Tacos de Cochito Horneado de Chiapa de Corzo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy dry skillet for toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Amatenango del Valle red-clay cazuela or heavy roasting pan with tight cover
• •Tongs and a large spoon for basting

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the pork

   Pat the pork dry and season it all over with the kosher salt. Let it sit while you make the adobo. The salt starts working before the chile touches the meat, and pork this large needs seasoning inside, not only on the surface.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile ancho and chile guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, pressing them lightly with tongs. The skins should puff and smell deep, sweet, and earthy. They should not blacken. Burned chile makes bitter adobo, and no amount of pork fat will forgive it.

   The guajillo is thinner than the ancho and burns faster. Watch it. If a chile turns black in patches, throw it out and toast another.
3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover them with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes, then lift them out and reserve 1 cup of the soaking liquid. Taste the liquid first. If it is harsh or bitter, use plain water instead. A careful cook checks before she blends.

4. 4

   Toast the aromatics

   On the same comal, toast the onion slices and unpeeled garlic until they have brown spots and smell sweet. Peel the garlic. Toast the oregano, thyme, marjoram, bay leaves, pimienta gorda, cloves, peppercorns, and canela for 30 to 45 seconds, just until fragrant. Spices need waking, not burning.

5. 5

   Blend the adobo

   In a blender, combine the soaked chiles, vinegar, toasted onion, peeled garlic, toasted spices and herbs, piloncillo, and 1 cup reserved soaking liquid. Blend until completely smooth, longer than you think. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids. The adobo should be brick red, glossy, and thick enough to coat a spoon.

6. 6

   Fry the adobo

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the manteca de cerdo in a heavy cazuela or Dutch oven over medium heat. Pour in the strained adobo carefully and cook, stirring, for 8 to 10 minutes. It will darken, thicken, and lose the raw vinegar edge. La manteca es el sabor, even when the dish is roasted. Let the adobo cool to room temperature before it touches the pork.

7. 7

   Marinate overnight

   Rub the cooled adobo all over the pork, pushing it into every cut and around the bones. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. This is where the chile and vinegar do their work. If you roast it after one hour, you will get red pork. You will not get cochito horneado de Chiapa de Corzo.

8. 8

   Roast covered

   Take the pork out of the refrigerator 45 minutes before cooking. Heat the oven to 325F. Grease a deep roasting pan or clay cazuela with the remaining 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo. Add the pork and all its adobo, then pour 1 cup water or light pork stock around the meat, not over it. Cover tightly and roast for 2 hours and 30 minutes, turning the pieces once, until the meat is tender when pierced.

   If using a clay cazuela, start it in a cool oven and let it heat gradually. Clay dislikes shock. Ask the women who have lost a cazuela this way.
9. 9

   Brown and baste

   Uncover the pan and raise the oven to 425F. Spoon the adobo and rendered fat over the pork. Roast 25 to 35 minutes more, basting every 10 minutes, until the edges turn dark mahogany and the sauce clings to the meat instead of running off. If you use a thermometer, the thickest pieces will be around 190F to 200F when they are tender enough for tacos.

10. 10

    Chop the cochito

    Rest the pork for 20 minutes. Pull out the bones and any large pieces of skin that did not soften, then chop or tear the meat into rough pieces. Spoon enough adobo from the pan over the meat to make it glossy. Do not drown it. Cochito should taste roasted, not boiled.

11. 11

    Build the tacos

    Warm the corn tortillas on a comal until they puff in spots and smell like masa. Pile in the cochito, add raw white onion, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of lima. Serve the rest of the adobo at the table in a small clay bowl. No cheese. No crema. No lettuce pretending to help. Recetas probadas y garantizadas. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chiles that bend a little and smell like dried fruit and warm earth. If the chile ancho is brittle and dusty, it is old. You can have perfect technique and bad chiles and you will still get a bad adobo. Start at the market, not the stove.
• •Vinagre de piña is the right sourness for this style of southern adobo. Apple cider vinegar works outside Mexico, but it is sharper. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use pork shoulder or fresh picnic with skin and fat. Lean pork loin will dry out before the adobo has done its work. This is cochito horneado, not diet meat with red sauce.
• •A wood oven gives the edges a deeper flavor, but a home oven works if you roast covered first and brown uncovered at the end. The order matters. Tender first, color second. Así se hace y punto.
• •Use corn tortillas. Flour tortillas are a northern tradition and they do not belong on a Chiapa de Corzo table for this dish. Hand-pressed tortillas are best because they hold the adobo without turning leathery.
• •If you cannot find lima chiapaneca, use small Mexican limes. Persian limes are larger and less fragrant, so use less juice at first and taste. The citrus should cut the fat, not erase the chile.

Advance Preparation

• •The adobo can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to room temperature before coating the pork.
• •The pork should marinate at least 12 hours and can marinate up to 24 hours. After that, the vinegar starts firming the outer texture.
• •Cooked cochito keeps refrigerated for 4 days. Reheat covered with a spoonful of water or pork stock, then uncover briefly so the edges regain color.
• •For a party, roast the pork in the morning, keep it covered, and chop it just before serving. Warm the tortillas at the last moment. Tortillas wait for nobody.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 320g)