Pork Barbacoa Recipes

BARBACOA

Steps:

• Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Place the dried guajillo chiles into the skillet and cook, turning occasionally, until the color changes and the chiles have puffed, about 5 minutes. Set the chiles aside to cool for a moment. Meanwhile, toast the cumin and cloves in the hot skillet until the cumin seeds begin to pop; remove from the pan and set aside. Remove and discard the stems, seeds, and veins of the chiles, and place into a small bowl. Pour the boiling water over top, and cover. Let the chiles soak for 1 hour.
• Grind the toasted cumin and cloves into a powder, and place into a blender. Add the ancho chile powder, onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, vinegar, and lime juice. Remove the chiles from the soaking water, and place into the blender along with 1/3 cup of the soaking liquid. Cover, and blend until a smooth paste forms.
• Place the beef roast into a mixing bowl, and pour the guajillo chile past over top. Coat the roast on all sides with the paste, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
• Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Transfer the roast and marinade to a roasting pan, and arrange the bay leaves over top. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven until the meat is very tender and is easily pulled apart with a fork, about 6 hours. Let stand, covered, at room temperature for 1 hour before discarding the bay leaves and shredding with two forks.

SWEET PULLED PORK BARBACOA

Steps:

• Place pork shoulder fat-side-up in a slow cooker. Cover with soda, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
• Cover and cook on Low until pork is tender and can be easily pulled apart with a fork, 8 to 10 hours.
• Remove any bones and solid hunks of fat from pork and discard. Shred with 2 forks; stir pork into its juices. Add brown sugar, green chiles, salsa verde, and habanero pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.
• Cover and cook on Low until flavors are absorbed, about 1 hour.

CROCK POT PORK BARBACOA

Steps:

• Generously season roast on both sides with salt and pepper. Place in the bottom of a large slow cooker.
• In a mini or regular-sized food processor, pulse garlic until chopped. Add cilantro leaves and pulse until minced. Add chipotle peppers plus adobo sauce, lime juice, tomato paste, cumin, chile powder, garlic salt, and oregano. Secure lid and process until just blended. (Alternatively, you may use a knife to mince garlic, cilantro, and chipotle(s), then stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed.)
• Spread half of chipotle mixture over the top of the roast. Carefully flip roast over and spread remaining mixture over other side. Pour beef broth and beer into the bottom of the slow cooker (without washing the chipotle mixture off the roast). Drop in bay leaf. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
• Remove roast to a cutting board. Skim fat off top of cooking liquid, if necessary, and remove bay leaf. Slice pork into chunks and then shred pieces with two forks. Return to slow cooker, stir meat to soak up liquid, and reheat on Warm for 20 to 30 minutes. Serve as a filling for tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, or on top of a rice bowl or salad. Refrigerate leftover meat in reserved cooking liquid.
• Tips, Tricks, & Variations
• Adjust amount of chipotle pepper and adobo sauce, to taste. You may substitute all broth for the Mexican beer, if desired.
• If your roast is falling apart, shred it in the crock pot.

SLOW-COOKER BARBACOA

Steps:

• Place the first 9 ingredients in a blender; cover and process until smooth. Add broth; pulse to combine., Place roast and bay leaves in a 4- or 5-qt. slow cooker; pour sauce over top. Cook, covered, on low until meat is tender, 7-9 hours., Prepare rice about 30 minutes before serving. In a large saucepan, combine water, rice, butter and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat; gently stir in cilantro and lime juice., Remove roast from slow cooker; cool slightly. Discard bay leaves and skim fat from cooking juices. Shred beef with 2 forks; return to slow cooker. Serve with rice.

CAFE RIO SWEET PORK

Steps:

• In a large, heavy duty Ziploc bag, combine the pork roast with one can of Coke and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Seal tightly and marinade in the refrigerator anywhere from 2 hours to overnight. (UPDATE: I usually skip this step and go straight to cooking the meat these days. It seems not to make a substantial difference and the recipe is easier without marinading, but the choice is up to you!)
• Once the pork roast has had a chance to marinate for at least 2 hours, transfer the pork, along with the marinade, to a crock pot. Add the water and sprinkle the salt, garlic powder, pepper and chili powder over the pork roast. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours on high (or 6 to 8 hours on low), until the pork is tender enough to be easily shredded with a fork.
• While the pork cooks, combine the remaining can of Coke and the remaining 3/4 cup of brown sugar in a blender, along with the can of diced green chilies and red enchilada sauce. Blend until smooth, then set aside.
• Remove the pork from the crock pot and discard the cooking liquid. Shred the pork, removing any fat, and return it to the crock pot, along with the enchilada sauce mixture. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 hours on low, then check seasoning to see if more salt is needed. Serve in salads, burritos or tacos!
• You can skip marinating ingredients and instead just combine the rub ingredients in a bowl. Cut the pork roast into large pieces and sprinkle with the spices, rubbing it all over the meat.
• Add the meat to the pressure cooker along with 1 can of the Coca-Cola (or Dr. Pepper) and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to seal. Select "pressure cook" and cook for 50 minutes at high pressure. When done, let the pressure cooker do a slow natural release for 45 minutes (do not touch the release valve). After 45 minutes, release any extra pressure and remove the meat. Discard all but about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
• Shred the meat, discarding any pieces of fat and return to the Instant Pot.
• In a blender, combine the remaining can of soda, red enchilada sauce, diced green chiles, and brown sugar. Blend until smooth, then pour over the shredded pork, tossing to coat. Set the Instant Pot to "saute" and cook for 15 minutes until heated all the way through.

SLOW COOKER SWEET PORK BARBACOA

Steps:

• Place pork roast in a slow cooker. In a mixing bowl whisk together light-brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
• Add in chicken broth and tomato paste and whisk mixture until well blended. Pour chicken broth mixture over pork roast in slow cooker. Cover slow cooker with lid, cook on low heat 7 - 8 hours.
• Remove roast from slow cooker, remove fat from roast and shred (I don't shred the pieces very small because it will kind of have a "mushy" texture if you over-shred it). Ladle out some of the fat (the shiny orange layer of liquid) from the top of the broth in the slow cooker and discard.
• Return shredded roast to slow cooker and allow to rest on warm heat for 1 - 3 hours. Strain broth. Serve inside tacos, enchiladas or burritos or serve over nachos, salads or tostadas.

SLOW COOKER SKINNY PULLED PORK BARBACOA

Steps:

• Mix together the salt, pepper, coke zero, and brown sugar. You can place the roast with this marinade into the crockpot or gallon size bag and let it marinate overnight or for at least two hours.
• Take the pork out of the fridge and add 1/4 cup water to the marinade. Cook on low 4-6 hours or high 3-4. The pork should be able to shred very easily with fork.
• Drain all liquids and shred the pork with two forks. Mix ingredients for step 2. The coke zero, green chilies, tomato sauce, chipotle chili, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, brown sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with the shredded pork and continue cooking for an hour.
• You can serve with black beans, cilantro lime rice, or whatever your heart desires. :)

SHREDDED PORK BARBACOA

Steps:

• Sprinkle roast all over with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• Place in crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
• After cooking, take roast out and shred.
• Place back into crockpot.
• Add the enchilada sauce and brown sugar and let it heat through.