Parrillada Oaxaqueña de Tasajo, Cecina y Chorizo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Charcoal grill with adjustable grate, or large hardwood-fired parrilla
• •Chimney starter for the charcoal
• •Long-handled tongs
• •Heavy cast iron comal or skillet (to press tasajo flat if it curls)
• •Cast iron comal for warming tlayudas
• •Molcajete for serving the salsa pasilla mixe
• •Wooden cutting board for slicing chorizo
• •Wide platter or wooden board for the family-style presentation

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the charcoal fire

   Light a chimney of hardwood charcoal, mesquite if you can find it, and let it burn until the coals are gray and glowing red underneath. Spread the coals so you have a hot zone for the meat and a cooler zone for the cebollitas and chiles. Set the grate four inches above the coals. This is grilling, not roasting. The meat is thin and it cooks in seconds. The fire has to be ready before the meat hits the grate.

   If you cannot grill outside, a hot cast iron comal on the stove will give you the right surface contact. A gas grill works but loses the smoke that defines this dish. Mesquite and oak are the woods of the Oaxaca Valley.
2. 2

   Make the adobo for the cecina

   If your butcher gave you cecina already enchilada, skip this step. If you are working with thin pork sheets and adobo-ing them yourself, toast the guajillo, ancho, and chipotle meco on a dry comal for about 30 seconds per side. The skin should puff and turn fragrant. Toast the unpeeled garlic on the same comal until the skins blacken in spots and the garlic softens, about 8 minutes. Soak the chiles in hot, not boiling, water for 20 minutes. Peel the garlic. Blend the chiles, garlic, oregano, cumin, cloves, vinegar, salt, and a half cup of the soaking liquid until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. The adobo should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

3. 3

   Coat the cecina

   Lay the pork sheets on a sheet pan and brush both sides with the adobo. A thin coat. The chile is there to season the meat, not to drown it. Let the cecina sit at room temperature while the fire finishes coming up, at least 20 minutes. If you bought the cecina enchilada from a Oaxacan butcher, it is already cured and ready to go. No me vengas con atajos that skip the adobo, but trust the butcher who already did the work.

4. 4

   Salt and rest the tasajo

   Tasajo arrives already salt-cured. Pat the sheets dry with a clean cloth. If they look dry, brush them lightly with melted lard before they hit the grill. Tasajo cooks in seconds because it is thin and partly cured. The lard keeps the meat from sticking and gives the edges a clean sear. Lay the sheets out flat at room temperature for 15 minutes before grilling. Cold meat tightens on the grate.

5. 5

   Grill the cebollitas and chiles first

   Brush the spring onions and slit chiles with a little lard and lay them over the cooler zone of the fire. Turn them every minute or two until the bulbs of the cebollitas soften and char and the chiles blister and collapse. About 8 to 10 minutes. Move them to a platter and sprinkle with salt and a squeeze of lime. They go to the table while you finish the meat.

6. 6

   Grill the chorizo

   Place the chorizo links over the cooler side of the fire. Oaxacan chorizo is leaner and drier than the chorizo from Toluca, and it does not flame up. Turn the links every two minutes until they are firm to the touch and the casings have darkened, about 10 minutes total. Move them to a cutting board to rest while you grill the rest. Slice on the bias just before serving.

7. 7

   Grill the tasajo

   Brush the grate with melted lard. Lay the tasajo sheets flat over the hot zone. Do not crowd. Listen for the hiss. Forty-five seconds on the first side, until the bottom is dark and you see the edges curl. Flip with tongs and grill another 30 seconds. That is all. Tasajo overcooked is jerky. Move the sheets to a warm platter and tent loosely with a clean cloth.

   If a sheet of tasajo curls up off the grate, press it down with a second comal or a heavy skillet for ten seconds. Full contact with the grate is what gives the meat the dark sear and the smoke.
8. 8

   Grill the cecina enchilada

   The adobo will color quickly, so move fast. Lay the cecina sheets over the hot zone. The chile paste will sizzle and the edges will darken in under a minute. Flip after 45 seconds. Cook another 30 seconds on the second side. The adobo should look caramelized and slightly crisp at the edges, never blackened. Stack the cecina alongside the tasajo on the warm platter.

9. 9

   Warm and dress the tlayudas

   While the meat rests, warm each tlayuda over the cooler zone of the fire for 30 seconds per side, just until pliable and lightly toasted. Spread one side with a generous smear of asiento, then a layer of refried black beans, then a handful of pulled quesillo. Top with avocado slices. The tlayuda is the bed and the canvas. In Oaxaca it is sometimes folded over and grilled until crisp, sometimes served open. Serve open with a parrillada this generous. The diner builds the bite.

10. 10

    Set the table

    Bring the platter of tasajo, cecina, and chorizo to the table together with the dressed tlayudas, the grilled cebollitas and chiles, the limes, the salsa de chile pasilla mixe, the salsa verde, and the chapulines if you have them. This is family-style. Each person tears off pieces of meat with their hands or a fork, lays them on a tlayuda or in a fresh tortilla, and dresses the bite with what they want. Cada estado, su propia cocina. This one belongs to Oaxaca.

Chef Tips

• •The meat is the recipe. Find a Oaxacan butcher or a Mexican carniceria that imports from Oaxaca. Tasajo and cecina enchilada are not interchangeable with thin-sliced steak from the supermarket. If your only option is to cure the meat yourself, ask the carnicero to slice top round into 1/8-inch sheets and salt them overnight before grilling. It will not be the same, but it will be honest.
• •Asiento is the brown bottom-of-the-pot lard from carnitas, with the cracklings still in it. It tastes nothing like clean white lard. If you make carnitas at home, save the asiento. If not, a good Mexican market sometimes sells it in jars. Without it, the tlayuda loses its foundation.
• •Oaxacan oregano, oregano de monte, has a stronger, more menthol-like flavor than the Mediterranean variety. If you cannot find it, use Mexican oregano, never the Italian kind. The difference is the difference between a cecina that tastes Oaxacan and one that tastes generic.
• •Mesquite charcoal gives this dish its identity. Oak is the second choice. Briquettes laced with lighter fluid will ruin the meat and there is no recovering from it. If you have to use briquettes, use the natural hardwood kind and let them burn off completely before the meat goes on.

Advance Preparation

• •The adobo for cecina enchilada can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens with rest.
• •The salsa de chile pasilla mixe and salsa verde cruda can both be made the morning of and held at room temperature.
• •Refried black beans with avocado leaf are better made the day before. Reheat with a splash of water and a spoonful of lard.
• •The meats themselves do not benefit from advance grilling. Tasajo and cecina cooked ahead and reheated turn into jerky. Grill at the moment of serving.
• •Cebollitas can be grilled an hour ahead and held at room temperature, dressed with lime just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 620g)