Sweet Pork Tostadas (Café Rio Style)
Instant Pot Sweet Pork Tostadas go beyond conventional with crispy tortillas topped with shredded Café Rio–style pork, refried beans, cheese and guacamole—and any other of your favorite toppings.
❤️ While you’ll love these: This sweet pork cooks up quick and tender in your Instant Pot. Served as a tostada, you get a blockbuster combination of sweet and slightly spicy meat plus fresh vegetables and crunchy tortilla.
Café Rio is one of Utah’s top chain restaurants, and my family especially loves their Cafe Rio sweet pork barbacoa. But instead of ordering out, I like to make my own copycat version at home with my Instant Pot.
These sweet pork tostadas are every bit as tasty as the restaurant’s! However, they’re a more manageable size and topped with any of your favorite toppings.
Update: I love these sweet pork-stuffed crispy tostadas, and I think you will too. I’ve updated the post with new photos and recipe instructions. I hope you enjoy!
How to Make Café Rio Sweet Pork Tostadas in an Instant Pot
This Instant Pot Pork Tostadas recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
Most Café Rio copycat sweet pork recipes require 6 to 8 hours in the slow cooker. In the Instant Pot, pork shoulder only takes 1 hour. Plus, no waiting in line and it’s at a fraction of the price!
I use Frontera Enchilada Red Chile Enchilada Sauce to add a bit of spice and tons of flavor to the toastada filling.
This pork is meant to be quite sweet, but you can cut down on the brown sugar if you’d like.
📌 Note: The coke is essential to getting the perfect Cafe Rio sweet pork flavor, so I wouldn’t omit it. I also don’t recommend using diet unless everyone who is eating the sweet pork is a diet soda drinker—the diet taste will make its way into the meat itself.
What’s the Best Cut of Pork for Tostadas?
For juicy, easy-to-shred pork, I recommend a boneless picnic shoulder. It cooks faster than bone-in cuts and has the right ratio of fat and muscle for tender, succulent pulled pork.
I cut the meat into 1-inch pieces so I could use a shorter cook time. However, if you prefer, you can put the meat into your pressure cooking pot whole. I’d cook a 4-pound whole pork shoulder for 90 minutes at high pressure for the same shreddable result.
Can I Freeze Instant Pot Pork Shoulder?
Yes, you can make the tostadas filing ahead of time, it freezes well. Let the pulled pork cool then keep in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost the pork in the fridge overnight and fill and bake your tostadas.
Baked or Fried Tostada Shells?
Traditional Mexican tostada shells are made with deep fried corn tortillas.
I prefer to make them a little healthier (and easier) by baking them with a little spritz of cooking spray. They still crunch up healthy and delicious.
Feel free to deep fry (or air fry) them if you’d rather! Or, in a pinch, you can buy them in a box.
🥗 Tip: If you want to serve this sweet pork like like a Café Rio salad, serve it with my Cilantro Lime Rice and my Cilantro Lime Ranch Dressing.
More Mexican Instant Pot Recipes
If you love the Mexican flavor in these Sweet Pork Tostadas, try these other popular recipes:
- Mexican Pinto Bean Soup is a healthy bean soup with a kick.
- Stuffed Bell Peppers with Chipotle Lime Salsa has the right amount of sweetness and spice to make a satisfying Mexican-inspired dinner.
- Mexican Green Rice in the pressure cooker is the perfect zesty side dish.
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Sweet Pork Tostadas
Instant Pot Sweet Pork Tostadas are an easy Cafe Rio copy cat recipe, made with juicy, sweet shredded pork covered in enchilada sauce and melty cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 can (7 ounces) diced green chiles
- 2 cups Coca-Cola, divided
- 1/2 cup picante sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 4 pounds boneless picnic pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 cup red enchilada sauce*
- 5-inch white corn tortillas
- Cooking spray
- Prepared refried beans, for serving
- Shredded lettuce, for serving
- Shredded Mexican cheese, for serving
- Guacamole, for serving
- Fresh Salsa, for serving
Instructions
- Add chiles, 1 cup Coke, chunky salsa, brown sugar, tomato paste, chili powder, and cumin to the pressure cooking pot; stir to combine. Add the pork.
- Select High Pressure and set the timer for 25 minutes. When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, release any remaining pressure. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
- Pour the meat into a colander to drain juices.
- Shred the pork and return it to the pressure cooking pot. Add remaining 1 cup Coke and enchilada sauce and stir to combine. Heat on Sauté setting until heated through.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray tortillas with cooking spray on a baking sheet. Bake until tortillas are crisp and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
- Spread tortillas with refried beans, then top with sweet pork, shredded lettuce, cheese, guacamole, and salsa. Serve hot
Notes
*I used Frontera Red Chile Enchilada Sauce
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 803Total Fat: 51gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 28gCholesterol: 208mgSodium: 809mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 4gSugar: 19gProtein: 57g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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I’m so anxious to try this when I go north again. Snowbird. Sounds extra tasty. We’re not buying any more food, now. Eating what we already have. My husband & I will love it. Mexican food is one of our favorites.
Safe travels. Enjoy!
Barbara, this recipe looks delicious, but 2 cans of coke ??? That’s at least 20 tsp of sugar! And I would not replace it with Diet Coke either, with all the artificial sweetener it contains. I would replace it with something slightly sweet, perhaps some fruit, but Coke is simply unacceptable.
Hi Barbara – not two cans of Coke, two cups of Coke and one of the cups of Coke is the braising liquid that gets drained off. Of course, you could substitute fruit juice instead if you prefer.
Just to be sure I’m doing this right, do I drain off all of the sauce that the pork was cooked in, throw it out, and make a new sauce with the enchilada sauce & cup of Coke?
Hi Barb – yes, in this recipe I don’t use the cooking liquid. But you could use it instead of the Coke if you wanted to. It will be pretty greasy though, so you’ll want to use a gravy separator if you have one.
This is going on the “Gotta Do” list. My Bride and both love Café Rio’s Pork Tostadas but it seams that our Café Rio gets carried away with the lettuce. Now we can pile on the pork and cut back on the lettuce.
Great! My husband’s all about the pork too.
Does the meet shred when it is cut up in chunks? If I use a 2.5 pound pork tenderloin how long would I pressure cook it?
Hi Heather – yes, the meat will shred when it’s cut up in chunks – it just cooks much faster when it’s cut in piece. A pork loin will work but it won’t be as succulent.
If I leave the pork whole (so don’t cut it into one inch cubes) would I have to adjust the cooking time?
Hi Becca – yes, the thicker the piece of meat, the longer you’ll need to pressure cook it. It will probably take at least 90 minutes for a 4 lb. pork shoulder to be shreddable. Enjoy!
Could I use bone-in country pork ribs instead of the shoulder? Would I adjust the time? I have 6qt Power Cooker XL and LOVE it- and your website!
Thanks Marla – that’s so nice to hear. I did try bone-in country pork ribs for pulled pork once and wasn’t very happy with the results. How about this recipe instead? https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/sweet-and-sour-country-style-ribs/ If you do decide to try this recipe with the ribs, I wouldn’t change the cook time.
What would you recommend for a stovetop pressure cooker?
Hi Melinda – I would use the same cook time for a stove top pressure cooker. Enjoy!
We have a Café Rio down the street here in Irvine, CA & their Barbacoa Pork is my favorite too. I’m going to make up this recipe & make sure to have some leftovers.
What size pressure cooker does this recipe use?
Hi Karla – here’s a link to the pressure cookers I use https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/faq/ both 6 qt. electric pressure cookers.
The Mexican food lover in me is certainly aroused. Wow, this looks so flavor. Another Barbara hit again!
This look absolutely scrumptious!
When you say to put the pork back into the crockpot with the coke and enchilada sauce do you pressurize it again or just warm it on the stove?
Hi Brenda – yes, you put it back in the pressure cooking pot, stir it to combine and heat it on the saute setting for a few minutes.
We don’t have Cafe Rio here but those Pork Tostadas sure do look good….I know we’d love these. I’ve yet to try making a pork shoulder in either the crock pot OR the pressure cooker. This recipe may be the one to springboard me into action. I’ll have to check out the price of them at the grocery store this weekend.
Thanks Barbara!