About three weeks ago, my 9 year old approached me about getting a job. What?!? I asked her why she wanted a job, knowing beforehand the answer would be so she could buy an endless supply of tiny rubber bands and charms for her magic bracelet loom obsession. However, she blew me out of the water when she replied, “So I can start saving for college.” What?!?
So for the past two weeks, my baby girl has been getting up many hours before school starts, bundling up against the Minnesota winter and delivering newspapers. Our local paper does not have a Sunday paper so she is also learning a whole new level of appreciation for the Sabbath being a day of rest 🙂
To celebrate completing her first week of employment (without a single complaint), I made up a big batch of this Cafe Rio Sweet Pork copycat recipe. She loves Mexican food as much as her momma and especially when the protein is pork. Pork is so much more flavorful than chicken or beef!
For years, my go-to Mexican pork recipe has been my famous Pork Carnitas but this time, I decided to mix it up and go with a sweet pork stuffed in my homemade flour tortillas instead. The pork was completely delicious! My Jones-sized recipe makes a crock pot full of meat but don’t worry because it freezes beautifully.
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Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
Ingredients
- 5–6 pounds boneless pork butt
- 3 C Coke (not diet!)
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 C enchilada sauce
- 1 1/2 C Coke
- 2 – 7 oz cans green chills
- 2 C brown sugar
- 1–2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large container, combine the Coke, brown sugar and pork meat. Marinade for 4-8 hours in the refrigerator.
- Place pork and half of the marinade in the slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours until it is tender and able to pull apart with two forks. Remove the meat from the slow cooker, discard the cooking liquid and shred all the meat.
- In a blender or food processor, blend together the enchilada sauce, Coke, green chills, red pepper flakes and brown sugar. Combine with the shredded meat and cook on low for 2 hours. Taste the finished meat and add any additional salt needed. I added about one more teaspoon at the end.
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