Recipe from the famous kitchen of Hacienda Chichén & Chef Josué next to Chichín Itzá Ruins in the central Yucatán, México
This traditional, prehispanic recipe, because of its special need for a hole dug in the ground and a good supply of banana leaves is mainly seen during special celebrations, or fiestas, where large amounts are prepared. The hole serves as an oven for baking the pork. That's the dish shown above, served atop tortillas, with a tomato cut like a rose, and with banana leaves underneath.
The following recipe serves 3.
- banana leaves
- 2 kg pork leg, boned
- 200ml pork fat
- 1 white onion, roughly chopped
- 50 g achiote
- 250 ml orange juice
- 1 tspn Oregano
- ¼ tspn Ground cumin
- ½ tspn black pepper
- ½ tspn ground cinnamon
- 1 tspn Salt
- 4 Cloves garlic
- tortillas to serve
PREPARATION: Line a baking dish with banana leaves, place the pork leg and onion into the tray. Place the achiote, orange juice, oregano, cumin, pepper, cinnamon, salt and garlic into a liquidizer and blend until it smooth. Pour the liquid over the pork and marinate for 2 hours.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in the pit (or an oven at 320ºF or 160ºC) for 4 hours, remove from oven and allow to rest for 1 hour. Pull the meat off in strips .
To serve place 3 tortillas onto each plate and top with Cochinita.
