Best Sous Vide Smokey BBQ Pork Tacos Recipe

Juicy sous vide pork tacos are a delicious way to enjoy slow cooked pork with the sous vide machine. Load these up with your favorite taco condiments including a bbq sauce made with leftover pork juice from the sous vide bag. I’ll teach you how!

Why This Sous Vide Pork Tacos Recipe is So Damn Tasty

Make juicy, meaty sous vide pork tacos for an easy weeknight dinner, game day main dish, or backyard potluck dinner everyone will love. Here’s why…

• Most tender ever. Cooking pulled pork sous vide style makes extremely tender shredded pork for carnitas tacos or pulled pork sandwiches.
• Mostly hands-off.
• Extremely flavorful.
• High-quality leftovers that stay juicy for days.
• Foolproof. My sous vide pork tacos recipe always turns out perfect.

New to sous vide techniques? Learn why is sous vide so popular.

Ingredients for Sous Vide Pork Tacos

• 3-pound pork
• BBQ salt (or your favorite bbq seasoning for tacos, plus some salt)
• Black pepper
• Olive oil

Taco toppings and serving ideas

Don’t forget to have your favorite sous vide pulled pork tacos toppings on hand. Here’s what I like:

• Corn tortillas
• Flour tortillas (see how to freeze flour tortillas)
• Slaw
• Avocado
• Rice
• Refried beans (see how to freeze refried beans)
• Sous vide corn, sliced from the cob
• Sautéed onions and peppers
• BBQ sauce with leftover pork sous vide juice (shared at the end of this recipe page)

How to make sous vide pulled pork for BBQ tacos

Step 1. Prepare the sous vide bath by programming the sous vide machine / precision cooker to 165 degrees F.

Step 2. In a small bowl, mix together the BBQ salt seasoning and pepper. Generously rub the pork with the seasonings. You can drizzle a little olive oil on the pork to help the seasonings stick.

PRO TIP: If you’re looking for a good BBQ blend, try Bone Suckin’ Seasoning Blend or this Smokehouse Coffee BBQ Rub.

Step 3. Sear the pork to form a thick bark. Searing the pork before adding it to the sous vide vacuum sealer bag adds a boatload of flavor to it. This is called a “reverse sear” in the sous vide culinary world.

Personally, I think the thick bark on the ends of tender sous vide pulled pork is the best part! Just one more photo because it looks so freakin good at this point…

Don’t skip this searing step!

Step 4. Once the pork is seared, vacuum seal it. No additional liquid is needed in the sous vide bag before it’s vacuum sealed. And no, you don’t need butter in the bag.

Step 5. Sous vide pulled pork for 48 hours at 165 degrees F.

For best results, use a lid on the sous vide container or cover it with foil and a kitchen cloth to prevent the heat from escaping. Check on the water periodically to make sure the pork remains underwater during the entire cook.

Step 6. Once complete, remove the sous vide cooked pulled pork from the water.

I don’t find it necessary to put pulled pork in an ice bath with cold water and ice, like I would a sous vide prime rib, when the tacos will be made right away. I also don’t find it necessary to pat the pork dry with paper towels for this particular recipe.

Optional: Reserve the juice leftover from sous vide pork in the vacuum seal bag to make a porky bbq sauce (directions following this taco recipe.)

Step 7. Next, pull apart the tender sous vide pork with a fork.

Step 8. Assemble tacos with pulled pork sous vide meat and toppings.

Check out more of my favorite game day recipes. 

Make BBQ Sauce With Sous Vide Pork Juice

Step 1. Reserve the pork juice from the sous vide bag to make a sauce.

Step 2. In a small sauce pan or skillet on the stove, set to medium-high heat, add the pork juice and 2 tbsp of butter. When the butter melts, add 1/4 cup BBQ sauce and stir as it bubbles on medium-high for about 2 minutes.

Step 3. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer on the stove for 5-10 minutes until it reduces to desired thickness.

How to prepare corn tortillas

Heat a large pan on the stove to medium heat. You can add a little butter or olive oil, but don’t add too much as it will make the corn tortillas crispy and not soft. To warm corn tortillas so they are soft and flexible, cook them 1-2 at a time so they don’t overlap, flipping before they start to burn. Prepare tortillas immediately before serving.

FAQs

Love smoked meats but unsure where to start with your own smoker? Check out this post on smoking meat for beginners.

The Perfect Sous Vide Setup

Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.

1. A sous vide machine.
   Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
   Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus.
2. Sous vide container.
   If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot.
3. Bags to cook sous vide food.
   Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup.
4. Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
   – Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
   – Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
   – Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them.
5. My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.

Are you a sous vide enthusiast, too?

I’m passionate about sous vide cooking, and maybe that’s why Sip Bite Go has become one of the most popular sous vide blogs on the web. This food hobby, turned blog, has recently become a sous vide cookbook. 

Find new ways to enjoy your favorite food with sous vide cooking. Get inspired with over a hundred recipes in my cookbook – The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook. 

Find me on Instagram @sipbitego to let me know what you’re going to sous vide next. And check out my latest sous vide recipe videos on the Sip Bite Go channel.

More pork recipes to try…

• See all my sous vide pork recipes
• Sous vide pulled pork
• Sous vide pork tacos
• Sous vide pork butt
• Sous vide pork loin
• Sous vide bone in pork chop
• Sous vide boneless pork chops (grill finish)
• Sous vide pork tenderloin
• Sous Vide Overnight Bacon
• Quesadillas with leftover pork
• Pulled pork pizza