Cochinita Pibil


 

K Kruger

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Cochinita Pibil is a dish from the Yucatan of achiote paste-marinated pork cooked in banana leaves. There it is often cooked in pits in or on the ground. Here, a banana leaf-lined baking pan is often used; the pork gets covered with more leaf, the pan covered in foil, and baked in the oven. This is a version using the WSM. Pics here.

Cochinita Pibil starts with making an achiote paste (recado rojo). You can often buy this paste already made but I much prefer making it myself for best flavor. Pastes can vary in ingredients and you can vary the ones you use to make it; for instance, I did not use cinnamon in the paste for this version (and often don't) because of how I serve it and what I served it with. Allspice is in some versions of recado rojo as well.



Cochinita Pibil

Cochinita Pibil is often served with a salsa made with habaneros and I often do this. The other day I just served it on homemade tortillas with pickled onions on top, with salsa-topped avocado chunks on the side. Pickled red onions are traditional (I had yellow), but I highly recommend pickled shallots.

This recipe is enough for 4 lbs of pork. I used pork cut from the blade that were 4x2x1-inch pieces. I recommend using butt (though the blade was good) cut in 2x2x2 chunks.



Achiote Paste

If desired, double or triple this recipe (you can also make the paste in advance); form the paste into balls or disks, allow to dry a bit, then wrap in plastic and store in the fridge.

Achiote seeds are very hard. They can take a while to grind in an electric mill--grind very well. I put the ground spices in a small, fine-mesh strainer and sift the spices, pressing the powder into the mesh with my fingers, and then discard any larger pieces that didn't get ground fine enough. There shouldn't be many. If so, re-grind.


3 T achiote seeds

2 small bay leaves

1 T coriander seeds

1 T black peppercorns

1 t cumin seeds

6 whole cloves

4 t dried Mexican oregano

10 cloves garlic, peeled

2 t salt

1 small ripe (red) hot or mild pepper, fresh--or rehydrated if dried (I used a fresh cherry pepper), or 2-3 T Ancho, Guajillo, NM or other chile powder (optional)

2-4 T sour orange juice



Grind the achiote seeds and sift into as noted above; put in a small bowl. Grind the next 6 ingredients, sift, and combine with the achiote powder; mix well. Add the chile powder if using; mix well. With a mortar and pestle mash the garlic with the salt, add the fresh or rehydrated pepper, if using, then gradually work in the powdered spices, mashing all the while. Add the sour orange juice a little at a time till a smooth, thick paste forms. Dry and store as noted above or continue making the marinade.



Marinade



Using more sour orange juice (I also used pineapple vinegar as well), mash the paste, adding the juice a little at a time until the paste is thinner but still a paste, about like peanut butter; add a little olive oil and water--about 2-3 t each--mix in. Adjust consistency with more juice or vinegar or water till the marinade is like thin peanut butter.



Meat



Put the meat (about 4 lbs for this amount of paste) in a Ziploc and pour in the paste. Close the bag and mash the paste into the meat through the bag. Stick it in the fridge or the day (at least 5 hours).



The In-Leaf Topping (optional)

You do not need to do this but I recommend it and it's easy. The tomato and onion cook down on top of the pork and add to the flavor.

3-4 medium Roma tomatoes, sliced 3/8-1/2" thick

2-3 small yellow onions, peeled, sliced 3/8" thick


Sometime before you're ready to pull the meat out of the fridge (you can do this early), heat a dry pan over high heat till very hot. Lay a few rounds of onion and/or tomato in the pan and sear till charred in spots; flip and char the other sides; remove and reserve. Repeat till all tomato and onion slices are charred. Do not crowd the pan when doing this.



Banana Leaves/Wrapping the Meat


Lightly toast your banana leaves over an open flame to make them more pliable. I used 5 and had 4-5 pieces of 4x2x1 meat/leaf. Lay some of the meat in the middle of the leaf (I just pull it out of the Ziploc and stick it on the leaf, no wiping of the meat), top with some of the charred onion and tomato, fold up the narrow ends, fold over the sides, and tie in 2-3 places with kitchen twine just tight enough to keep things together, it is okay if the meat is slightly exposed here and there. (Cutting the twine to length in advance is helpful if you are doing this alone.)


Cooking


I used hickory. Pecan or a milder wood would be suitable as well. I suggest using the same amount as you would for ribs and seeing if that works for you. (I used a bit more than that and it worked well for me.) I had 5 banana packs of meat. I did 3 on top, 2 on the bottom.

[I set up with the MM but had to leave before my temps hit the target. Also, it started raining. Not wanting to overshoot, I decided to wing it on the vent settings, set them, and left. Temp was 215 lid and was the same when I returned 4.5 hours later. The meat was done perfectly nevertheless! Luck. If I was home I would have cooked at 235-245 lid, and it would have taken less time. Best to check after a few hours anyway. You're looking for fall-apart meat essentially, whatever the texture you normally like for butt works well.]

Remove the packs from the cooker when done and allow to rest 10 min.


Serving


Remove the meat from the leaves. Pull or chop or do a combination of the two (I like it large-chunky). Pile it on a platter or on individual serving plates on top of (or alongside) corn tortillas. Top with a little salsa, if using, or the pickled onions, or serve the onions on the side.


Pickled Onions


To make your own: Peel a medium red or yellow onion or a few shallots. Slice in half crosswise, lay cut-side down, and slice as thinly as possible. Put the onions in a small pot and pour enough water in to come halfway up the sides of the onion (not the pot). Add vinegar (I used pineapple but red wine, white wine, balsamic, rice, sherry--any are good, or a combo of vinegar and sour orange juice) till the onions are just covered. Add a pinch of dark brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce to medium-low and simmer 10 min. Pour the onions and the liquid into a bowl, allow to cool, then chill till serving time. Lift the onions out of the vinegar (allowing a few drops of juice to drizzle on the pork here and there); put on the plate; serve.



Kevin


On edit: I added the 2 bay leaves I mentioned downthread to this recipe because they work so well.
 
Really weird that you should post about pibil since I didn't think anyone here did it very much. We had an outdoor party for about 30 two weeks ago and i did puerco and pollo pibil,18lbs of pork and 4 chickens halved. I wrapped the pork in the banana leaves in two packages of 9 lbs each and put them in disposable 9x13 alum pans. I skinned the chickens before I cooked them. I put 4 halves/9x13 pan. I cooked the pork on the WSM for about 12 hrs at 225-250. I basted the packages to keep the banana leaves from burning.
I did the 2 pans of chicken on a 22-1/2" kettle for about 2-3 hrs at about 300-325. The only hassle with this was having to swap the pans around frequently for even cooking. For serving,I left the meat in the pans,opened the leaves and shredded the pork with my fingers..heavy rubber gloves! and let peopel get
what they wanted. I just pulled the cchicken from the bones and served it in the pans with the leaves. We also has pickled red onions as a garnish with a couple of home-made salsas to go
with it all. Everyone ate 'til they were moaning!!! It is a lot of trouble but for a crowd,the presentation is soooo cool it's worth it.
 
Kevin
You amaze me! The picture of the plated-up meal is fantastic.
There is a Thai restaurant I've been to that cuts a circle of banana leaf and centres it on the plate ... food goes on top. Your garnish made me think of that.

morgan
 
Morgan,

Thanks. It's a lot of fun for me--both the cooking and the presentation.

Pat,

The 'inspiration' to do CP on the WSM came from you here; I've only done it in pits or in the oven.

How large did you cut your chunks or do you buy boneless and just separate it as it is? I like the idea of pulling the pork and serving it in the leaves for a group--I'll definitle need to try that sometime.
 
Thanks for the kind words. The local Big Box is H.E.B. and they have startes stocking what they call' Carnitas..Pork for grilling. It looks like large chunks of Butt and they run it for about$1.40-1.60/lb. The chunks work perfectly as you can really get a good coating of the marinade on every piece.If I had to guess,I'd say the chunks were about a pound each. If you want any info about how I did it,feel free to E-mail me at the adress in my profile. I should have taken some pics but I just got the digital and keep forgetting that I have it!! Besides,I am not sure how to post pics anyway.
 
kevin and pat... question for both of you.

when I've done CP (in the oven), I've always done a whole picnic. I rub it in the paste/marinade, then wrap it well in banana leaves, etc., but I don't cut it down into smaller pieces. Kevin, I noticed that you recommended cutting down into 2"/2"/2" pieces. Any reason? Just so more meat gets marinated?

Pat, did you do your pibil in pieces, or was it a single roast/butt/picnic/shoulder/whatever in each of the banana leaf packages?
 
Yes, for more marinade coverage and a bit faster cook time. You could certainly do large pieces. Pat's butt chunks were about a pound a piece. I have lots of banana leaves here so making smaller packages of smaller chunks is easy for me.

One thing I noticed about Pat's approach: He made up to packs of pork chunks at 9 pounds each and put them in disposable pans and basted them during the cook; took 12 hours. He states he basted to keep the leaves from burning. Question to Pat: Have you done them without pans? Have you had a burning leaf issue before?

I cook mine on the grate and do not baste but I did not have a leaf-burning concern; my temps were lower though and the time was shorter. The next time I do it I'll run at 225 grate.
 
Sorry about not checking the thread closer!! I ahve been busy getting ready for my annual 4th cook for the fireworks display.

I haven't tried this without the pan. The burning leaf problem only happens to the very top of the package that is not constantly moist from the marinade/meat juices. Maybe a lower tem would alleviate this problem but 250 at the top vent shouldn't be too hot.

Adamclyde:
Most of the recipes that I found called for cutting the meat into chunks so I followed suit.If I hadn't found the cut that i did I would have bought bone-in butts and cut them up myself.I guess it helps with getting more surfaces covered with marinade. Don't know if it helps in the cooking time.
 
I made this again the other day. I added 2 small dried bay leaves to the recado (ground with the achiote seeds) which I highly recommend. I am out of stashed frozen sour o.j. and the fruit on the tree is just starting to ripen so I used sweet o.j. mixed with Key lime juice.

I cut a 3.6-lb boneless butt hunk into 6 pieces, marinated them overnight, and wrapped three pieces in one banana leaf, so two packs which fit nicely on the upper grate. Smoked with hickory at ~255 lid--done in 4.25 hours. Served with fresh corn tortillas, pickled shallots, garlic-yellow rice, jal-lime-cilantro rice, navy beans cooked with garlic, shallot, Mex oregano, and smoked paprika, and tomato-peach-avo salsa. Had just enough for 5 people.
 
Kevin, it looks as if your link to your C. Pibil photos has been changed ("As of September 2005, HP Photo is no longer an active site.") Is there another link to access them somewhere?

Rita
 
Let me try this:

3bc3a193.jpg
Marinated pork awaiting wrapping with charred romas and onions.

61e5e658.jpg
Wrapped, awaiting smoker.

cooks0605017.jpg
The five packs post-cooking.


cooks0605023-1.jpg
A finished plate.
 
I'm going to do this recipe for Labor Day. I have a question about the paste. I won't have time to make my own paste so I'm using a store bought achiote paste. Any suggestions on what I should still add to it from the recipe above? I'm thinking I'd still add the fresh garlic but what about the other spices?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
Add some ground bay and thin with sour o.j. or apple cider vin. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Was my assumption correct that I should still add the fresh garlic? So then I'd have the bay, garlic, and then thin out with sour oj?

Thanks for the post and the followup assistance Kevin.
 
All I have to say is the search function rocks! I always find what I am looking thanks to the generosity of the members and their willingness to share techiques and recipes.

Anyway I have some dried epazote that I would like to add. Should I add it to the recado or sprinkle it on top of the meat when wrapping. I have never used it before so I am not sure how much to use. Thanks.
 
Not in the recado. Sprinkle on top of the tomato and onion (which are atop the meat) before wrapping. Figure 1/4 t per 4 square inches of surface area or so.
 

 

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