Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

By sherree

Ingredients

• 5-6 lb. pork roast
• 21 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
• 6 -ish oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Preparation

Step 1

Place roast in crock-pot, cover half-way with water and cook on low for 12 hours. (I started my Pork Adventure at midnight and everything worked out perfectly for Sunday dinner at 6:00 pm.) After 12 hours, drain pork (retain liquid if you want sauce for burritos, simply mix with a can of verde enchilada sauce and away you go).

Mix remaining ingredients until sugar dissolves. I didn’t keep the actual chilies, I dumped the can into a bowl and added enough Dr. Pepper to get all the sauce off of the chilies, then I tossed them. I also rinsed out the can with Dr. Pepper for more adobo goodness. My version had a fairly good kick to it, but if you LOVE hotness, then blend everything + 2 or 3 chilies in the blender. (Also, the adobo sauce tends to stain plastic, using a glass or metal mixing bowl will make your clean-up of adobo sauce considerably less frustrating).

Add Dr. Pepper mixture to the roast and cook on low an additional 4 hours.

Take out roast and shred, add back into sauce and cook for 2 more hours. At this point the meat was so tender it practically shredded itself.

Now, invite some people over and get cooking! Do you remember how to put together the salad?

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Tortilla – you can make your own, mine came from a package.
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Cheese -it is a good idea to warm these two up so the cheese is a little melty.
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Beans – black or pinto (mine came straight out of the can, warmed in the microwave with a little garlic powder and green Tabasco sauce).
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Rice – don’t be stingy now!
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Pork
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Lettuce – Shredded Romaine, you want small enough pieces to get a little of everything on your fork
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Pico de Gallo – I like extra pico, so I give myself an extra scoop.
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Tortilla Strips – slice a corn tortilla into strips, brush with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake on a foil-covered sheet for 15-20 minutes at 350-ish.
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Creamy Tomatillo Dressing –