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I’m known for my love of Coca-Cola, especially in the bottle (and from Mexico, if possible. They make it with sugar down there and yep, it does make a difference!) While it’s a very rare treat for me, it is my indulgence of choice while crafting. When I was contacted by them about checking out a recipe from their My Coke Rewards website and blogging about it – how could I resist?
I chose Ingrid Hoffmann’s Pork Loin recipe (that has a pineapple-coke sauce) and served it with broccoli. I really like that there’s a brief how-to video as well as the recipe and instructions on the website. Here’s the video for the pork dish I made:
Now I goofed it up because I did not brine (didn’t watch video until I went to prep dinner!) – but it still came out good. I also didn’t do her rub the same way instead I just used pepper that was ground, skipped Star Anise, and used ground cinnamon. The coffee made me nervous – it makes the pork look REALLY dark when it’s cooking and kind of stinks. But the taste is good. Actually, the rub was really mellow – I think I’d kick it up with a bit of salt and maybe some chili powder or something with just a hint of spice.
Tip: She instructs to cook to 160, and as we ate the (rather over-done) pork Jason told me that the new USDA recommended temp for pork is 145. (link to article about recent change). So I’d cook it to the lower temp FOR SURE!
Now, the main reason I said I’d kick up the spice a bit on the rub is because it has a sweet sauce that goes with it. Amazingly enough, the sauce wasn’t as sweet as I expected, more along the lines of a sweet teriyaki sauce. I think part of the reason it wasn’t overwhelming is that I cut the sugar amount way down. Indeed, the sauce was VERY good. Miss Rebecca, who is the queen of not liking meat, LOVED her sauce and ate up all her pork! Jason (aka king preparer of meats in our house) also really liked it, and so did I. (E wasn’t a fan). My tip on this sauce? make 1/4 or 1/2 the batch. We barely made a dent in it!
Sauce recipe (cut down/version I will use next time):
1c Coca Cola
1/2c pineapple juice
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4c brown sugar
1-2tbsp lime juice
One note – I cut the amount of sugar she recommended in 1/2, and that is reflected in my above sauce recipe. We all agreed that the sauce was a winner – and would be awesome this summer over grilled chicken or veggie kabobs!
This post was sponsored by Coca-Cola to help kick off “Coke with Meals”:
This spring, Coca-Cola wants to help gather your family around the dinner table with Coke with Meals through My Coke Rewards. Take a cue from the warmer weather and let MCR.com spice-up your mealtimes with featured recipes and how-to videos from Chefs G. Garvin and Ingrid Hoffmann or submit your own recipes to inspire others!
With your family’s busy schedule, mealtime is the perfect opportunity to bring everyone together and share the day’s best moments over a Coke! Test out new recipes on MyCokeRewards.com/meals, where you can create a shareable cookbook of your family’s all-time favorites. You can also read and share tips on how to get kids, pre-teens and teens involved in the kitchen (because isn’t it more fun when you have helpers?!)