Description
Cochinita pibil is tender, achiote-stained pork with bright citrus depth, soft leaf aroma, and sharp pickled onions on top. What makes it taste balanced instead of heavy is the classic Yucatán contrast between rich pork and sour-orange-style acidity.
Ingredients
🍊 Marinade
- 1 cup / 240 ml orange juice
- ½ cup / 120 ml fresh lime juice
- ¼ cup / 60 ml grapefruit juice (or more orange juice)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tsp / 12 g fine sea salt
- 1 tsp / 2 g dried Mexican oregano (or Mediterranean oregano)
- 1 tsp / 2 g ground cumin
- ½ tsp / 1 g ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp / 0.5 g ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp / 0.3 g ground cloves
🐖 Pork
- 4 lb / 1.8 kg boneless pork shoulder
- 3½ oz / 100 g achiote paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large banana leaf (or parchment plus foil; less aroma)
- ½ cup / 120 ml water
🌮 To Serve
- 1 red onion, very thinly sliced
- ¼ cup / 60 ml fresh lime juice
- 2 tbsp / 30 ml orange juice
- ½ tsp / 3 g fine sea salt
- 1 habanero, thinly sliced (optional)
- 12 corn tortillas
Instructions
Marinate
- Cut the pork into large 2- to 3-inch pieces and pat it dry.
- In a blender, combine the orange juice, lime juice, grapefruit juice, garlic, salt, oregano, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and achiote paste. Blend until very smooth and thick, scraping down once or twice if needed.
- Coat the pork all over with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours. Take it out 30 minutes before baking so it loses some of the refrigerator chill.
Wrap for the Oven
- Heat the oven to 325°F / 165°C with a rack in the lower-middle position.
- Rinse the banana leaf if needed and pat it dry. Soften it until pliable by passing it briefly over a gas flame with tongs, or warm it on a sheet pan in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes. If you do not have banana leaf, line the pan with parchment instead.
- Line the Dutch oven or baking dish with overlapping banana leaf. Add the pork and all of its marinade, then tuck in the bay leaves. Fold the leaf over the meat. Pour the water around the sides of the pan, not directly over the leaf, and cover tightly with a lid or foil.
Roast and Finish
- Bake for 3 to 4 hours, until a skewer slides into the thickest piece with almost no resistance and the pork pulls apart easily with a fork. Pork is safe at 145°F / 63°C with a rest, but for this dish you are looking for much deeper tenderness than that.
- Let the pork rest for 20 minutes. Lift out the meat and discard the bay leaves and banana leaf. Pour the pan juices into a bowl and skim off excess fat if you like.
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(Optional) Upgrade: Reduce a cup of the pan juices until they taste a little darker and more concentrated, then fold a small splash back into the shredded pork right before serving. It makes the meat taste deeper and more savory without losing that bright citrus edge.
- Shred the pork into large, juicy strands. Add back enough pan juices to make it glossy and moist. Taste and add a pinch more salt if it needs it.
- Toss the red onion with the lime juice, orange juice, salt, and habanero, then let it sit 10 to 15 minutes. Warm the tortillas. Serve the pork with the onions on top. Success looks like glossy, brick-red meat that collapses under light pressure instead of pushing back.
Notes
- Let the shredded pork sit in a little of its warm juices for a few minutes before serving, because it soaks up flavor fast once it is pulled.
- If you are making this ahead, chill the pork in its juices and reheat it the next day for an even rounder, more settled flavor.
- A small pinch of extra salt right at the end often does more for the pork than salting the onions more heavily.
- Warm the tortillas well and keep them wrapped, because cochinita is especially juicy and a dry tortilla is more likely to crack.
- If your onions are very sharp, rinse the slices quickly before pickling so they land bright rather than aggressive.
- Use tongs to lift the pork out of the pan first, then decide how much juice to add back, so you stay in control of the final texture.
- A little habanero on the side goes a long way here, because the clean heat makes the citrus and achiote taste even livelier.
- This is an especially good make-ahead dish for a gathering, because the pork reheats beautifully and the onions can be prepped in advance.
- Prep Time: 25 min
- Marinate + Rest: 4h 50 min
- Cook Time: 3h 30 min
- Cuisine: Mexican