Pork Barbacoa (Cafe Rio Sweet Pork)

There are a lot of restaurants in NYC (that was the understatement of the year), but we have yet to find something that tastes like good old Cafe Rio back home. This recipe for shredded sweet pork is ridiculously easy and comes strikingly close to the real thing. It's a perfect meal for Sunday since you can put it in a little before church and it'll be ready when you get home. It's delicious in tacos, salad, enchiladas, burritos, you name it. You can go all out and heat up some black beans and cook some rice with lime and cilantro. Below I've also posted the closest recipe I've found to their signature dressing. It's not perfect, but it's very close.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

2 ½ lbs. pork roast
⅓ cup water
1 clove garlic, minced {or ⅛ teaspoon garlic salt}
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
1 cup canned green enchilada sauce {or salsa verde}
1 cup brown sugar

Put pork, water, garlic, salt and pepper in crock pot on high for 4 hours. Drain, shred pork with two forks. Stir together green enchilada sauce and brown sugar, pour over pork and stir in. Serve in burritos, tacos, salad, etc.

Tomatillo Cilantro Ranch Dressing

3 large tomatillos
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup packed cilantro leaves
½ cup mayo
½ cup sour cream
1 envelope buttermilk ranch dressing mix
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 jalapeno {half it if you don't like the heat}

Remove Husks from tomatillos, wash, quarter and broil until soft, about 7 minutes. Combine everything in blender until smooth. Chill for at least one hour for flavors to blend.

Crock Pot French Dip

Annie gets the credit for this one. It's delicious.

3-4 lb beef roast
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 sliced yellow onion
2 packets Au Jus gravy mix
water (a little less than the packets call for)
french style hoagie rolls
sliced muenster cheese

Put the roast, mushrooms, onion, gravy mix and water in the crock pot, set on low for 8-10 hours. At the end of cooking, shred the roast with a fork. When you're ready to eat, put the rolls with cheese slices on them under the broiler to melt the cheese. Scoop out some of the liquid from the pot into little bowls for dipping. Then pile the roast beef on the bun, dip and eat! SO GOOD. It makes a lot but it's good as leftovers too.