Tired of choosing between great food and having time? I cracked the code on pork tinga – the dish I loved but never made because it required TWO cooking steps. Solution: turn the “prep work” into its own amazing meal first. One smart batch of Kalua pork becomes two completely different restaurant-quality dinners without doubling your kitchen time so you can eat like kings every night.
Note: This recipe is part of the Pork Shoulder Meal Plan: Hawaiian to Mexican (2-Day). See the full meal plan for prep summaries and clickable shopping list!
Traditional pork tinga is incredible, but it requires TWO cooking steps. First, slow-cook the pork for hours until tender (like pulled pork). Then make the chipotle-tomato sauce and bring it all together. Who has time for that on a weeknight?
Here’s my lightbulb moment: what if the first step became its own amazing meal?
Let’s say we start with a Hawaiian Kalua Pork Dinner. Instead of treating the initial pork cooking as just prep work, we turn it into tender, smoky pulled pork that’s perfect over rice or in tacos. It takes maybe 15 minutes of active work, and by using the pressure cooker, we’ve cut down the cooking time to under an hour.
Then when we’re done eating my restaurant-worthy Kalua pork bowls, we can transform the leftovers into rich, smoky pork tinga in under 30 minutes the next day!
Personally, I think this looks and tastes better than most restaurants. Who else would give you THAT much avocado except you?
Strategic cooking that maximizes flavor while minimizing effort is what I consider “real” meal planning. Real challenging that is. But whenever one smart technique creates two completely different, delicious meals without doubling your kitchen time, I know I’ve found a winning combination.
And if they have different flavor profiles (e.g. Hawaiian vs Mexican)?! It’s a triple threat. Many would be satisfied starting out with a carnitas plate with pinto beans and rice on day 1 and then transitioning into pork tinga on day 2. But not me. Give me ALL the variety…in a week!
If you’re new here, this is practically the core of what I do. May a lack of time never come between us and our next delicious home cooked meal.
Oh, btw – I actually thought up this meal while working on my Easy Instant Pot Pork Adobo (Filipino Adobo Recipe) and Filipino Pork Adobo Burrito recipes (which will also be part of a meal plan soon). I had leftover flour tortillas from the burrito and thought, why not find a Mexican dish that uses them up along with more pork butt? So if you’ve been following along, you’ll be able to use up those stragglers. I got you.
I’m putting together a complete meal plan showing exactly how to execute this Kalua-to-tinga as easy as possible without sacrificing flavor, which includes:
Because if we’re investing time to cook, it should pay dividends all week!
So stay tuned, and if you haven’t, subscribe to my email list so you’ll be the first to be notified when the new meal plans drop.
I’m a foodie with a simple philosophy: why should amazing food be reserved for the weekends alone? I’m all about making every meal delicious because, let’s face it, we only have so many meals in our lifetime.
My mission? To take the stress out of cooking with easy-to-use meal plans so you can enjoy mouthwatering recipes any day of week. Join me on this tasty journey and let’s savor “more taste, less waste” in every bite!
I’m a foodie with a simple philosophy: why should amazing food be reserved for the weekends alone? I’m all about making every meal delicious because, let’s face it, we only have so many meals in our lifetime.
My mission? To take the stress out of cooking with easy-to-use meal plans so you can enjoy mouthwatering recipes any day of week. Join me on this tasty journey and let’s savor “more taste, less waste” in every bite!
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