing keeps this coleslaw salad crunchy and adds much more flavor. The dressing is simple — lime, honey, and olive oil.
- Making thinned sour cream: So it can be drizzled, stir two tablespoons of sour cream with a teaspoon or two of water (or lime juice).
- Make-ahead: The pork can be made up to 4 days in advance when stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat the pork before serving — you may find adding a tablespoon or two of additional water helps to moisten the pork.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. We included one avocado, 1 cup of cabbage, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and corn tortillas in the calculations. The ground pork calculated was about 20% fat. Choosing a leaner option — such as ground tenderloin — would reduce the fat and calories.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
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I had something Asian planned with ground pork tonight, but I cleaned out a cupboard and had a bunch of taco shells to use up. I did a quick search online and found your recipe. To be honest, I don’t follow recipes very precisely, but I loved your ideas. I made the pork with taco seasoning we had on hand and added in the mushroom powder. Of course, I never made it without it, so I have nothing to compare, but it was delicious. I made my own pico di gallo, cut up mango, avocado, cabbage, lettuce, bell pepper, then served with a touch of sour cream. So amazing. My husband raved. Now that I found your site I will be following. Thanks for the great meal idea!
Made this tonight for dinner – fantastic! My husband couldn’t get enough! The homemade taco seasoning is fabulous – will never do store-bought again. Made the Pico di Gallo (without jalapeño as I didn’t have any) and lime-sour cream – added shredded lettuce and shredded cheddar. A definite keeper – thank you so much!!!!
Yay! We are so happy that you loved them 🙂 The homemade taco seasoning really does help to take things up a notch!
Forgot to add, I used your taco seasoning and will never purchase store bought taco seasoning again.
Made these today with the pickled onions and the Mayo-Free Cilantro Lime Coleslaw, all I can say is WOW! These are now a new staple in our house. Will be making every month at least twice if not three times lol. Thank you!
Wow! What a nice comment. Thank you so much for coming back to let us know that you loved them 🙂
Love these! Made the taco seasoning with the porcini powder. Browned the meat and drained, added dice onion (but will make pickled onion for next week), chopped black olive and 1 Tbsp tomato paste (borrowed from my Mom’s recipe). Muy sabrosa!
Very Delicious!
I love any and all tacos! These are super easy and look delicious!