Cafe Rio At Home

I love Cafe Rio. I love it even more after making it at home. It was a LOT of work, and honestly probably not QUITE as satisfying as the real thing, but it was still totally worth it. I made the sweet pork burritos with pinto beans. I was stuffed after 1, but Russ had 2 - so they must have been okay. I certainly can't take credit for the recipe. I found it at this blog, but then made some of my own alterations. Here are pictures and recipes.

Burritos
1 LARGE tortilla shell (we got raw ones and cooked them on the stove)
1 large scoop cilantro lime-rice
1 large scoop pinto beans
1 large scoop sweet pork
Shredded Mexican cheese
Green Enchilada Sauce (we used mild from a can)

We served it with a romaine lettuce salad, but we just used ranch dressing - you can find recipes for the cafe rio dressing, but it was even more work :) 

Russ was modeling the assembly :)

Sweet Pork
2 pounds pork

3 cans Coke or Dr. Pepper (NOT diet)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Dash garlic salt
1/4 cup water
1 can diced green chilis
3/4 can red enchilada sauce
1 cup brown sugar

Put pork in a heavy duty zip-lock bag to marinate. Add about a can and a half of Dr. Pepper and about 1/4 cup brown sugar. Marinate overnight in the fridge.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of Dr Pepper, 1/4 cup water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for 3-4 hours. Remove prok from crock pot and drain liquid. Shred pork with a fork.

In a blender, mix 1/2 can Dr Pepper, chilis, enchilada sauce, and 1 cup brown sugar.  Put shredded pork and blended sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours.

Lime Rice
1 cup uncooked long-grained white rice
1 tsp butter
1 gloves garlic, minced
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 - 15oz can chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbl lime juice
3 Tbl fresh cilantro

I just threw the first 6 ingredients in the rice cooker. When it was cooked, I  squeezed the rest of the lime on top and added the cilantro.

Pinto Beans
2 cups dry pinto beans
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 cups water
1/4 cup salt
2 Tbl pepper

 Wash the beans and soak them for at least 4 hours. Drain and put into crock pot with the spices and water. Cook on high for 5 hours until beans are tender. Make sure the beans stay covered - I had to add more water while it was cooking. (One thing I didn't think about is that the beans EXPANDED in the crock pot. I did 4 cups of beans and my little crock pot was overflowing. Also, making the pinto beans is TONS of work, but they are really tasty!)