Spicy Cherry Pop Roasted Pork is roasted over onions with chipotle peppers and cherry flavored pop along with some fun maraschino cherries until fork tender.
Spicy Cherry Pop Roasted Pork has become a family favorite in our house in spite of it’s less than natural ingredients. It’s perfect meal for a main course, tacos, on top of nachos! The story was that we were at a party and this dish was being served. My husband and I both loved it and asked for the recipe. The fact that it is a recipe from Ree Drummond had me interested so when we got home that night I looked it up.
I was shocked for two reasons. One, it was so simple! Two, I didn’t really love the ingredients. So I shelved it. Then one weekend when I was cleaning up I noticed I committed a party foul. Open leftover sodas in the house. And they were Dr. Peppers. So I pulled a pork shoulder out of our deep freeze and got to work.
Work was about five seconds and it was fine even from frozen. I’ve made this a number of ways since then. I’ve added cherries to the recipe, sometimes in season I use fresh sour cherries, sometimes Rainier cherries. In a pinch I use bottle maraschino cherries with some of the liquid. So this dish has managed to work into our summer rotation, usually a few times in the summer. We serve it with macaroni and cheese, over nachos, or in tacos too. It is delicious, full of flavor, and is always a hit with everyone who eats it. Well done Ree, well done.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cute the onion into wedges and put in the bottom of the pot. Put the pork on top.
Season with salt and pepper. Add the Dr. Pepper, brown sugar, adobo peppers and cherries with juice.
Spicy Cherry Pop Pork
Ingredients
- 5 pound pork shoulder ("pork Butt")
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 large onion
- 1/2 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 24 ounces Dr. Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 cup maraschino cherries (including juice)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Cute the onion into wedges and put in the bottom of the pot.
- Put the pork on top.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the Dr. Pepper, brown sugar, adobo peppers and cherries with juice.
Cover and cook for 6 hours.
- Flip the pork a couple of times during the cooking process.
- Shred with a fork.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Pioneer Woman
Would you rather make this in the slow cooker? EASY! Cook it on low for 7-9 hours. Don’t add any additional liquids. 
Such a great look. I am salavating here
Yum, I love pork roast! This looks so tasty and I want to try it ASAP. I love that you used pop for this recipe. Dr. Pepper used to be one of my favorite pops to drink.
When I do indulge in soda I always prefer Dr. Pepper too 🙂
That looks so good! I am going to have to try it!
Thanks Autumn! I hope you love it!
I love it when fruits are combined with meat. This looks so delicious and I would love to make this for my family.
Me too! Thanks!
Made with DP…I’m in! Unique list of ingredients but delicious together.
Yup!
This is one of my favorite roast recipes. It is so delicious and the meat just falls apart. I make it all the time. I would definitely recommend this recipe.
Awesome! Thanks Ann!
You can tell that it’s juicy just by looking at it! What a great idea to use cherry pop to help give it a delicious flavor!
Thanks Meagan!
That pork looks so perfect. I bet that spice would really hit the spot, especially with some veggies.
Thanks Liz! Oh yes! My favorite veggie to serve it with is roasted Brussels Sprouts!
This looks SO good. I would love to try this since it’s a bit spicy. My favorite!
Thanks Krystal! It is a bit spicy and the sweet cherries are a fun balance 🙂
I absolutely adore cooking with Dr Pepper! I used to drink it, I quit for health reasons, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a very occasional guilty pleasure. Especially now that they’ve started making it with real sugar. Have you tried that stuff (comes in a lime green can)? It’s really, really tasty. 🙂
If you have any other awesome recipes with it, I would totally be open to more! I did see an episode of the chew where they used flat soda and simmered it until it was reduced and used it in a bbq glaze. I thought that was pretty ingenious as I have been guilty of opening a can and completely forgetting it.
I have never cooked with soda either, but I am intrigued! I think I would make this in the slow cooker.
Yeah, it was a new and sort of skeptical experiment. If I saw the recipe having not already tasted the food I don’t know if I would’ve tried it. Plus the idea of cooking with so many chemicals is different for me but then I felt hypocritical because I do occasionally drink soda!
I like pot roast.This recipe looks very good.
Pinned this! I am making it this weekend! Yummy!
Awesome! I hope you love it!
Wow this looks so delicious! I need to take my crock pot out again.
Thanks Elizabeth!
This sounds like a really great dish! I love pork tenderloin and would love to recreate this in the cooler months.
Thanks Amy!
OHHH I have a pork roast in my freezer right now. This is the perfect meal for that! I will be trying this, this week! YUM!
Yay! You have to come back and tell me what you think!
Looks fantastic, thanks for sharing!
This pork looks incredible, and easy, which are too key factors for me if I’m going to try a new recipe 🙂
Paige
Thanks Paige! I hope you try it and love it!
Woohoo! I just posted my cherry pork recipe today, too, haha! Yours sounds fantastic and so simple; I bet it would work nicely in a slow cooker, too.
Great minds! I have to go look at yours now, I love everything you make so I am sure it will be great!
I don’t cook with soda a lot, either, but every now and then it’s awesome in a recipe like this.
Haha, yeah it is such a strange ingredient!
I don’t drink a lot of soda but I’ll use it occasionally for cooking and it adds a nice zing. Love the sound of this with the peppers; will have to try the crockpot version!
This was the first recipe I had ever cooked with soda for. After that I came across the weight watchers cake recipe (cake mix and one diet soda) but other than that, this is it!