Taco of the Month: Hawaiian Pulled Pork Tacos

These juicy, sweet and savory Hawaiian pulled pork tacos come together in 15 minutes or less with only 6 ingredients for an easy lunch or dinner everyone will love.

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Drumroll, please… the food of the month for 2023 is TACOS! To kick off a year of unique takes on this humble food, we’re sharing our recipe for fresh, juicy Hawaiian pulled pork tacos topped with cabbage and mango lime chamoy salsa.

One of the most versatile foods out there, tacos are a fun, fresh, and (most importantly) delicious meal that pretty much everyone can enjoy. When all you have to do is fill a tortilla with whatever protein, veggies, cheese, and condiments you like, there’s nothing easier or more satisfying that also leaves so much room for creativity. This year, while we’ll be sharing 12 out-of-the-box ideas for spicing up Taco Tuesday, we encourage you to put your own spin on these recipes and customize your tacos alongside us!

Three pulled pork Hawaiian tacos with cabbage and mango salsa on a plate

These Hawaiian pulled pork tacos topped with cabbage and mango salsa are a super easy, fresh, and delicious lunch or dinner you can throw together in 15 minutes or less. With store-bought salsa and make-ahead or leftover pulled pork, these tacos are a no-brainer for busy weeks when you just can’t be bothered to make a huge meal. 

Plus, the savory, juicy bites of pork contrasted by sweet mango salsa and crunchy cabbage will bring the island vibes right into your kitchen no matter the time of year! So you can just relax and enjoy a delicious taco plate that tastes like it took longer than 15 minutes to make 🙂

Ingredients For Hawaiian Pulled Pork Tacos

To make these Hawaiian pulled pork tacos at home, you’ll only need 6 ingredients:

  • Slow cooker pulled pork – We recommend preparing a large batch of our slow cooker pulled pork early in the week, then heating it in a frying pan for these pork tacos. You can freeze whatever you won’t use for up to 3 months, or check out some of our favorite recipes using pulled pork here for meal planning inspiration.
  • Sweet Hawaiian street taco tortillas These Sweet Hawaiian flavored flour tortillas are the perfect vehicle for the juicy pork and fresh toppings in these tacos, but you can always use regular flour tortillas if you can’t find them at the store.
  • Green cabbage – A crunchy cabbage topping goes great on so many kinds of tacos, and these pulled pork tacos are no exception! Look for the smallest head of cabbage you can find since a little goes a long way in this recipe.
  • Ginger – Using fresh minced ginger in the cabbage topping adds a little bite to complement the acidic flavors and balance out the sweet mango salsa.
  • Lime juice – Squeezing fresh lime juice into the cabbage and ginger creates a super bright and flavorful topping for these pork tacos.
  • Mango lime chamoy salsa – To keep things simple, we recommend using this store-bought mango lime chamoy salsa. It’s the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. If you can’t find this exact ingredient, look for a mango salsa that has sweeter notes but still uses a tomato and chili pepper base.
Three Hawaiian pulled pork tacos topped with cabbage and mango salsa on a plate with lime wheels

How To Make Hawaiian Pulled Pork Tacos

Hawaiian pulled pork tacos with cabbage and mango salsa are absolutely the easiest tacos to whip up for lunch or dinner! If you have pulled pork ready to go, it’ll only take you about 15 minutes to throw them together. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

  1. Warm the pulled pork in a frying pan over medium heat until sizzling.
  2. In the meantime, prepare the quick pickled cabbage topping. Add the cabbage, ginger, and lime juice to a bowl and toss with your hands until everything is combined well. Set that aside and let it sit so the cabbage has time to absorb the lime juice.
  3. Once the pork is almost ready, warm the tortillas in the microwave between two dampened paper towels for about 30 seconds.
  4. Finally, assemble the tacos. Fill each tortilla with an equal amount of pulled pork, then top with some of the quick pickled cabbage and about a tablespoon each of the mango lime chamoy salsa.

When it comes to heating the tortillas, we love the microwave method because it’s fast and easy. But you can also seal the tortillas in a foil packet and warm them in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 5 to 10 minutes. Or, you can warm them one by one on a cast iron skillet over medium heat for just a few seconds on each side.

To assemble these pulled pork tacos all at once and avoid making a big mess, we highly recommend getting yourself a set of taco holders like these! You can fit up to 3 tacos in each one and they’re dishwasher-safe, so there’s no extra hassle cleaning up after dinner. They’re seriously indispensable – we’ve had ours for about a year now and they come out every single time we have tacos (which is like, at least a few times a week).

Three Kalua pork tacos on a plate with lime wheels

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Aside from the obvious reason that tacos are one of the best meals around, you’ll love how simple and easy this recipe is to put together – and just how flavorful they are for only using 6 ingredients! Crunchy cabbage with bright, zesty lime juice, ginger, and sweet mango salsa are really the perfect toppings for a Hawaiian pulled pork taco. 

Bonus pro of this recipe: If you made a big batch of pulled pork for a different recipe and have some leftover at the end of the week, you can easily make these tacos for lunch with whatever small amount is left to use up! Since each taco doesn’t need a ton of meat, they’re the perfect way to help finish up leftovers that might otherwise get tossed.

Try our super simple recipe for juicy, refreshing Hawaiian pulled pork tacos and imagine yourself enjoying these by the beach with the wind blowing in your hair. We promise it’ll be almost as good as actually being in Hawaii eating pork tacos on the beach 🙂

Don’t forget to rate, comment, and share if you love this recipe! We can’t wait to hear what you think. To find out what next month’s unique take on tacos will be, sign up for our email newsletter here.


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5 from 2 votes

Hawaiian Pulled Pork Tacos

These juicy, sweet and savory Hawaiian pulled pork tacos come together in 15 minutes or less with only 6 ingredients for an easy lunch or dinner everyone will love.
Servings 6 tacos
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • First, warm the pulled pork in a frying pan over medium heat until sizzling, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
  • In the meantime, prepare the quick pickled cabbage. Add sliced green cabbage, minced ginger, and lime juice to a bowl and toss with your hands to combine. Set aside.
  • Next, warm the tortillas in the microwave between two dampened paper towels for about 30 seconds.
  • Finally, assemble the tacos. Portion out the pulled pork into all 6 tortillas, then top each taco with some cabbage and a tablespoon each of the mango salsa. Serve immediately.

Notes

Slow cooker pulled pork: We like to use prepared slow cooker pulled pork (get the recipe here!) for these Hawaiian pork tacos for simple and quick preparation. You can easily make a big batch of this pulled pork overnight and then use it in a ton of different recipes throughout the week. You can also freeze cooked pulled pork for up to 3 months if you’re not going to use it all right away.
Warming the tortillas: We like to heat the tortillas in the microwave since it’s so quick and easy, but you can also seal them in a foil packet and warm in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 5 to 10 minutes. Or, heat them one by one on a cast iron skillet over medium heat, for a few seconds on each side.
Ingredient substitutions: If you can’t find sweet Hawaiian flour tortillas, regular flour tortillas also work great for this recipe. For the salsa, we suggest using a mango salsa with a sweeter flavor profile if you can’t find mango lime chamoy (although it’s worth seeking out at your local Target!).
Serving size: We recommend making 3 tacos of this size (4-inch) per person.
Serving suggestions: Serve with lime wedges or wheels for squeezing extra lime juice onto the tacos if desired. As with any tacos, a side of chips and salsa rounds out this meal perfectly!
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Author: Nicole
Calories: 82kcal
Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main, Main Course
Cuisine: Fusion
Keyword: cabbage, flour tortillas, ginger, Hawaiian, lime juice, lunch, mango lime chamoy salsa, pulled pork, tacos

Nutrition

Calories: 82kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 141mg | Potassium: 267mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 109IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.

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Join the Conversation

  1. like the recipe. Can we use shredded chicken instead of pork?

    1. Nicole Author says:

      Yes, you can definitely use shredded chicken for this recipe instead of pork!

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