Slow Cooker Pork Tacos with Avocado Cream Sauce

Taco Tuesday! Is there any other Tuesday? I love tacos because they are simple to make, delicious, and you can switch up the ingredients to add a little more flavor to your week. We usually just stick with basic tacos using ground beef and taco seasoning, but my most recent trip to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival had me CRAVING the most delicious pork tacos [side note: if you are local--gooo visit, and be sure to stop in Mexico for the pork carnitas, they are life changing and amazing], so I set out to find the perfect recipe to make at home. Hey, thanks again Pinterest! The recipe I found from Stuck On Sweet was easy enough to adapt to my family's likes and dislikes, and they were a big hit with everyone--including my semi picky husband.

Crock pot meals are a favorite around here, and I was pretty much drooling all day every time I would get a whiff of the pork slowly cooking. The 3 lb pork shoulder was rubbed with delicious spices which crisped perfectly on the edges. It always amazes me how much flavor can come out of the meat when you don't add any sauce to the slow cooker, a tablespoon or so was all that went into the pot before adding the seasoned meat. Although the original recipe didn't call for it, I added a sliced onion to the crock pot for a little boost of flavor, and I love cooked onions in my food!

After slow cooking for about 8 hours, I checked the tenderness and it was ready to shred. Using 2 forks, the pork shredded beautifully and I allowed it to sit and soak in the juices for about 20 more minutes before assembling our tacos and serving. Rather than doing this, you can take out the cooked pork before shredding if you want a less juicy taco. Again..so easy to adapt to your preferences.

All tacos need sauce, and I didn't change a thing about the sour cream avocado sauce in this recipe. It was just the right amount of tang to make this taco drool worthy. Now I am not a big avocado fan and neither is my husband, but it really didn't taste strongly of avocado and we both went back for seconds. And thirds. Possibly fourths. Who's judging? I also substituted the cojita cheese for goat cheese and my kids and I loved the flavor that it gave, my husband used regular cheddar cheese on his tacos.

Ingredients

Pork

• 3-3.5 pound pork shoulder
• 2.5 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon onion power
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1.5 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• dash of cayenne pepper (original recipe 1/8 tsp)

Sour Cream Avocado Sauce

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 an avocado
• juice from half a lime (I used lime juice I had on hand)
• pinch of salt

Other Ingredients

• Corn tortillas
• Goat cheese (or cheese of choice, original recipe Cojita cheese)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Fresh Cilantro
• Salsa

Instructions

1. Mix together all of the pork seasoning in a bowl and rub onto all sides of pork. Place a tablespoon of olive oil into bottom of crock pot, and place the pork on top. If using onions, cut them as you desire and place them around all sides on the pork. Turn crock pot to low and slow cook for 8 hours. You will know it is done when the pork is easily shredded and falling apart.
2. To make the Sour Cream Avocado sauce, place all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Assemble tacos and drizzle sour cream avocado sauce on top, then add cheese.

*Recipe adapted from Stuck On Sweet's recipe for Slow Cooker Pork Tacos.

And if you're interested, the next day we used the pork leftovers to make a taco salad. You could add anything you wanted, but we used lettuce, shredded pork, goat cheese, corn, and a bit of sour cream. BIG hit with the kids! Oh and my husband was actually asking for more of the sour cream avocado sauce, which is pretty unheard of...ha!