We love Korean food, we love enchiladas, so we mixed them together, and made Korean Pork Enchiladas!
It was a Tuesday, which is usually Mexican food night in our house, but we wanted something with a bit of savory flavor to it. Something with a bit of kick, and complexity…we wanted Korean food!
We debated between making enchiladas or making Korean food, but we eventually decided “por que no los dos?” or why not both?
Making LGCM’s Korean Black Garlic marinated pork chops into an enchilada filling brought bold Korean flavor to the traditional Mexcian dish. This was a filling and delicious dish that made us glad we decided to combine two culinary traditions!
Because this is an unconventional recipe, there are a few points about the ingredients we used that we want to clarify in a Q&A format. We’ve put these explanations here for you to read and understand more about this recipe.
If you just want to get cooking, scroll on down to the ingredients, and get going. We hope you enjoy these super tasty and exciting enchiladas!
What did you use to fill your Korean Pork Enchiladas?
We used five ingredients for our Korean pork enchiladas filling:
- LGCM Korean black garlic marinated pork chops
- Chopped & sautéed kimchi
- Diced & sautéed pear
- Fried rice
- Korean BBQ sauce
This was a very straightforward list of ingredients, but we did need to prepare most of the ingredients separately before combining them for our enchilada filling.
What meat do you recommend using for Korean Pork Enchiladas?
We used our convenient and tasty marinated Korean black garlic pork chops.
These boneless pork chops are thinly sliced and come in packages of four chops and weigh a little over one pound each. These chops have a tangy, rich flavor with savory notes similar to a soy sauce marinade and just a touch of heat added to the mix.
If you don’t have our Korean black garlic chops to use for this recipe, that’s okay, you can use boneless pork chops or a pork tenderloin that have been marinated in a Korean BBQ or similar sauce for your meat.
How did you assemble your Korean Pork Enchiladas?
We put these enchiladas together the same way we would any other enchilada, but with some twists:
- We put down a little Korean BBQ sauce in our baking pan instead of the standard enchilada sauce.
- We put the filling inside tortillas, rolled them up, and placed them in the baking pan as normal.
- We then topped the enchiladas with Korean BBQ sauce and finished by baking as normal as well!
If you can make Mexcian-style enchiladas, you can make these Korean pork enchiladas too!
What is Korean BBQ Sauce?
We used Korean BBQ sauce as part of our filling, as well as the sauce for these enchiladas. In case you’ve never tried Korean BBQ sauce, we want to fill you in on it.
Korean BBQ sauce is not American-style sauce. Instead, it is a savory and delectable condiment rooted in the vibrant flavors of South Korea. This sauce is a harmonious fusion of sweet, savory, and slightly tangy elements.
A base of soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil come together and then are enhanced with the rich sweetness of brown sugar, the subtle heat of Korean chili, and the zesty brightness of rice vinegar. It’s a delicious BBQ sauce that’s totally different from American-style sauces.
For this recipe, we used the PS Seasonings Black Belt Korean BBQ sauce. It’s available at LGCM, and we highly recommend it! You can also make your own following this recipe.
What is kimchi, and where can I get it?
Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented vegetable dish, primarily made from napa cabbage and Korean radishes, though other vegetables like cucumbers or carrots may be used as well.
Good kimchi combines spicy, tangy, salty, and umami flavors together with a pleasant crunch. It’s one of the most all-encompassing foods I’ve had in terms of having a variety of flavors.
You can buy kimchi in most large grocery stores now (spicy or less spicy depending on your taste), or you can ferment you own at home using a recipe like this one.
Why did you use pear in these Korean pork enchiladas?
We know the pear may seem a bit odd, but pear is a commonly used ingredient in Korean cuisine. Using a pear as an ingredient in this dish brings a bit of a sweet counterpoint to the spice of the meat and kimchi.
Korean pears are different than American pears, with Korean pears having a bit more sweetness than American pears, but Korean pears can be very hard to find in America. We used Bartlett pears in this recipe, and the sweetness we wanted came through just fine!
What rice did you use?
Just one last note here before we share our full Korean pork enchiladas recipe, and this one is about rice.
Kimchi fried rice is a common Korean recipe, and we wanted to allude to that dish in this recipe. Fried rice needs to be made with rice that has been cooked and cooled. You can use any rice that has been cooked and cooled. We would recommend short-grain white rice, but any type of white rice is fine.
For the sake of complete disclosure, we used the microwaveable pouch of already cooked rice for this recipe since we didn’t have time to cook rice and cool it. It worked just fine!
How did you serve these Korean Pork Enchiladas?
To be honest, we ate these enchiladas without anything on the side – just a little chopped green onion on top for freshness!
The Korean pork enchiladas are a meal on their own with vegetables, fruit, carbs, and protein covered, but if you want to add Korean-inspired side dishes, here are a few suggestions:
We received a staff suggestion that a fried egg on top of these enchiladas could also be a yummy addition, so if you enjoy fried egg, feel free to add one to these enchiladas!
We hope you really enjoy this recipe that combines two of our favorite cuisines. If you want to check out more of our Korean-inspired recipes, just click this link!
That’s all we have to share about this recipe, we hope we made the ingredients clear, as well as the process for making these Korean pork enchiladas. If you have any questions or feedback, please leave us a comment or rating below, we appreciate what you have to share with us.
Thanks for reading – we’ll see you soon at Lake Geneva Country Meats!
