Slow Cooker Restaurant Style Sweet Pork (no soda)

If you are looking for a from-scratch option for making restaurant style sweet pork at home without soda or other processed ingredients, this is the recipe for you.

My husband’s favorite restaurant is Costa Vida, and we love getting their sweet pork salads. The salad is built on top of a fresh tortilla. We like to eat most of the salad and then fold the rest into a burrito. Several years ago, I decided that I wanted to find a way to make this meal from home. There are hundreds of copy cat sweet pork recipes on the internet. The problem I found with almost all of them is that they include soda such as coke as a key ingredient.

One of the things I was looking for in a sweet pork recipe was for the ingredients to all be pantry staples. This would also mean that the ingredients would be from scratch, meaning no preservatives or additives. I had one recipe I used for a while that used enchilada sauce as well as a few other ingredients. While these ingredients weren’t super processed I didn’t keep them in my pantry.

I prefer not to have to take a special trip to the store in order to make any of my go-to meals. So in order for this recipe to become a regular in our house, these ingredients had to change. I slowly morphed the recipe I had found into my own, using only ingredients that I always keep on hand.

Using tomato sauce, spices, and the juices from the pork itself, I am able to create a sauce that, like enchilada sauce, has lots of flavor, but is made from simple pantry staples. Sugar and apple cider vinegar add the delicious sweetness and depth of flavor that you find in restaurant style sweet pork.

Ingredients for Slow Cooker Sweet Pork

• 3 lbs pork roast
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

How to Make Restaurant Style Sweet Pork.

Begin by putting all the ingredients into a slow cooker.

Mix the topping ingredients together and coat the pork.

Cook the pork on low for about 6 hours or until the pork reaches and internal temperature of 150° F.

Take the pork out of the sauce and shred it into small chunks.

Return the pork into the slow cooker and let it marinate on warm setting to soak up the juices.

Serve your restaurant style sweet pork over rice, on top of a salad, or in a tortilla with toppings of your choice. We love serving ours in a salad over a fresh tortilla just like Costa Vida! You can find my favorite quick and easy tortilla recipe here.

Slow Cooker Restaurant Style Sweet Pork (no soda)

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 6 hours hrs

Total Time 6 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 16

Equipment

• slow cooker

Ingredients

  

• 3 lbs pork roast
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

 

• Begin by putting all the ingredients into a slow cooker.
• Mix the topping ingredients together and coat the pork.
• Cook the pork on low for about 6 hours or until the pork reaches and internal temperature of 150° F.
• Take the pork out of the sauce and shred it into small chunks.
• Return the pork into the slow cooker and let it marinate on warm setting to soak up the juices, at least 20 minutes.
• Serve over rice, on top of a salad, or in a tortilla with toppings of your choice.