Quick Chipotle Pork Tacos Recipe

Flavorful canned beans and store-bought pulled pork are the keys to this fast supper that’s ready in under 30 minutes.

Quick Chipotle Pork Tacos

Spring is in full swing here. I love the flowering trees, bulbs, and shrubs. Neighbors are in the yards doing the first mow of the year, making the beds ready for this year’s garden, and potting early spring flowers for the porch. Busy families have school programs, sports, recitals, and more to attend.

All of this activity can be a challenge when it comes to mealtime. That’s why all month, I’m focusing on “springtime shortcuts,” four recipes that don’t skimp on flavor but can cut your time in the kitchen in half. And we’re starting off with a ridiculously simple yet flavorful Quick Chipotle Pork Tacos. You can feed your crew in 30 minutes and still have time to enjoy a springtime evening of family fun.

The keys to this simple, budget-friendly recipe are Bush’s Honey Chipotle Grillin’ Beans® and pork purchased cooked and ready to use from your grocer’s deli or meat case. Fresh ingredients like crispy shredded lettuce, sour cream, chopped fresh tomatoes, and a squeeze of lime complete this delicious dish. Let’s get cooking!

To make Quick Chipotle Pork Tacos, which yields 5 servings, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 1 can (21.5 ounces) Bush’s Honey Chipotle Grillin’ Beans®

• 1 (12-ounce) container of cooked, pulled pork without sauce

• 1 box taco shells

• ¼ cup shredded iceberg lettuce

• 5–7 grape tomatoes, diced

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)

• ¼ yellow onion, chopped fine

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• ¼ teaspoon chili powder

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 fresh lime

• Salt and pepper to taste

The canned beans serve double duty in this recipe. The drained beans are refried, and their sauce will top the warmed pork in the taco. Ingenious! Many supermarkets carry smoked meats in their deli, so check there first. Otherwise, there are several national brands available almost everywhere, so I’ll bet your store carries a few of them. If you plan a day ahead, it’s easy to make pulled pork in your instapot or slow cooker. My slow-cooker pork recipe can be modified by omitting the peppers and used in the tacos. Your pork will be moist and tender with a mild chile flavor. Save leftovers for another meal.

Directions for Quick Chipotle Pork Tacos

This is such a quick weeknight meal! Let’s start with making the refried beans.

Drain the canned beans, saving the sauce in a bowl.

Bring a skillet up to medium-high heat. While that comes to temperature, finely chop the onion. Add oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook 8–10 minutes or until onions are translucent.

Add the minced garlic; this will cook until fragrant (just a couple of minutes). Meanwhile, reheat the cooked pork in your microwave.

While the meat reheats, cut grape tomatoes into small quarters and shred lettuce (unless you bought a bag of shredded lettuce, you smart cookie).

Remove the pan from heat and stir in beans. Mash beans with a potato masher (use a fork if you don’t have one) and stir well to combine the mixture.

To assemble your tacos (I like the Old El Paso crunchy corn taco shells with a square bottom), line the bottom with a generous tablespoon of beans. Top with some of the pork, then add lettuce and tomatoes. Drizzle with sauce from the beans (I reheated the sauce for a few seconds in the microwave). Serve with a wedge of lime if desired. Other optional toppings could include shredded cheese and sour cream.

What’s your favorite spring activity? Walks in the park? Flying a kite? Going to a ballgame? Leave a comment below. What do you grab when on the go? With simple, delicious, and satisfying recipes like my Chipotle Pork Tacos, you’re fed and out the door in no time!

---

Here are two more fast dinner ideas perfect for spring or summer. Both use smart supermarket shortcuts.

Mom’s Italian Deli Rotelle Pasta Salad is a satisfying supper in a snap. As the pasta boils, prepare the other ingredients and toss with grated Parmesan.

Frozen tortellini and cooked shrimp provide the fast track to flavor in my Pesto Tortellini and Shrimp Salad. You can zip up the pesto fresh in no time, or if you’re really pressed for time, purchase pesto from the store.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.

Jerk Turkey Sliders

Inspired by Jamaican culinary traditions, these tasty sandwiches are enhanced by jerk seasoning and presented on soft, buttery buns.

Jerk Turkey Sliders

My visit to Jamaica was too brief when my daughter and I were on a cruise that called at Ochos Rios. Although I tasted jerk chicken that day at the beach, I had a limited understanding of what was behind this Jamaican culinary tradition. I thought it was simply a delicious Caribbean spice blend.

Historically there’s nothing simple about jerk, which refers to the way meat is seasoned, smoked, and grilled. In the 18th century, Maroons (people who escaped slavery and settled in the hills of Jamaica) cooked tough cuts of meat in underground smokeless pits (the smoke would have revealed their locations) thus creating this delicious dish. These methods to season, preserve, and cook the meat they hunted were learned through alliances with indigenous inhabitants.

One of America’s most popular and diverse food categories, barbecue, is another culinary tradition rooted in slavery. While it’s hard to pinpoint where American barbecue was “invented,” by the time of the Civil War, enslaved Southern cooks had been slow cooking meat over pits for close to 200 years. Our country's food history would not be the same without African-Americans culinary skill. These methods and recipes help to tell important American stories, and we need to remember the source.

Jerk Turkey Sliders, our final March mashup, utilize these important culinary traditions, and let’s face it; does any protein need a flavor bomb more than turkey? The sliders cook quickly on the grill, perfect for your Final Four March Madness party (or any spring gathering)! Let’s get cooking!

To make this recipe for Jerk Turkey Sliders, which yields 8 servings, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1½ teaspoons ground allspice

• 1½ teaspoons cayenne pepper

• 1½ teaspoons garlic powder

• 1½ teaspoons onion powder

• 1½ teaspoons dried oregano

• 1½ teaspoons brown sugar

• 1½ teaspoons dried thyme

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 4 slices pepper jack cheese

• ½ cup canned fried onions

• 8 slider buns

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions for Jerk Turkey Sliders

Preheat your grill or a grill pan over medium-high heat.

Combine turkey and all the spices in a bowl and mix gently with your hands until combined.

Form the mixture into eight 2-ounce patties. Press the center of each patty with your thumb to make an indentation. This will help the little patty from puffing up as you grill it.

Coat the grill or grill pan lightly with vegetable oil and grill indent-side up about three minutes or until the internal temperature hits 150 degrees F. Flip the sliders.

Place half of a cheese slice over each slider and cook another two or three minutes with the lid lowered on your grill. If using a pan, place a metal bowl over the sliders to help with melting the cheese. Remove sliders to a plate and loosely tent with foil.

Brush the buns with melted butter and grill until lightly toasted. To serve, place a patty on a bun’s bottom, top with some fried onions and the other half of bun. If you want to add a condiment of your choice, that’s fine, too. I liked eating them plain so all the jerk spices could come through. But if you wanted to make a complimentary condiment, add ½ teaspoon each of all the jerk seasonings plus juice of half a lime to a cup of ketchup.

By the way, did you know the history of the slider? It can be traced to Wichita, Kansas, 1921, when the founders of White Castle—Walter A. Anderson and E.W. Ingram—started their now famous restaurant chain. Anderson sold his shares to his business partner in 1933. (Be honest, you want a Belly Bomber right now, don’t you?)

Now that spring has arrived and grilling/barbecue season is getting started, I hope you’ll try my Jerk Turkey Sliders. The compact size is great to pack for a picnic, too. And the warm, complex spices provide the perfect flavor bomb. I guess every little thing really is all right.

---

Looking for more slider and burger ideas?

You won’t have to uncover your grill to make these Easy Barbecued Beef Sliders because they cook in your slow cooker. If you’re tired of beef or turkey burgers, try my Easy Grilled Salmon Burgers this spring.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.

Easy Cannoli Cupcakes

Classic Italian cannoli flavors come through in this easy dessert recipe that starts with a white cake mix.

Easy Cannoli Cupcakes

What’s not to love about cannoli? A fried pastry shell is filled with cream and finished with chocolate. Give me a cannolo (Italian for a single cannoli) on a plate with a cup of espresso and I’m very happy.

When the yen hits me, I plan a trip to The Hill, St. Louis’s Italian neighborhood. Of course, I never just buy one, but several for home and to share, plus fresh pasta, olive oil, mortadella (the list goes on). My favorite spot for cannoli is Vitale’s Bakery, a family-owned business that’s been a part of The Hill for several generations. I usually pick up a few of the cream horns, too.

But let’s be honest; nobody says the shells are the best part of a cannoli. It’s simply a vessel for the heavenly pastry cream made with ricotta or mascarpone (or a blend of both). Italian grandmas and other expert bakers add any number of ingredients after cheese: powdered sugar, honey, vanilla, orange zest, etc.

When I saw a Pillsbury recipe for cannoli cupcakes, I had to try it. Personally, the cupcake instead of fried shell was a welcome change. But the filling recipe was disappointing. The original recipe used prepared frosting plus whipped cream plus ricotta, but it just wasn’t the right flavor or consistency.

So, I went back into the kitchen and made a couple of tweaks for my Easy Cannoli Cupcakes. While Vitale’s has nothing to worry about, these cupcakes do make a quick Italian dessert, and it’s a fun mashup. They certainly brighten up my afternoon coffee break.

To make Easy Cannoli Cupcakes, which yields 18 cupcakes, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 1 box Pillsbury Moist Supreme white cake mix

• ½ cup oil or melted butter

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup milk

• ½ cup cold heavy cream

• 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese

• ½ teaspoon almond extract

• ½ teaspoon orange zest

• Mini chocolate chips or chocolate curls and salted, shelled pistachios for garnish

I always substitute milk for water when using a cake mix. This mix had the option of four egg whites or three whole eggs, so I chose the latter.

Directions Easy Cannoli Cupcakes

Mix and bake the cupcakes per box instructions and cool completely. My yield was 18 rather than 24 as the box suggested. Life’s too short for skimpy cupcakes. Each will be cut horizontally in half.

To make the luscious cream, beat the whipping cream with a mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. What the heck does that mean? You're whipping the cream just before it will become butter. When you lift the beaters out of the whipped cream, the tips on the beaters won’t curl over. Voila, stiff peaks.

Add the powdered sugar, ricotta, almond extract, and orange zest. Beat on low to medium speed until combined. Let stand in refrigerator to set up, about 2 hours.

Pipe about half the mixture on the bottom halves of cupcakes. Replace the tops, and pipe remaining mixture on top of cupcakes. Decorate with chocolate and nuts. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

How to store leftover cupcakes

Unless you’re having a block party, there will be leftover cupcakes. Keep them in an airtight container and store in your refrigerator. Mine were still good after four days.

Easy Cannoli Cupcakes are a lovely Italian dessert that any level baker can make. And it’s fun to experiment with other ways to decorate these lovelies. Next time, I’m adding a candied cherry on top, just like they do at Vitale’s. Or swap vanilla for almond extract when making your filling and leave the pistachios out. Either way, mama mia, these are delicious!

---

Looking for more cupcake recipes?

My Lavender Blackberry Cupcakes are easy to make and so good!

Hard to believe my Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes start with a chocolate cake mix. Moist, rich, and perfect any time of year.

You can make a loaf cake or cupcakes using my Easy Moist Lemon Cake recipe. Such a good and simple dessert for an Easter gathering.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.