Spicy Korean Pork Taco with Soy Lime Vinaigrette
For the past few years, Korean style taco has been a huge hit in U.S due to the famous Kogi BBQ taco truck which was originated in L.A.
I believe many celebrity chefs and food bloggers created their versions since then. Here I present Beyond Kimchee version of Korean Taco.
This Spicy Korean Pork Taco is fabulous Korean-Mexican fusion style dish and it is so delicious with Soy Lime Vinaigrette. I seriously recommended you to try this recipe at home. I have a feeling that you gonna love it.
I recommend you to use thinly sliced pork shoulder cut for this recipe. It has some marbling in the meat which keeps the meat moist and tender without being dry.
Combine gochujang (Korean chili paste, Korean chili flakes, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, corn syrup, and sesame oil. Mix well.
Mix the sauce in with the pork slices to incorporate well. Set aside.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and place the meat and the slice onions on top. Let them sizzle first, then…
toss to cook evenly until they are fully cooked.
Chop all the toppings.
Whisk all the vinaigrette ingredients until emulsified.
Now, build your taco kingdom.
Drizzle the vinaigrette and serve immediately.
“This is awesome, mom!”
“You can totally sell this!”
“… maybe you should start a food truck?”
These were the comments from my families and I was momentarily tempted for the idea of a food truck. Maybe you can try out this recipe and tell me if this is worth of selling in a food truck?
Yes? or, not really?
Spicy Korean Pork Taco with Soy Lime Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1 lb 450g very thinly sliced pork, any cut
- 1/2 large onion, sliced
- 3 tablespoon Korean chili paste (gochujang)
- 2 tablespoon Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger finely minced or 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup, optional
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- corn or flour tortillas
- 3 cups shredded romaine lettuce
- 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
- ¼ red onion, chopped
- handful cilantro, chopped
- Shredded cheese, optional
Soy Lime Vinaigrette
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon lime juice
- 3 tablespoon canola oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl combine chili paste, chili flakes, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and corn syrup, mix well.
- In a large mixing bowl combine pork slices with the sauce, and mix well to coat all the pork slices gets incorporated with the sauce evenly.
- Drizzle 1 Tbsp oil to the skillet and bring it over medium-high heat. Place pork over the skillet and add the sliced onion on top. When they sizzle, start tossing everything to cook evenly all the way or until the pork is fully cooked and onions are soft, about 3-5 minutes.
- Assemble your taco with pork and vegetable toppings, drizzle with vinaigrette. Serve immediately.
- For the soy lime vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients until emulsified. Adjust the seasoning as you wish.
We enjoyed this recipe. I baked the pork chops in the marinade and my family almost over the sauce in the pan! We added avocado too. And, used some of the marinade on steamed broccoli. Thank you!!
This is the tastiest recipe I’ve ever tried! I make this often in my house.
We have eaten these tacos twice already. I followed the recipe to a ‘t’. What can I say?
WE ARE ADDICTED!!!!!!!
These are so incredibly yummy!!!!! Both flour and corn tortillas work just fine. I have also used the meat/onion mixture in bibimbap bowl. Very tasty!
My question to Holly: can you substitute chicken? Or will it not taste as good?
Hi Gabrielle
So glad to hear that you love this dish. Aren’t they just great?
Chicken would be a great substitute. Go for it!
Holly! I made them!
I did modify a little bit: green onion instead of white onion (in the meat when cooking) and the sauce I did this: purple onion, cucumbers in slices, cilantro (coriander), soy sauce, maggi sauce (the mexican one) lot’s of lime and a bit of vinager, oil and pepper.
And I used corn soft tortillas, not wheat based.
DELISH DELISH DELISH.
The reasons why, is because cumin is not much used in real mexican food (the usa mexican food yes, but not mexico mexican food) so I took out the cumin. Also, for pork I have always used corn tortillas (which is the kind we use more in the center of Mexico, instead of the wheat tortillas), and also in the center of mexico we don’t put chopped tomato or cheese on the tacos. But we do add what we call a “garden” and the garden can be cucumbers or radishes, lot’s of onion and cilantro. But I liked your idea of adding a vinagrette, so I did a bit of a salad and added it on the taco.
AWESOME. Definitely part of my repertoire of recipes now.
Take care. We miss you. I do, I know that.
Tamara.
Wonderful, Tamara!
So glad to hear that you liked this fusion taco. I totally understand that cumin is not used in Mexican food. My brother-in-law is from Mexico and I don’t think I ever had food he made had a flavor of cumin. You are right, this is very Tex-mex style.
I am in my new place now and I will post about my new adventure as soon as I can pull myself together. Hopefully I can start cooking soon, too. You will be surprised where I am!
Take care and thanks for your support!
This’s darm good taco. We ate them about 3 time a week now! Thanks you for your sharing.
Wow, 3 times a day? So glad to hear that you loved it. Hopefully you won’t get sick of it, lol!
This looks delicious. I love finding Korean food blogs. Being a Korean adoptee, I never really got to try all of the classic dishes.
Great as always! : D
Holly,
This looks so yummy. Tacos are really great….
Without having tasted it, just by looking at it I would say definitely perfect for a food truck! This looks really really good. I’m gonna try and find all the ingredients and make it!
Dear Holly (I can call you dear, right?),
Were you thinking of me when writing this down? I really really really have to do this! Ever since I saw that episode of Anthony Bourdain visiting L.A. Koreatown and eating at the Kogi trucks… my mouth salivated and I thought of just visiting L.A. to try one of these. Now you just saved me around $700 USD (I live in Montreal, Canada).
As a mexican and a korean food lover, just looking at the ingredients, I will definitely try this. And maybe give you some feedback after. I’ll let you know if it can be more mexicanized or if it’s just perfect!
By the way, I have to blame you on something else: I started watching Dae Jang Geum because of one of your recipes. And I’m so hooked on it! I’ve been (I swear) crying after the last 4 episodes (Madame Jung passed away and a couple episodes after, Jang Geum and Madame Han have discovered each other!)… I don’t want it to end. And I love seeing the preparation of the dishes, but also the beautiful relationship Jang Geum and Madame Han have with each other. I lost my mom recently and I miss her so much. And we always need a mother in our lives, right?
Well, so long for now. I did already the soybean sprout kimchi. But I’m not bragging till I go for the full thing! But the Bulgogi recipe was just perfect!
감사합니다 ! (언니?)
Tamara.
Hi Tamara
So happy to hear from you. Isn’t that drama uplifting? I wanted to show that to my daughter but the English translation was pretty bad on my DVD version. Which version do you have?
I hope you can try this recipe. It will be different than the Kogi taco (although I have not tried their taco yet), but it is good on its own. I loved it.
Thanks for the sweet comment. You made my day happy!
Hello again!
I haven’t tried the Kogi taco, but it will probably be something similar to this!
I watch my korean dramas on Dramafever. And it seems to be all online without need to pay premium: http://www.dramafever.com/drama/19/Jewel_in_the_Palace/ You should try it.
I will definitely let you know about the recipe. 🙂 Have a nice day!
Yes. I love the Kogi truck!! When I first had it, I was instantly hooked! I kept craving their spicy pork tacos and burritos even though I`m terrible at consuming spicy foods. I did it anyways! I love this version, with a little bit more greens compared to theirs! 😀
Wow, what a tasty dish! This is my sort of food — flavorful, easy, and a bit different (to me, at least). Good stuff — thanks.
Fabulous idea! It looks so tasty!
The tacos look good, but I’m just really glad to have a great gochujang sauce for meats and veggies! I always struggle with good sauce rations. Thanks so much!
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