There are a lot of Sweet Pork (Cafe Rio Copycat) Recipes out there. But have you noticed that most of them call for Coke or Dr. Pepper? Well, I’ve tried my fair share of these recipes in the past…but since I strongly dislike colas (yes, all of them) I found that I did not like those recipes that included them! {Plus, I sorta have an aversion to cooking with soda pop.}
SO, I’ve been searching for a good recipe for sweet pork that didn’t have cola in the ingredient list. I’m happy to announce that I found a couple recipes and then put them up to the Taste Test Challenge!
The great thing about these recipes is: you put all the ingredients in the crock pot to cook all day (easy!), then just shred up the meat and add in the sauce. I love that!
After I cooked up both recipes, I put a taste of each on small plates for our judges. And then, when they picked their favorite, they got to make an entire sweet pork salad (or burrito). Now those are some lucky judges!
Sorry about the half eaten salad in this next picture…it was SO good that I forgot to take a picture before I ate most of it!
We used the following for our salads:
Fresh cooked tortillas
Cilantro Lime Rice
Garlic Black Beans
Lettuce
Peach Mango Salsa
Kari’s Garden Salsa
Cheese
Cilantro Lime Dressing
Oh. My. Goodness. I think these homemade salads are SO delicious! (They do rival the restaurant — however, there is something lovely about having all the ingredients ready and a salad made-to-order for you at the restaurant!)
Just to make sure of our results, I took both cooked recipes to my brother and sister-in-law (who just had a baby! yay!) to try out. The difference was, they would warm theirs up for dinner the next night. And they both liked the SAME one.
THE RESULTS:
Surprise! It was a TIE. I know, I know. I can’t believe it either.
So today, I am going to share with you my mother’s recipe for Sweet Pork.
And I will link up to the other cola-free Sweet Pork recipe as soon as I get permission! Permission granted! Here is the Sweet Pork Recipe that was a favorite among 50% of the judges! (Thank you to The Sisters Cafe for such an awesome recipe!) If you do try this recipe, be sure to try their Garlic Black Beans as well…so good!
[Note to judges: this was recipe 1 for all of you that picked the first sweet pork sample as the winner]. This one has a small hint of a spicy kick to it (probably from the enchilada sauce) that was delicious, and this one was definitely quite a bit sweeter than the other.
And the other 50% of the judges liked my mom’s recipe! {recipe to follow} This was, in my opinion, the easiest of the recipes. You just mix together all four ingredients (yes, only four ingredients!), add on top of the pork roast, cook it up all day, take out the pork and shred it up, and add back in some of the sauce (not all of it….it makes a lot of sauce!) [Note to judges: this was recipe 2 for all of you that preferred this one]
*Recipe here
Ingredients
- 3 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
- 2 8 oz. cans El Pato sauce (can use yellow or green can)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Mix ingredients together and pour over 5-7 lb. pork loin roast.
- Cook in crock pot on low for 8-10 hours. (You can also cook in a tightly covered casserole dish in oven for approximately 4 hours @ 325 degrees).
- When roast is tender and done, remove from dish and shred - saving the cooked sauce.
- Pour cooked sauce back over the shredded meat to desired moistness. (Note: this makes a lot of sauce and you may not need it all).
