Name: Instant Pot Korean Pork Tacos
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar; 1/2 cup soy sauce; 1/2 cup diced red onion; 1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped; 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger; 1 tbsp rice vinegar; 2 tbsp sesame seeds; 3 lbs pork tenderloin or pork butt/shoulder roast; salt and pepper, to taste; 5 whole garlic cloves; 1 tbsp light or dark brown sugar; 1 tsp sesame oil; 1 tbsp olive oil; juice of half a lime; 1 tsp freshly grated ginger; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 4 cups coleslaw cabbage mix; 2 tbsp mayonnaise; 4 green onions, chopped; 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

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If you’re looking for a way to spice up your weekly taco night, these Instant Pot Korean Pork Tacos are a great choice. They are packed with flavor and easy to make on a weeknight, especially with a pressure cooker on hand. I would say that it’s as easy as making traditional tacos, but the leftovers last way longer!

Tacos are usually an easy go to for us when planning our weekly dinner menu. And it’s a meal that the entire family loves. So this recipe adds to the variety of regular beef tacos and our favorite Shredded Chicken Taco recipe.

Ingredients in Instant Pot Korean Pork Tacos

This recipe starts with a quick marinade, mixing together pretty much the entire list of ingredients for the pork, like soy sauce, brown sugar, red onion, jalepeño, ginger and rice vinegar.

For extra spice, you can add another jalepeño, but we kept ours to only one since the kids were eating it as well.

You can also use a pork tenderloin or pork butt/shoulder roast for this, which is super easy to find at the grocery store.

For the slaw, I always opt for a premade coleslaw cabbage mix, versus having to chop those additional veggies up. It makes this recipe easier to make, less time and mess.

How to Make Instant Pot Korean Pork Tacos

After the marinade is made and the pork is cut into smaller pieces, they are browed in the pot for extra flavor. Throw in the whole garlic cloves… yummmmm… and then set to pressure cook for 30 minutes.

After the pressure is released, carefully lift the lid and shred the pork. It’s fall apart tender and easy to do.

While the pork is cooking in the pressure cooker, which takes about 30 minutes, you can get the slaw ready. The slaw mix is made by combining the brown sugar, sesame oil, olive oil, ginger, salt and mayo in a bowl and whisking until smooth.

Right before you serve up the tacos, add in the cabbage, green onions and cilantro, so it stays nice and crisp, and not too soggy.

For an extra kick, we like to add some pickled jalepeños or sriracha on top. Don’t forget a squeeze of fresh lime to bring it all together.

Tips and Reminders for Cooking Instant Pot Korean Pork Tacos

Our Instant Pot allows you to sauté on the stove, which I recommend as it’s a lot easier to get a nice sear on the meat. Once it’s nice and browned, the handles make it super easy to transfer the pot to the pressure cooker.

You can shred the meat great with two forks, but a tip for getting a nice even shredded meat is transferring it to a bowl and using a hand mixer to shred it.

This recipe makes a lot of meat, so it’s great for saving or freezing for another time. It could make a great protein for a Korean Bulgogi Rice Bowl.

I highly recommend the pre-shredded cabbage mix, which makes this recipe even easier than it already is. It takes less time prepping and there’s less waste as well.

Cilantro is readily available in the store so it’s easy to find, but if you have an herb garden, it doesn’t grow well year round in Florida. Try Culantro instead which has many of the same qualities as cilantro.

I hope you have fun making this recipe and adding it to your next Taco Tuesday. If you enjoyed it, here are some other recipes you might be interested in!