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Create your own restaurant-style burrito with our Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Burrito Copycat Recipe. Smothered in enchilada sauce, it tastes just like the original.
Featured with this Recipe
Sweet Pork Burrito
This Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Burrito recipe tastes just like the favorite restaurant style burrito and is really easy to make at home! I often make Cafe Rio salads at home using the sweet pork but hadn’t attempted a copycat burrito yet. When my husband asked for the green, medium, enchilada sauce I tried my hand at it, and after a couple of tries, it turned out perfectly! He said this sauce tastes just like the sauce at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida, only a tiny bit spicier, which he liked. If you’re wanting all that yummy Cafe Rio flavor but don’t want to spend the money or time running to the restaurant, try this recipe!
Ingredients in Sweet Pork Burritos
For the Sauce:
- diced green chilies
- salsa verde
- chicken broth
- sugar
- salt
For the Burrito:
- flour tortilla shell – click the link for our recipe
- cilantro lime rice – click the link for our recipe
- seasoned black beans – click the link for our recipe
- Cafe Rio copycat sweet pork – click the link for our recipe
- Monterey Jack cheese
- lettuce
- pico de Gallo (a chunky salsa with tomatoes, onions, and minced garlic)
- guacamole – click the link for our recipe
Optional Ingredients
- fresh lime juice
- hot sauce
- chili powder
- bell pepper
- cumin
What Kind of Sweet Pork Do I Use?
If you want the full Cafe Rio/Costa Vida Sweet Pork Burrito experience, you’re in luck! We have perfected the Cafe Rio Sweet Pork recipe. It marinates over night and cooks in the crock pot. If you’re running short on time, you can use any pulled pork recipe with Mexican-inspired flavors. This sweet pork is also amazing in salads, enchiladas, and tacos!
Tips for Making This Recipe
- You can find the 9″ round disposable foil pans for your burritos for the full restaurant effect: Disposable Foil Pans (just like what Cafe Rio uses)
- Our rice and beans recipes are SUPER simple too. You definitely want the beans and rice to get the whole experience!
- We make our sweet pork burritos “enchilada style” by adding more enchilada sauce, topping it with more cheese, and heating in the oven until the cheese is melted. Add shredded lettuce and pico de gallo to the side and you are ready to go!
- This recipe is for one burrito but can easily be multiplied by however many you need. The sauce recipe can stretch a little to 2 or 3 burritos depending on how much you like to use.
Frequently Asked Questions
This meal goes great with a side of chips and salsa.
To make the cafe rio pork recipe you’ll need pork (you can use boneless pork ribs, pork chops, pork roast, pork butt, or pork shoulder), Coca Cola, brown sugar, garlic salt, water, diced green chiles, and enchilada sauce. We like to cook it low and slow in a slow cooker.
We prefer to store the leftovers in separate airtight containers in the fridge. Leftover sweet pork can also be stored in the freezer, thaw in the refrigerator when ready to use.
Read Next: Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas
More Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes
If you would like to check out ALL of our Cafe Rio copycat recipes, click HERE! Or try a few of our all time favorites:
- Our Version of Cafe Rio’s Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Salsa Fresca (Pico de Gallo)
- Our Version of Cafe Rio’s Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
- Homemade Flour Tortillas
- Homemade Tortilla Strips
- The BEST Guacamole EVER
- Cilantro Lime Rice
How to Make a Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Burrito
Our Version of Cafe Rio’s Sweet Pork Burrito
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 4 ounces diced green chilies
- 7 ounces salsa verde
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the burrito:
- 1 large tortilla shell click the link for our recipe
- 1/2 cup cilantro lime rice click the link for our recipe
- 1/2 cup black beans click the link for our recipe
- 3/4 cup Cafe Rio sweet pork click the link for our recipe
- 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese divided
- lettuce
- pico de gallo
- guacamole click the link for our recipe
Instructions
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for at least 20 minutes.
- Layer rice, beans, pork, and half of the cheese on top of the tortilla. Roll it up into a burrito.
- Pour about ½ cup of the green enchilada sauce over the burrito and top with additional Monterey Jack cheese. Place in the oven at 450-degrees until cheese is melted.
- Serve with lettuce, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
Notes
Recipe Tips:
- You can find the 9″ round disposable foil pans for your burritos for the full restaurant effect: Disposable Foil Pans (just like what Cafe Rio uses)
- Our rice and beans recipes are SUPER simple too. You definitely want the beans and rice to get the whole experience!
- We make our sweet pork burritos “enchilada style” by adding more enchilada sauce, topping it with more cheese, and heating in the oven until the cheese is melted. Add shredded lettuce and pico de gallo to the side and you are ready to go!
- This recipe is for one burrito but can easily be multiplied by however many you need. The sauce recipe can stretch a little to 2 or 3 burritos depending on how much you like to use.
The burrito calls for a volume of pork and the linked sweet pork recipe is done by weight. I’m going to make sweet pork with an 8lb butt, guessing I’ll end up with 6lb of sweet pork. I don’t know what that’s going to translate to in burritos so I can’t get the correct amount of other ingredients. Approximately how much pork by weight goes into a burrito?
It is about 6 ounces of pork per burrito! I hope this helps!
This taste just like the café rio burrito but actually better! So simple to make too!
Tastes even better!! Their sweet pork is our absolute favorite, so being able to make it at home makes my family so happy! I will be adding it in everything!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
I really want to make this for dinner this week. Then I realized that there are actually no instructions on how to make the pork. Could you pleas share how you do that?
Yes! Here is our recipe: https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/cafe-rio-sweet-pork/
Best recipe ever!!
I’ve never been to a Cafe Rio, but I love how easy and tasty this recipe is. It’s perfect for a weeknight family dinner.
How many burritos does this make?
It makes 8-10 burritos depending on how many you can fit in your baking pan. Thanks for asking!
Another one of your recipes on my list for this week – thank you, ladies! May I suggest a delicious and beautiful change-up? Up here, in the Detroit area, a lot of our Mexican places actually use thickly sliced Muenster cheese to top their wet or baked burritos.. I know, who’da thought? It melts beautifully and is chewy/creamy/mild. One manager I was talking to told me they cut off the orange rind – and not because its bad, but for looks.. I’ve done it at home w/o cutting off the orange because I don’t care to lose that money, lol.. Thanks again.. I’m spending my entire weeks dinner budget on this site. It rocks! Are yall on facebook? Would be nice to get updates there instead of hunting back/forth. 🙂
Hi Steve– Yes, we are on Facebook and Pinterest… and Instagram.. and Twitter.. and YouTube.. and you can get weekly e-mails from us as well! There are definitely ways to find us if you are looking 🙂 I love the idea of Muenster. I am a HUGE fan of Muenster and I totally want to try it on the smothered burritos now! Thanks for the tip!
Hello! The links aren’t clickable in your recipe, so I’m unsure which bean and rice recipes you’re suggesting for this meal. Could you post the links or names here? Thanks so much! This recipe has me drooling! 🙂 YUM.
We will get on this right away. Thank you for letting us know! If you need to find them you can do a search in the search bar at the top of the page. If you search “Cafe Rio” they will all come up
My green sauce is very liquidy. Im afraid that i would make the tortilla too wet and soggy? What can I do to thicken it?
You could always try corn starch. We use that as a thickening agent all the time!
My husband LOVED this green sauce! The only other green sauce he likes is Betos but he was all over this! He said we should have it in our fridge at all times ha. He was even eating it with Fritos while I was making everything else ha. Do you know how long it will last in the fridge?
I would keep it for about a week in the fridge… probably not too much longer than that though. So glad he likes it! We love it too! We love dipping chips and quesadillas in it!
Did you figure out how to make the hot red sauce yet?
Thank you for this recipe. I made the burritos today and turned out fabulous. I do believe marinating the pork overnight made the difference. I have some picky eaters in my home and they ate their plates clean. Thanks again.
sorry, meant to say CANT click on the links.
Sorry, the links are broken for some reason. If you type it in the search box here on the site the recipe will come up!
I wanna make this, but can click on the links where it says CLICK HERE….
I made this recipe awhile back and it was GREAT!
Yikes! I will get on that..
how do i do the sweet pork? it says click here but it wont allow me to do so… any tips would be greatly appreciated thank you 🙂
Here is the link: https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/cafe-rio-sweet-pork/
Thanks for your recipe, Question though, i went to walmart yesterday to look for some ingredients but cannot find any. Do you have any suggestions where i get the died green chile can and salsa verde? thanks!
I have found both of these in the Hispanic food section at WalMart. The chiles are right by the diced jalapenos. The salsa verde should be close by too. If you can’t find them at WalMart you should be able to find them at any other large grocery store. Worst-case scenario you can just ask an employee. They should know where that stuff is.
I’m from Australia and love love love cafe rio but therecis nothing at all that even comes close to it!!!! So I’m going to try and re create it here with your recipes… It maybe a little hard though as we don’t have all the same things though but I shall give it a crack!! I wil also be attempted alot of your recipes so thank you soooooo much for allowing me to experience some American food in Australia haha
I miss Cafe Rio so much! I went to school at Southern Utah University and it was a treat to head down to St. George and get Cafe Rio! I have to try this! Thank you so much for posting this! BTW, the medium green sauce is my fav!!
Cafe Rio uses the medium green chile sauce for their rice (their rice is a green chile not a cilantro-lime rice). I have seen them make the rice, they take a fresh steamed batch of rice (may have been done with water or other stuff not sure) and they scoop several ladles of the green chile sauce right over the rice and toss it all together. So this recipe is great for both the sauce and the rice!
Oooooohhhh my Gooodness! It turned out AMAZING! They said it was just like they remembered 🙂 I am one happy camper knowing that we don't have to go cross country for a Cafe Rio fix!!!Thank you soooo much!!!
I'm making this tonight for dinner! Soooo excited to have a taste of something we crave so desperately :)Question about the sauce, Is it ONE 7oz. Salsa VerdeOR 17 oz. Salsa verde???Just want it to be perfect :)Thanks!Jen
@Jenn–
It is ONE 7 oz. can of Salsa verde. If more than 2 people are having burritos, you may want to double the recipe.
Good luck!
Erica
I can't wait to try out some of your recipes! I wanted to ask, is there any chance you know how to make the mild sauce as well?
Found your recipe on Pinterest. Made it for Sunday dinner tonight. It was fabulous and my husband and I thought it tasted exactly like Cafe Rio/Costa Vida. Thanks for sharing!
We love, love, love Cafe Rio when we lived in Utah and Vegas but now we are in Alaska and we miss it SO much!! Hey, if the Stanley family still owns it, have someone ask them to open one in Anchorage!!
@ Carl & Amber.. not a dumb question at all, I assure you! It is the diced green chilies.. you were right. Sorry I should have been more specific! I will change it now!
For the can of diced chilies…is this diced green chilies or chile peppers? When I went to the store, there wasn't a can that said diced chilies. Sorry, it is probably a dumb question, but I'm serving this to 50 people, and I don't want to do it wrong!
Yes! We get ours at the Dollar Tree!
Love your Cafe Rio recipes! I have a question, though. Have you found an affordable place to buy the tins?
I haven;t made the hotter red sauce before. I don't know about you but the red sauce they have tastes pretty basic. I am sure you could get away just using a hot enchilada sauce from the store. I will try and figure out how they do it exactly next time I try it!
I have the pork in the crockpot but I was just thinking last minute do you by chance know or have an idea how to make the red hotter sauce they have??? My husband is picky and hates how the green looks and he loves things more spicy! Thanks!
I have the pork in the crockpot but I was just thinking last minute do you by chance know or have an idea how to make the red hotter sauce they have??? My husband is picky and hates how the green looks and he loves things more spicy! Thanks!
Hey, I came across your blog and love it. Thanks! I was wondering if you have a recipe for their chicken that they put in the enchaladas. My husband loves the pork, but I much prefer the chicken. I would love to know if you have one and if you could post it or email it to me. Thanks!
Kamee
kcgroethe@hotmail.com
I got this recipe from a friend, so i am not sure where it came from, but This is a recipe we have used for Chicken and it is TRULY amazing!
Cafe Rio Chicken
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 lbs. chicken breast
put all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on low 4 hours. Shred chicken. Cook additional hour.
There are a couple of other Cafe Rio recipes you can find at: http://bestfoodontheplanet.blogspot.com/2008/09/cafe-rio-recipes.html The Tomatillo Dressing is great.
We live in Texas and loved Cafe Rio when we went to visit family in Utah. I LOVE your recipes and have been so happy that we can have our own "cafe rio" in our home. I really do love this site and use so many of your recipes. Thank you for sharing and taking the time to do this blog!
We moved away from UT 3 years ago and Cafe Rio is the only place we miss. You guys have been life savers with these cafe rio recipes. Thank you. If I can ask one request. Do you have the recipe for the hot enchilada style sauce they cover the burritos with?