Cafe Rio Inspired Slow Cooked Sweet Shredded Pork and Cilantro-Lime Rice

Ever feel like you have to get your "fix" of something? Usually this refers to a devilishly sweet treat or something wonderfully salty. I think it's possible to need your "fix" for something healthy. For me, though, when the weekend rolls around, I crave nothing else but that sweet and juice pork barbacoa from Cafe Rio.  

It's divine. And could probably fill you up for a couple days in one sitting. 

It calls to me, and I'd willingly go towards that call every weekend if I could, but the sound of our bank account screams louder with reason. So I do what I've done in many times past: I make the dang thing in my own kitchen. 

The beauty of Pinterest, and the food blogging community, is that there are already a bunch of copycat recipe out there to chose from - especially with Cafe Rio-inspired dishes. So all it took during "grocery-list-making-day" (Thursday of each week) was a quick search - and immediately I was staring at a truck load of recipes to use.

The meat fell apart perfectly (after marinading overnight, and cooking over 7 hours, it basically had no choice), and had that almost-spicy-but-delightfully-sweet familiar taste. The rice was even better, and we ended up making a couple rice-bowls with the leftovers the next afternoon. I adjusted some of the ingredient measurements to taste.

Also, we don't drink soda in our house (not because we're anti-soda, but we just don't care for the stuff). So instead of buying the 2-liter as we did this time, I think we'll just get a couple of smaller bottles next time. As wasteful as it may sound to some, we ended up just throwing the rest of the soda away because it just sat in our fridge forever. Are we weird? Oh well.

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Slow Cooked Sweet Shredded Pork 

enjoy Cafe Rio's Pork? This will have you well taken care of.

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless pork ribs

3 cans Coke (not diet)

1/4 C brown sugar

garlic salt

1/4 C water

1 can diced green chilies

10oz can red enchilada sauce

1 C brown sugar - get over it. 

Method:

1. Marinade your pork overnight - in a large ziploc bag, or pyrex with fitted lid, mix together 1 1/2 cans Coke and 1/4 C brown sugar. Seal it tight, leave it in the fridge, come back later. 

2. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 5 hours. Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in slow cooker. Shred pork and put it back into crock pot.

3. In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can of Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce, and remaining brown sugar. Pour over pork and cook on low for 2-3 hours. 

Recipe source: Favorite Family Recipes, Inspired by Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa. 

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Cilantro-Lime Rice  

light, fluffy, tangy, and just what the doctor ordered 

Ingredients:

1 C uncooked rice (long-grain, white rice)

1 t butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t freshly squeezed lime juice

15oz chicken broth

1 C water

1 T freshly squeezed lime juice

1 t sugar

3 T freshly chopped cilantro

Method:

1. In a saucepan, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 t lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil and then cover and cook on low for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. 

2. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, sugar, and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the hot rice. 

Recipe slightly adapted from: Favorite Family Recipes, Inspired by Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Rice