Cochinita pibil
Yucatán’s great dish: pork marinated in achiote and sour orange, cooked for hours wrapped in banana leaf. In Mérida it’s eaten for breakfast, in tacos and tortas, with pickled red onion.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg pork shoulder or loin, in pieces
- 100 g achiote paste
- 200 ml sour orange juice (or orange and lime)
- 4 garlic cloves
- Cumin, oregano and pepper
- Banana leaves
- Salt
- 2 red onions, lime juice and habanero chilli for pickling
- Corn tortillas
How to make it at home
- Blend the achiote with the juice, garlic, spices and salt.
- Coat the meat with the marinade and leave it in the fridge overnight.
- Line a casserole with banana leaves, add the meat and marinade and fold the leaves over to close.
- Cover and bake at 160 °C for about 3½ hours, until it falls apart. Shred it in its juices.
- For the onion, slice it thinly and leave it in lime juice with salt and chopped habanero for an hour. Serve in tacos.
The trick: Pibil means “buried”: in Yucatán it’s cooked in a pit with hot stones.