Pork Carnitas Tacos with Mango Black Bean Salsa

Moist, juicy, tender pork carnitas with crisp brown edges, and a fresh, colorful, fruity mango black bean salsa, topped with roasted tomatillo salsa verde on slightly toasted tortillas – these Pork Carnitas Tacos with Mango Black Bean Salsa are the definition of flavor-packed!

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Here’s a question for you guys. Soft tacos or hard tacos?

Growing up in New Zealand, finding authentic Mexican food was like finding water on Mars. What was considered authentic was the ready made taco kits available in supermarkets, until a place called Flying Burrito Brothers came along in Christchurch that did a pretty fine job of representing Mexican cuisine. This was a while back though, the last time I ate there was in 2009, so I’m not sure how much the scene has changed now.

The result of that dearth of choice was that I grew up eating hard tacos, out of store-bought taco kits (!). Thankfully it only happened a few times, because we could never get into hard tacos. I mean hard taco shells?? Where’s the logic in that? It defies the whole purpose. 🙂

But then I went an had a habit-forming experience when I ate soft tacos and actual authentic Mexican food, and I’ve never looked back! The amount of flavor that you can pack into these little guys surprises me every time. I know I’ve been on a mini Mexican food binge recently with this roasted tomatillo salsa verde, this roasted tomatillo enchilada sauce and these ridiculously flavorful tequila braised slow roasted pork carnitas.

But bear with me for just one more time, because today I’m going to show you how to use those slow roasted pork carnitas to make an even more unreasonably flavorful dinner or party food dish – Pork Carnitas Tacos with Mango Black Bean Salsa!

These slow roasted pork carnitas (oven roasted carnitas) are absolutely going to transform anything that you pair them with. Moist, juicy and tender with crisp brown edges, these pork carnitas are one of my favorite taco fillings ever. And then couple that with a mango, black bean salsa and you’re in taco heaven. This fresh, colorful, fruity salsa is super versatile and has a great balance of sweet and savory. It’s hard to even call it a recipe, it’s a simple combination of sweet mangoes, hearty black beans (not to mention good for you! – as they have plenty of health benefits), sweet corn, onions, avocado, cilantro and then dressed with lime juice. You can serve it with anything really, or just eat it as a salad or an appetizer with some corn chips, but paired with these pork tacos – they just taste right at home. That’s really the best way to describe it. 🙂

I’ve shared tacos on the blog before – like this Allspice fish tacos with roasted grape salsa, but these pork carnitas tacos are more traditional, and with the tangy, juicy, creamy pork and the fresh fruity mango black bean salsa, these tacos taste incredible. So if you saved up some of that slow roasted pork carnitas in your freezer or you have some pulled pork, then you should definitely make these carnitas tacos. And maybe serve them with some roasted tomatillo salsa verde on the side, and you’ve got a party in town. 🙂

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Pork Carnitas Tacos with Mango Black Bean Salsa

Author: Dini from The Flavor Bender

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Ingredients

Pork Carnitas Tacos

• Small corn tortillas 12 - 18
• Thinly sliced red cabbage optional
• 1 recipe of Slow Roasted Pork Carnitas
• Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Mango Black Bean Salsa

• 1 avocado cubed
• 1 mango cubed (or frozen mango, thawed, cubed - about ½ cup)
• ¼ cup red onion diced
• ½ can black beans rinsed and drained (from a 15 oz can)
• ½ can sweet corn can rinsed and drained (from a 15 oz can)
• 2 - 3 tbsp cilantro chopped
• 1 -2 jalapeno chopped and de-seeded
• Juice of 1 lime to taste
• Salt to taste

Instructions

Pork Carnitas Tacos

1. Prepare the carnitas and salsa verde (recipe links for those are in the Ingredients list).
2. Heat a non-stick pan or griddle on medium heat. Brush it with some oil and heat the tortillas until they are heated and a little toasted.
3. Top the tortillas with carnitas, mango black bean salsa, salsa verde, cabbage and serve.

Mango Black Bean Salsa

1. Mix the first 7 ingredients, plus juice of ½ a lime together in a bowl, being careful not to crush the avocado. Add more lime juice and salt to taste.
2. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

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