Easy Food Hack: Mini Kalua Pork Tacos
Do you ever wonder what to do with leftover dumpling wrappers? That was always my problem whenever I made gyoza. Yes, you can freeze leftover dumpling skins, but sometimes I didn’t want to take up space in my freezer. Well, I finally found an easy food hack to use up all those wrappers! Bake the dumpling skins in the oven to make mini taco shells and make kalua pork tacos!
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How to Make Mini Taco Shells From Dumpling Wrappers
If I knew that making mini tacos was so easy, I would’ve done it a long time ago. Simply turn over a cupcake or muffin tin and wedge the dumpling wrappers in the spaces. Then, spray with nonstick cooking oil and bake at 450 degrees for about 5 minutes. They burn SUPER QUICK, so you have to keep a close eye on them. If your oven tends to run hot, you can lower the temperature to 425.
If you need another visual, you can check out my reel on Instagram!
Easy Kalua Pork Ingredients
For my tacos, I decided to use kalua pork and cabbage. It’s really easy to make kalua pork in the instant pot, and I always have leftovers for days. This is a good thing, because you’d need to eat like 50 of these mini tacos to get full. They’d do well as an appetizer or side for a party… but we’re not having many of those these days.
Anyway, for the kalua pork, you’ll need boneless pork butt or pork shoulder. For some reason, I have a really hard time finding this cut at regular grocery stores, but our local Asian market always has them. Put it in the instant pot with about a cup of water and a teaspoon of liquid smoke. You can find liquid smoke at most regular grocery stores. It’s inexpensive and it’s a small bottle, so I find it’s fine for me to keep in the back of my pantry. You know how I hate buying ingredients just for one thing, but it’s worth it!
The other special ingredient you’ll need is some Hawaiian coarse red sea salt. Again, I found this at our local Asian market, but I believe I’ve seen it at World Market as well. This is the exact brand I use here. I always put it only about a teaspoon for 2-3 lbs of pork at the beginning. You can always add more salt later at the end if you need to.
Making Kalua Pork and Cabbage in the Instant Pot
Cook the kalua pork on high pressure for 15 minutes per pound of meat and let the pressure release naturally. If you’re going to do a quick release, I definitely recommend increasing your cook time.
Take the pork out and shred it. In the pork juices, put in your shredded cabbage and saute until soft. That’s it!
If you enjoyed this food hack, let me know! I’m starting to get all kinds of ideas for what to put into mini tacos!
Instant Pot Kalua Pork and Cabbage Mini Tacos
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork butt
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp liquid smoke
- 1 tsp Hawaiian salt , plus more to taste
- 3 cups shredded cabbage
- 3-5 garlic cloves, optional
- dumpling wrappers, as many as you want
- nonstick cooking spray
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Instructions
For Mini Taco Shells
- Wedge dumpling wrappers on the bottom of a muffin tin. Spray with cooking oil and bake at 450 degrees F for about 5 minutes.
For Kalua Pork and Cabbage
- Put one cup water and liquid smoke in the instant pot.
- Poke holes in the pork with a fork or knife. If using garlic cloves, wedge the cloves into some of the holes.
- Place pork in instant pot and sprinkle with the tsp of Hawaiian salt.
- Pressure cook on high for 45 minutes and let the pressure release naturally (about 20 minutes). If using a different amount of pork, pressure cook for about 15 mins per pound.
- When pressure is released, take the pork out and shred it. Meanwhile, add in shredded cabbage to the remaining juices. Saute until soft.
- Enjoy with rice or fill in taco shells (see post above).
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