Okay guys, I promise I’m not going to throw yet another stupid 4 ingredient Sweet Pork recipe at you. I mean, don’t get me wrong… 4 ingredient recipes are SO AWESOME, but if you want a legit copycat recipe, a recipe that actually tastes restaurant quality, I can guarantee you that Cafe Rio isn’t in the back of their store popping open a jar of Pace Picante salsa and dumping it over their pork.
I know better than anyone that we all need a handful of those recipes in our back pockets, but this is not the time for one of those.
I don’t want to scare you, though. My recipe is still SUPER easy, it just has more than four ingredients. Fresh ingredients. Ingredients that are much more likely to be used in a restaurant.
This recipe is still easy enough that you will never use crappy salsa for your sweet pork ever again. I can guarantee you that!
To complete the meal you will also need the recipes for the cilantro lime rice, and those awesome black beans. Those are coming at you later this week, don’t you worry your pretty little heads.
I also like to make pico de gallo and cilantro lime ranch. I used to make homemade tortillas too, but then I had a baby and life got a little too crazy for that. I’m not superwoman after all.
I buy tortillas from the store and I buy tortilla strips from the store and I buy parmesan cheese from the store as well.
I have no idea how to make parmesan cheese, but I’m sure if I did know I would still buy the crap out of it.
I’ve definitely got a system down, but all in all it takes me a little over an hour to prep and make everything for this dinner.
This deliciousness can be stuffed into burritos or tacos or quesadillas or my personal favorite… salads.
Copycat Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
2016-03-30 14:21:14
Homemade Cafe Rio/Costa Vida is SO good and so easy! This recipe has fresh ingredients and your slow cooker does most of the work!
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Ingredients
Pork Roast (4-5 lbs.), thawed
4 cups coke, divided
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 cup sugar, divided
2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large carrots, peeled and finely grated
1 serrano pepper, diced (seeds left in for heat, or taken out for less heat)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
Instructions
Cut away any obvious fat portions from the roast.
To the crockpot, add pork roast, 3 cups coke, can of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, minced garlic, carrots, serrano pepper and onion.
Cook on high for 6-7 hours.
Remove roast to cutting board and shred with two forks. Place shredded pork back into crockpot and add remaining cup of coke and remaining 1/2 cup sugar to the crockpot. Stir together, reduce heat to low and cook an additional three hours.
Serve pork in burritos or salads.
Notes
*When I make this I like to put all of the ingredients except the tomato sauce, sugar and coke in the crockpot and put the crockpot in the fridge. In the morning I'll pull it out, dump everything else in and set it and forget it. It will take you 2 minutes to dump the last four things in the morning!
** This makes A TON OF PORK. I've never frozen it, but if anyone else tries it and reheats it with any success, I'd love to hear about it!
My Mom Taught Me To Play With my food http://playzwithfood.com/
Saying I ate a salad for dinner makes me feel better, even though we all know that it’s basically just a giant deconstructed burrito.
