Cafe Rio Craving

After a disappointing attempt at Thai green curry, I recouped with a yummy Cafe Rio-style dinner earlier this week. In all fairness, I think my expectations for the curry were too high. It was decent, but I expected it to taste EXACTLY like the one I loved so much at a restaurant near us in Utah. Not so much.

However, the sweet pork Cafe-Rio-style style salads came out perfect (for those of you that have never been to Cafe Rio, it's a Mexican grill restaurant popular in Utah). I looked at several copycat recipes online, combined and simplified.

I had a pork tenderloin I had gotten on sale and stuck in the freezer a while back. I thawed it and stuck it in the crockpot with a can of medium red enchilada sauce and 1/2-1 cup brown sugar. Some recipes also recommend adding some root beer, Coke, or Dr. Pepper, so I threw some soda in too. I cooked it on high for 3-4 hours, shredded the meat, then put it back in the crockpot for a couple more hours on low.

When it was about an hour to dinner I got started on everything else.

To give the rice some flavor, I cooked white rice as directed, but added a little lime juice, garlic, cilantro, and butter to the rice cooker along with the rice and water.

I made some fresh pico de gallo--diced an onion, a large tomato, and a jalapeno, added some fresh chopped cilantro, the juice of a lime (you could add some zest if you're feeling fancy), some minced garlic and salt (alternately, I have used garlic salt in place of the garlic and salt). I covered and chilled until dinner.

Then I cut some corn tortillas up into strips and fried those, lightly salting them after they were done.

Last, I made the dressing. I just used some ranch we had in the fridge and blended it in my mini food processor with a tomatillo, fresh lime juice, a clove or two of garlic, and a bunch of cilantro.

After I chopped up some lettuce and warmed up some black beans, it was time to assemble.

Tortilla, rice, beans, and cheese (I had some pepperjack and cheddar)--warm in micro or in oven to melt cheese--then put on the meat, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, and dressing. Bon appetit! (Disclaimer: This may not be the exact order they do it in at Cafe Rio, but it works for me and the result is yummy. :) )

Also, I didn't have an avocado on hand, but if I had, I would have mashed that up with some garlic salt and lime juice for fresh guacomole. Definitely next time!

Thanks Mike's sister Debbie for the idea and to Favorite Family Recipes for major recipe inspiration and the picture.