Description
Cochinita pibil or cochinita con achiote is a traditional Mexican dish made out of banana leaf wrapped slow roasted pork marinated in citrus juice seasoned with annatto seeds.
Ingredients
Scale
Roast
- 1.5 kg boneless pork shoulder roast
- 1 large banana leaf
- 3 white onions, quartered
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup water
Marinade
- 2 tbsp achiote paste (Recado rojo)
- 1/3 cup sour orange juice
- 2/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 pcs red hot chilli peppers, seeded and chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
Instructions
- In a bowl combine all marinade ingredients until well blended.
- Season pork generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper
- In a large heavy duty zip lock bag place the pork then the marinade making sure the spice juice completely covers the pork. Place in the refrigerator and let it marinate for 24 hours.
- Before cooking remove pork from the refrigerator and let it come down to room temperature before roasting.
- Clean you banana leaves then completely wrap the pork with the leaves together with its spices, the more layers you can put the better.
- Using a large Dutch oven that you can close place the quartered onions along with the water, place wrapped pork on top then roast it in a 150C preheated oven for 3.5 to 4 hrs until pork is fork tender.
- Remove pork from the oven, Open the banana wraps then discard, pull the meat apart combining it with the juices from the pan and the cooked onions then serve it with pickled Red Onions, warm corn tortillas and salsa.
Notes
If you can’t find Recado rojo from where you are you can use the Ground Annatto powder instead.