Mayan-Style Pit Pork (Cochinita Pibil) Recipe
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This recipe from the Barrio Café in Phoenix is perfect for feeding a crowd. The prep time is minimal and the results are outstanding: tender chunks of flavorful pork just begging to be bathed in salsa, topped with our Pickled Red Onions, and wrapped in warm corn tortillas. The hardest part of this dish is buying the ingredients!
What to buy: Achiote paste and banana leaves can be found in most Latino grocery stores. Banana leaves are often kept in the frozen-foods section.
If you can’t find sour oranges, use a mixture of 1/2 lemon juice and 1/2 grapefruit juice.
Game plan: Be sure to start making this a day before you want to serve it, as it needs 12 to 24 hours to marinate.
This recipe was featured as part of our Modern Potluck story.
- 3/4 cup crumbled achiote paste (about 4 ounces)
- 3 tablespoons sour orange juice, such as Seville orange (about 1 orange)
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano or Italian oregano
- 1 (3-pound) boneless pork shoulder roast (also known as pork butt)
- 1 large banana leaf (about 4 feet long)
- 3 medium yellow onions, quartered
- 1/2 cup water
- Combine achiote paste, juice, vinegar, garlic, and oregano in a medium nonreactive bowl and stir until well blended. Generously season pork on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place in the bowl with the achiote mixture and turn to coat it well, rubbing the spice mixture into any crevices. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 12 to 24 hours.
- When ready to cook the pork, remove from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 300°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
- Remove the center core from the banana leaf and run the leaf under hot tap water until it becomes soft and pliable. Pat dry with paper towels and cut in half horizontally; overlap the two pieces of leaf so that they roughly form a rectangle about 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. Place the pork on the banana leaves, fold in the left and right sides, and roll it up like a burrito to completely encase the pork.
- In a Dutch oven or other large, heavy-bottomed pot with a tightfitting lid arrange onions evenly on the bottom to form a layer. Place pork on top of the onions, with the seam of the banana leaves facing down, and pour water into the bottom of the pan, cover, and place in the oven to cook until pork is fork tender, about 3 1/2 hours.
- Place meat in a bowl and, using two forks, shred into bite-size pieces. Add onions and pan juices and stir to mix thoroughly. Serve with Pickled Red Onions, warm corn tortillas, and salsa.
Beverage pairing: Affligem Blonde, Belgium. The pork’s complex mix of flavors—sour orange, achiote, pickled onions, pork—needs both support and contrast. A good Belgian blonde beer is up to the task. It has enough complexity to stand up to the dish, but also enough austerity to not be overrun by the pork’s richness.
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Sorry for the double post...
Some tips for Cochinita Pibil:
1. MAKE YOUR OWN ACHIOTE PASTE!!! Can't stress this enough, really easy and store bought versions are crap.
2. Blend in some finely chopped peppers in your marinade, preferably smoked, for added flavour and spice.
3. VERY IMPORTANT: Marinate pork for at least 12 hours, enought time for the acids to sufficiently break down the tissues.
4. 4 Hours @ 325 for 5-6 pounds of meat works well. However, if you can, cook lower and slower for best results.
A good recipe to start with from director Robert Rodriguez can be found on youtube here: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=gO8EiSc...
but i suggest slightly less cumin, seville oranges instead of lemon, and save the good tequila for your guests.
Some tips for Cochinita Pibil:
1. MAKE YOUR OWN ACHIOTE PASTE!!! Can't stress this enough, really easy and store bought versions are crap.
2. Blend in some finely chopped peppers in your marinade, preferably smoked, for added flavour and spice.
3. VERY IMPORTANT: Marinate pork for at least 12 hours, enought time for the acids to sufficiently break down the tissues.
4. 4 Hours @ 325 for 5-6 pounds of meat works well. However, if you can, cook lower and slower for best results.
A good recipe to start with from director Robert Rodriguez can be found on youtube here: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=gO8EiSc...
but i suggest slightly less cumin, seville oranges instead of lemon, and save the good tequila for your guests.
There is a great recipe here, along with recipes for the traditional pickled onion and black bean sides. I made it last week and i cant fault it, even though i did forget to add the bay leaves and allspice. http://delatierrablog.blogspot.com/20...
How would you adapt this recipe for a Weber Smoker? Marinade, then wrap in banana leaves and aluminum foil? Or would you want the smoke to penetrate first, then wrap in banana leaves?
I think this could be even more interesting with a few more lima beans.
I've made this many times with the El Yucateca achiotte brick, and it comes out super. The distinct annatto seed taste is strong and well integrated into the meat. Given that most Mexicans buy their pastes at the market, it's probably only folks north of the border that insist on grinding their own annatto seeds. I say just order the el yucateca paste from mexgrocer.com.
Not usually having a whole sucklingl pig, I make my Puerco Pibil (cochinita is a whole suckling pig) with a large butt, which I marinate in lots of achiotte, vinegar, garlic, toasted crushed cumin and mexican oregano for 24 hours (turning lots). Then I smoke the butt for 6 hours at around 225. Then I put it in the dutch oven with all the marinade for 4-6 hours at 250, until easily pulled apart. Serve with red pickled onions, for sure - that's where I use the sour oranges (after salting down overnight and rinsing well), not the meat. In my experience, the banana leaves add no flavor, but the smoldering in the pit wrapped in the leaves adds a smoked dimension that is completely missing when cooked in the oven or slow cooker. And by all means, corn tortillas - never flour.
I think the key to this dish working is make the achiote paste from scratch and then making the sauce from the meat drippings post from the top of the list. In doing that the meat was prefect. Enjoy!
Hi, all. We went back and tested this recipe, taking into account your comments. With the above instructions, you'll get tender, flavorful meat that's sure to be a hit!
Upon searching how to 'Warm Corn Tortillas" on this site I saw an interesting comment and recipe for a Salsa to go with Puerco Pibil.
It was posted by "Christina" back in 2004, and reads as follows:
"I've never seen one in the USA, unfortunately. But since they are grown in Michoacán, where carnitas originated, they go especially well with the flavor of the pork. You can make the salsa I mentioned with chile habanero. Here's how:
1 large white onion
1 chile habanero (or more, if you dare)
1 Tbsp white vinegar
salt to taste
Quarter the onion and slice as thinly as possible. Seed the habanero(s) and slice the the same way.
Add the vinegar and mix well.
Taste (carefully) and add salt as desired.
Allow to sit for an hour or two to let the flavors marry.
Provecho!"
Regarding "Christina's" comments to "kc girl" about Manzano or Peron Chiles. She said she had never seen them in the United States. I know of a place in San Francisco, California on Mission Street near 23rd Street that sells Fresh Manzano Chiles. It is called Lucky Pork Store.
And Manzanos are bigger and hotter than habeneros. Luck Pork Store is also the best source for anything Pork!!!! And 2 doors down is a wonderful fresh seafood store called Sun Fat. Sun Fat has an incredible selection of whole fish, live crabs, clams, mussels, oysters, crawfish, etc.
I agree with KenWritez. I use the Robert Rodriguez recipe with several tweaks to get something I like. Don't skimp on the quality of the Tequila or Orange Juice...you'll taste the difference later. I've cooked it with and without Banana Leaves. Make the effort to find Banana Leaves as it will reduce the bitterness of the other ingredients, much like a bay leaf does with Italian cooking. To avoid dry meat, cut into smaller 1" cubes. Using a cheap coffee grinder for "Mexican Spices Only" and a Dutch Oven for cooking the meat is priceless.
i made this for our NYE dinner for my husband and me. but i used the rick bayless recipe, it's way simpler and required a crock pot. which i did not have to worry about for 6 hours. The meat was very tender and tasted excellent, but i think it was the habanero sauce and pickled onions that made the dish. you can check some photos at http://runoutofroad3.blogspot.com/200...
I'm going to try this in a crockpot, so the 3# piece of pork sounds about right. Hopefully I won't have to pay a fortune for sour oranges.
For comparison, see this pibil recipe from Rick Bayless:
http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/vie...
A much simpler ingredient list. Digging the pit, that's another story :-).
BTW the unusually good CH pickled red onion recipe lasted about three weeks before it lost its crunch.
mine didn't come out that good I had a 8 lbs chunk but I adjusted the recipe. i should have went way over like tripleed it.
Manuel
ha ha, why even bother with 1 teaspoon of vinegar?
Well There is lots of Info On here I strickly was looking for Pit Cooking like camping with a Fire pit the last thing I want Is cooking Bags. I will adjust my recipe for the 4- 7 lbs butts. The banana leaves will a complish what I need if I can find them. I hadn't planned on the Once upon a time in mexico recipe, but it will work fine. Never found the banana leaves last time but loved the meal,
Thanks all
to captbob:
The temperature the recipe calls for is way too high. 200 - 210 would be my suggestion. no problem warapping it in aluminum foil- just make sure you get plenty of the liquid marinade in there and cook it on the coldest part of the grill - won't take anything like 8 hours though.
Cochinita Pibil is a wonderful dish from the Yucatan and is now served all over the country(Mexico). As a mattter of fact both the NY Times and LA Times have done feature articles on 'Cohinita Pibil recently so you can expect it to start appearing on menus across the country. Here is a much easier and better tasting way to do it. I marinate fist sized pieces of pork (don't waste your money on loin -shoulder is better for this dish) in a mix of orange, lime(because i'm in Mexico and we don't have lemons - but you could use lemon) and grapefruit juice with lots and lots (no subtelty here, hit it hard with garlic and oregano) of chopped garlic and lots of crumbled dried oregano. I run a golf ball size piece of achiote through the blender with some of the juice and add it to the marinade - if you'd like it hotter and a brighter red color just add a couple of dried red chiles (guajillo are the prettiest color but you can use any large dried red chile)to the achiote in the blender - I do. and i also throw a healthy pinch of whole black peppercorns after it's blended. At my restaurant we marinate the meat over night and i suggest you do too. I think cooking it in a covered pot on top of the stove with the rest of the marinade is the best way of cooking this dish. i don't think the banana leaves add any flavor but many people do so i line the pot with the leaves and cover the meat with more leaves before i put the lid on. This is not for flavor but i can then say on my menu 'cooked in banana leaves' and the customers really like that. 'oooh - cooked in banana leaves, so authentic.' any way, you want enough liquid to come up about a third or halfway up the meat. Cook it at a bare simmer for at least a couple of hours- checking to see that the liquid doesn't boil away. if you don't have enough marinade add more juice or better yet, chicken stock. it's done when you can pull it apart with a fork. Serve it on a big platter with enough of the coooking liquid to make it like a sloppy joe. Serve it with lots of hot tortillas and yucatan pickled onions - maybe some guacamole and dalsa of your choice. Mexicans will put out some chopped cabage too. Please don't let that one negative comment dissuade you - this is a wonderful dish.
Spencer Moore
Felix Restaurant
Cabo San Lucas
Can't find banana leaves here in Montana and don't want to use plastic bags. Any ideas/suggestions for a substitute to wrap the pork in while it's slow cooking on a wood fire?
Great Tequilas: Don Julio Reposado, Patron Reposado, or Herradura Reposado... "reposado" means "rested" meaning it has aged in wooden barrels for at least 2 months and less than 12 months. These 3 were recommended to me by mexican natives.
Robert Rodriguez' recipe uses orange juice, lemon juice and white vinegar instead of sour oranges, and roasts his 3# of pork butt @ 325F for 4 hrs.
Here's a link on YouTube to his pibil recipe.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gO8EiScBEjA
I plan on trying this in the next two weeks, I just have to fnd a Latin market in my area carrying banana leaves. They may not be necessary, but I figure I'll make this dish the "right" way the first time, and them improv on subsequent versions once I'm familiar with it.
Rodriguez also adds "the best tequila you can afford." Can anyone recommend a really good tequila for less than $30-40 a bottle?
if you don't have time to to marinade the meat for a loooong stretch, cut it into chunks and the flavors will absorb better. also i like to use fresh epazote for the zing (Berk Bowl has it fresh as do many latino markets). oregano is a poor substitute.
I agree with others that this recipe is a bit light on the spices. You might want to try this one instead which had wonderful results. http://www.recipezaar.com/217960.
Couple of tips. Lightly toast the cumino seeds and the oregano to bring out the flavors. Use a roasting bag instead of banana leaves to hold in the flavors while cooking.
You should not be concerned about the internal temperature since this is a slow (almost braising) process. at about 200degrees the proteins in the meat should slowly unwind and create a nice tender, and moist product. I would recommend using an aromatic on the inside of the banana leaf such as Hoja Santa, Kaffir Lime leaf, bay leaf, or even Taro leaf (like the Hawaiians do it).
8 hours does seem a little long and 300 degrees seems high. I'd probably turn my heat down to about 225 if I was going to cook it for 8 hours.
The right type of Achiote PASTE is critical for this recipe (stay away from the powdered stuff). Also a must: corn tortillas (not the stone ground type) and a nice smokey salsa. for an added bonus try some queso fresco or a little queso asadero and fresh cilantro leaves.
Agree the heat and cooking time is too high and long. Couple of other things achiote paste should be achiote condimentado (same as recado rojo--it already has vinegar in it) then for sour oranges I think a mix orange juice and lime juice is a closer substitute. This dish is not usually all that robustly flavored because it is going into tacos and will get a blast of Yucatecan habanero salsa.
Yeah, bfiesta! I was going to suggest the one from 10 minute cooking school.
This is similar to the mainland-kitchen way to make kalua pig (hawaiian roast...). 'cept with that, you stab and rub the guy with hawaiian salt and liquid smoke (because here on the mainland, we cant bury the pig in a pit!) and stick him in the crock pot.
Tried a version of this from Mexico - One Plate at a time on tv. The crock pot worked perfectly for it. If I was going to feed a really large crowd I might go the whole pit/coals just for the show.
The pickled onions take the dish up a big notch.
wow - some pretty harsh criticisms....this is pretty much my favorite dish from a fantastic restaurant....
I noticed flour tortillas in your photograph... I think corn is the
grain of choice in Yucatan....
I have used a crockpot too, it is actually my favorite way to cook cochinita pibil.
internal temp of the meat seems like it would go way too high.
i'd do it in a crock pot, personally. that's how ive been told to make southern-style pulled pork, and it works pretty well.
The key to this dish is to 'seal' the meat with the banana leaves (they offer zero flavor). So the meat self baste. I use a whole package of leaves (about a $1.00) and foil on top the dish to seal it. My pibil cooks for four hours max at 300 degrees. I stole my recipe from the movie 'Once upon a time in Mexico'. In the special features on the DVD they give the recipe. Its a way better recipe than this one featured here.
Looks to be somewhat short on spicing. Achiote by itself isn't an adequate substitute for recado rojo de achiote and other spices. I am looking this up in my Diana Kennedy books.
Also you might want to try cooking it using an oven bag. The turkey bags they sell at the grocery store. My recipe is close, but different at the same time. Using the bag instead of the banana leaves helps with penetrating the flavors.
I'm with you guys - the amount of ingredients seems pretty slim and the cooking time seems too long and too hot.
Personally I slow cook mine on the stove in a dutch oven since I think the banana leaves are just for show.
This is pretty close to my recipe (my quantities are gigantic) but I'd say start at 275 and go down to 200F if you've only got 3 lbs and it's going to roast 8 hours. I do mine at a continuous 225-250F outside.
I make this dish essentially like the recipe given (with way more garlic, achiote, and sour orange juice) and the problem here is that it needs to sit for a day or two to let the flavors penetrate before being cooked.
Also, sticking it the oven is a waste, this should be cooked outside low and slow.
DO NOT MAKE THIS! It is HORRIBLE....Seriously.
I had to cover it with bbq sauce to get it edible.
DO NOT MAKE IT...there is not way they tested this recipe.
Does 8 hours at 300 strike anyone else as being *way* to long?
I made this over the weekend and took it out after 5 hours and the meet had an internal temp of 200 degrees, so I knew it was ok. In fact, it was even a bit over cooked. ( Maybe my oven temp is off, i still need to get a good oven thermometer - BUT this just sounded too long ).
Ok, also, this wasn't as flavorful as I thought it would be. So if you'd like to kick it up a bit I suggest:
take all of the drippings from the pan and from the banana leaves and pour them into a pan. Then add:
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of OJ
1 tbl spoon honey
1/4 cup chopped onions (very finely chopped, I used a food processor)
reduce until it becomes a nice sauce.
After I mixed that into the meat, added the tortillas, and the onions it was delicious!