Sweet Barbacoa Pork Salad

This recipe combines many fresh ingredients, including tomatillos. If you have never used them before don't be nervous, they have a light, sweet flavor. To use them remove the papery skin, rinse, and cut.

Another vital ingredient (in my mind) are uncooked tortilla shells. These are a staple in our home. They are thinner than the pre-cooked version, they have a better flavor, and they are easier to roll if you are making enchiladas, burritos, or fajitas. You find them in the refrigerated section at your grocery store.

Sweet Barbacoa Pork Salad
Recipe by Caroline (I have adapted this recipe from many online recipes)
Pictures by Caroline

Pork recipe:

5-6 lb. pork roast
20 oz. Root Beer (or Coke, or Dr. Pepper, don’t 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 oz. red taco sauce

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chili powder

1. Cook pork in a crock-pot on low for about 12 hours or overnight covered in water. Drain water off of pork and shred meat; return to crock-pot.
2. Stir remaining ingredients in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. (Note: to make this less spicy, don’t use all of the chipotle chilies from the can, but do use all of the sauce). Pour sauce on top of pork roast and cook for another 2 or 3 hours on low heat.

Note: I often make this recipe for just me and my husband. Rather than using an entire roast I just use 2 or 3 good sized pork chops. To speed things up, I will sometimes cook the pork first in boiling water for about 20 minutes, shred it, and then throw it into the crock-pot with the other ingredients and cook on low for 2 or 3 hours to absorb all the flavors. I halve the amount of ingredients that make up the sauce.

Cilantro-Lime Dressing
*Note: this makes a lot of dressing, I would suggest halving this recipe.

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

4 tomatillos (remove papery skin), rough chop

1 cup mayo

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup (or more) cilantro, rough chop

3 cloves garlic

1/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 jalapenos

juice from 1 lime

1. Rough chop the tomatillos, cilantro, garlic, and the jalapenos. Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Basic Pico-de-Gallo
3-4 medium tomatoes, diced (the fresher the tomato the better)

½ bunch of cilantro, minced (more of less depending on how much you like cilantro)

½ onion, minced

¼ cup sweet red pepper, minced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

about 1/3-1/2 cup vinegar (use your best judgement)

salt and pepper to taste

1. Just cut everything up and mix together. This tastes the best if you can let it refrigerate for an hour or more so that all the flavors can absorb into each other.

To serve:

Cut up some romaine lettuce and heat up some black beans with a little cumin and garlic powder, and cook some white rice. Then pile everything on top of a tortilla shell (I use the uncooked type that you cook yourself, I think they are the best if you can find them) and enjoy!