Recipe: Pork Ranchero With Whole Wheat Buns

by Courtney Sullivan

Some days a person needs comfort food that's easy to make. We have just the dish for you! Toss a few ingredients in your crock pot, sit back and relax.

Just about the time it smells so good you can't stand it any longer, it's time to dry the pork in the oven a few minutes, shred it, blend the sauce and serve it up.

It won't take long before you're enjoying a big bite of your Pork Ranchero!

This is "delicious" made easy and nutritious!

Pork Ranchero with Whole Wheat Buns

Prep time: 15 minutes | Total time: 4 1/2 hours | Yield: 4 - 8 servings

Ingredients

• one 2-pound pork shoulder roast
• 2 1/2 cups diced or 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 to 1 Anaheim chili, minced
• 1/2 to 1 jalapeño, minced
• 1 small onion -- finely chopped
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper -- chopped
• 1 clove garlic -- crushed
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• salt and pepper -- to taste

Directions

Remove the pork from its wrapper and since. Put it into the crock pot.

Pour the tomatoes and water on top of the roast. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the salt and pepper. Adjust the amount of hot peppers to suit your family's love -- or dislike -- of spicy foods. Stir slightly to combine. Cover and cook on the high setting for 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Remove the roast from the crock pot. Place it on a small baking sheet. Bake the pork roast for about 15 minutes to dry it out and make it easy to shred.

While the pork bakes, remove the liquid from the crock pot. Allow it to cool slightly. Add the liquid to your blender in small amounts and blend until smooth.

Pour the liquid into a sauce pan and heat on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Reduce the volume by about 25 percent. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, remove the pork from the oven. Using two forks, shred it into chucks. Place the shredded pork on a whole wheat bun and top with spoon fulls of ranchero sauce. Serve with kale chips or crunchy coleslaw.

Cook's Note

Ranchero pork can be eaten in so many ways. You could:

• Serve the shredded meat and sauce over rice and accompany with pinto beans.
• Replace the ground beef in your tacos with the shredded pork.
• Make shredded pork burritos. Combine shredded cheese, leftover rice, shredded pork and sauce on a tortilla shell. Roll up, add more sauce and top with a touch of grated cheese.
• Whip up a batch of ranchero sauce pork enchiladas.

Are you wondering what to do with any leftover ranchero sauce? I suggest that you incorporate it into breakfast tomorrow -- huevos ranchero!

Share how you make this dish for your family!