General Tso’s Slow Cooked Pork Tacos with Orange Broccoli Slaw (Slow Cooker)

General Tso’s Slow Cooked Pork Tacos with Orange Broccoli Slaw is an easy pork slow cooker recipe combining Mexican and Chinese flavors.

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General Tso’s Pork Tacos with Orange Broccoli Slaw, an easy homemade crockpot recipe. One of my favorite dishes at Chinese restaurants is General Tso’s Chicken. If you’re not familiar with General Tso’s chicken, it’s typically made with dark chicken meat that has been battered, deep-fried, and covered in a sweet and spicy saucy and usually served with broccoli.

Apparently, the dish also goes by other names such as Governor Tso’s, General Tao’s, General Tsao’s, General Gao’s, or General Gau’s chicken. I’ve always known it as General Tso’s but whatever you want to call it, it’s probably not the healthiest choice by any means (but it does have broccoli so it can’t be THAT bad, right????). Recently, I set out to make a new version of one of my favorite dishes with a bit of a twist for an easy weeknight meal using my slow cooker!

I’ve been meaning to get my slow cooker back out since it somehow got buried over the summer. Every time I use my slow cooker (Crock-Pot) I always tell myself I really need to use it more.  But so many slow cooker recipes have SO much prep involved that it’s not even worth it.  This recipe does NOT have a lot of prep so it’s quite “snappy”!  haha!  I have a lot more ideas for my slow cooker I want to try this fall/winter so stay tuned for more recipes. If you like using your slow cooker, I have a few past recipes that you also may enjoy including:

Spicy Sausage & Beer Cheese Dip

Mexican Style Chicken Chili

Mini Dark Chocolate Frangelico Pudding Cakes

I should start off by saying this dish is a TWIST on General Tso’s Chicken. Unfortunately, there’s no good way to make General Tso’s Chicken in a slow cooker since the chicken is typically battered and deep-fried. I wish it was that easy! But this recipe has the same flavors in the sauce and the dish is quite versatile and a lot healthier!

You can add as much pork as you can fit in your slow cooker or you could even substitute chicken thighs/legs if you can’t eat pork. I decided to use pork tenderloin because it’s a lean cut and shreds nicely after being in a slow cooker. I thought I’d turn the dish into “tacos” in an effort to get my kids to eat them. Instead of serving the dish with broccoli like many Chinese restaurants, I picked up a few bags of broccoli “slaw” (found by the packaged salads and cabbage slaw at your grocery store). If you’re unsure about the broccoli slaw (it’s definitely not for everyone!), use shredded cabbage or shredded cole slaw mix instead.

You may need to alter the recipe depending on the size of type of slow cooker you have.  I added all my sauce ingredients right to my slow cooker and whisked it in there rather than using a bowl.  I used Kikkoman less sodium soy sauce and hoisin sauce.  They should be at most grocery stores and easy to find.

I added two pork tenderloins (total wight was about 2 1/2 pounds) but I coul have easily added twice that.  You can cut the pork into pieces if you have a smaller slow cooker.

Cook the pork on slow for about 6-8 hours.  The pork will be very tender and start falling apart.

Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred it with two forks.  It should fall apart very easily and should not take much effort to shred.  Put the pork in a bowl and mix with some of the sauce from the slow cooker.  Or you can add it right back to the slow cooker with the sauce and continue to cook a little longer and keep it warm until ready to serve.

For the slaw, mix all the ingredient in a bowl and refrigerate while the pork is cooking.  I used broccoli “slaw” but you can use shredded cabbage instead.  Serve the pork and slaw over tortillas.  You don’t really need chopsticks but I tried to make it fun for the kids.

You could also serve the pork with rice or noodles instead of tortillas, but we liked the tortillas! Hope you enjoy this General Tso’s Pork Tacos!

Hope you enjoy!

5 from 2 votes

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General Tso’s Slow Cooked Pork Tacos with Orange Broccoli Slaw (Slow Cooker)

A fun twist on my favorite Chinese dish that is easy to make thanks to a slow cooker!

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Asian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 8 hours

Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes

Yield 8 -10

Author Snappy Gourmet

Ingredients

Pork:

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (8 oz.) bottle hoisin sauce
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 5 garlic cloves minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger minced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin (or any amount that will fit in your slow cooker)

Slaw:

• 2/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
• 2 (10 oz.) packages broccoli slaw (or cabbage slaw)

Soft tortillas

Instructions

1. Whisk together broth, hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, and red pepper in slow cooker until well combined.
2. Add pork to slow cooker and spoon some of sauce over top. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove pork from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks. Place pork in serving dish and coat with desired amount of sauce from slow cooker.
3. Meanwhile, while pork is cooking, whisk together orange juice, olive oil, and cilantro in large bowl. Stir in broccoli slaw. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. To serve, top tortillas with pulled pork and slaw.

Recipe Notes

SNAPPY TIPS: I would suggest sticking with the reduced sodium soy sauce so that the dish doesn’t taste too salty. You can serve the pork and slaw in tortillas or you can also serve the pork with rice or noodles.

SNAPPY SUBSTITUTIONS: You could use chicken legs/thighs instead of the pork. Instead of the broccoli slaw you can substitute shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix.