Cilantro Lime Avocado Shredded Pork Tacos

We’ve cooked with sweet shredded pork a lot since moving away from Cafe Rio, our favorite stop for fresh mex with shredded meats. We love making replica pork salads from the restaurant (especially with the huge amount of copy cat recipes we’ve found online), but a lot of times we find the pork is too sweet. Along with rice and beans it can make their dishes very heavy.
We had some friends over for dinner this weekend and one is allergic to poultry so cooking with any turkey or chicken was out. I don’t even cook chicken that much but when I can’t use it I feel nervous to find a meal they’ll like without any poultry or chicken stock. I decided on pork tacos because we love tacos in any variety and I was on a mission to make a spicy shredded pork with only a hint of sweet. The other thing that makes these tacos is the lime juice shredded cabbage. Cabbage is always a little thick for me so I soaked it in lime juice. The lime is the perfect fresh burst of flavor against the thick sweet and spicy pork. And the creamy cilantro lime sauce just brings it all together. I love tacos!!
Shredded Pork

• 3 lb. (any size smaller or larger will work too) pork shoulder roast
• garlic salt
• cumin
• chili powder
• brown sugar
• 1 can red enchilada sauce

Place pork shoulder in crock pot and trim off any excess fat. Pour water over the pork so it rises 2 inches in the bottom of the crock pot. Cover pork in chili powder (just sprinkle a lot in there, can’t have too much because most of it runs down into the water), garlic salt, and cumin. Cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4-6). Once crock pot is done, pork should fall apart and shred easily.
Once cooked, remove pork from crock pot, dump out water and rinse/clean it out. Place pork back in and shred it up. Add red enchilada sauce and approximately 1 cup of brown sugar. Mix well. Then cover the pork with more chili powder, and a bit of garlic salt to taste. Make it as spicy as you like it. We like it spicy with a kick of sweet in the back!
Once you get it seasoned to your taste, place crock pot on “Warm” or “Low” setting and pork will be ready and warm when you are ready to eat.
Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce

1 bottle ranch dressing

3 cloves garlic

juice of 1 lime

1/2 – 1 bunch cilantro leaves

Place all ingredients in blender or food processer and blend until creamy. I like to make this the day before and chill it, so it’s one less step that day. Also it tastes great chilled.

Additional Ingredients

• Corn tortillas
• Red cabbage
• Romaine Lettuce
• Farmhouse Crumbled Queso or Cojita cheese
• Limes (5-6)
• Cilantro
• Avocadoes

Next up, take 1/2 head of red cabbage and dice it into thin shreds. Then dice half a head of romaine into thin shreds and mix with cabbage in a large bowl. Then squeeze the juice of 3-4 limes over shredded mixture and mix to coat with lime juice. Set aside.
Then grab your small corn tortillas and some cooking spray and a small skillet. On a medium-high heat, cook up the desired number of tortilllas you’ll need for the meal. They taste so much better when cooked up!
Assemble your tacos with avocados first, then pork, then lime cabbage, then cilantro lime cream sauce, then cheese, and top with cilantro and more lime juice as garnish. These really are such an easy and yummy Sunday dinner because the crock pot does most of the work.