Tacos de Lechón Tostado

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Deep roasting pan large enough to hold the pork
• •Heavy aluminum foil for sealing
• •Cast iron comal or wide heavy skillet for crisping
• •Molcajete or small bowl for the recado
• •Sharp boning knife for scoring the skin
• •Cloth servilleta for keeping tortillas warm

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the recado

   On a molcajete or in a small bowl, mash the garlic, peppercorns, oregano, cumin, and allspice into a rough paste. Work the achiote paste in until the color turns deep brick-red. Whisk in the naranja agria juice and the salt. This is your recado rojo. Campeche and Yucatán run on recado. If you skip it or substitute powdered seasoning, you are not making lechón tostado. You are making roast pork.

   Real naranja agria comes from the bitter orange tree and tastes like nothing else: sour, slightly floral, faintly bitter. If your Mexican market does not carry it, the orange-and-lime mix is the standard Peninsula substitute. It is a compromise, not an upgrade.
2. 2

   Marinate the pork

   Score the skin of the pork in a tight crosshatch, cutting through the skin and the fat but not into the meat. Rub the recado all over the pork, working it into every score, into the meat side, into the crevices around the bone. Place the pork in a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and ideally overnight. The achiote needs time to color the meat and the citrus needs time to do its work.

3. 3

   Line and wrap with banana leaf

   Heat the oven to 300°F. Pass each banana leaf over an open gas flame for a few seconds per side until it turns glossy and pliable. The leaves become flexible and release their grassy aroma. Line a deep roasting pan with the leaves, letting them hang over the sides. Place the marinated pork in the center, skin side up, and pour any remaining recado over it. Fold the leaves up and over the meat to enclose it completely. Cover the pan tightly with foil.

   In the Peninsula, this dish is traditionally cooked in a pib, an underground oven lined with hot stones. The banana leaves and a low oven get you closer to that flavor than any other method available in a home kitchen.
4. 4

   Slow roast until it surrenders

   Roast for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork and the bone slides clean. Do not rush this. The slow heat is what breaks down the collagen and lets the achiote settle into the meat. The kitchen will smell like a Campeche home cocina on a Sunday: achiote, orange, allspice, pork fat. Remove the pan from the oven and let the pork rest, still wrapped, for 20 minutes.

5. 5

   Crisp the lechón

   Open the banana leaves and lift the pork onto a cutting board. Pull off and reserve any thick pieces of skin. Tear the meat into rough chunks and shreds. In a wide cast iron skillet or on a heavy comal, melt 2 tablespoons of lard over medium-high heat. Add the pork in a single layer and let it crisp without stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom turns dark mahogany and the edges go crackling. Turn and crisp the other side. This is the tostado in lechón tostado. Without this step, you have only lechón. Así se hace y punto.

   Work in batches if your pan is not wide enough to hold the pork in a single layer. Crowded meat steams. You want it to fry.
6. 6

   Crisp the skin and finish

   While the meat crisps, lay the reserved skin pieces in a separate hot skillet with another tablespoon of lard. They will puff and crackle into chicharrón. Break them into shards. Toss the crisped pork and the chicharrón shards together in a warm bowl. Pour over any juices left in the banana leaves. La manteca es el sabor and this is where the juices, the skin, and the meat meet.

7. 7

   Make the salpicón

   In a small bowl, toss the chopped white onion, chopped cilantro, and diced radish with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of naranja agria. The salpicón should taste sharp, herbaceous, and clean. It is the counterweight to the rich pork. In Campeche, this is what makes the taco a taco and not just meat on a tortilla.

8. 8

   Build the tacos at the table

   Warm the corn tortillas on a comal until they puff and char in spots. Stack them in a cloth servilleta to keep warm. Set the crisped lechón, the salpicón, the sliced habanero, the pickled red onions, the salsa, and the naranja agria halves around the table. Each person builds their own: a generous pile of pork on a warm tortilla, a spoonful of salpicón, a slice of habanero for those who want it, and a hard squeeze of naranja agria over the top. Eat immediately. The tortilla will not wait.

Chef Tips

• •Real naranja agria from the bitter orange tree is non-negotiable for the right flavor, but it is hard to find outside the Peninsula and Florida. Check Mexican and Cuban groceries before resigning yourself to the orange-and-lime substitute. The flavor of true naranja agria is sour, floral, and slightly bitter in a way the substitute cannot fully reach.
• •Banana leaves are sold frozen in most Latin and Asian markets. Pass them over an open flame before using. It softens them and releases their grassy aroma. Tin foil alone will give you roast pork, not lechón tostado. The leaves matter.
• •If you cannot get a suckling pig cut, a 6-pound bone-in pork shoulder with the skin on is the next best thing. Do not let your butcher remove the skin. The crisped skin is half the pleasure of the dish.
• •Habanero is the chile of the Peninsula. Do not substitute jalapeño or serrano. The habanero's fruity, sharp heat belongs to this cuisine and nothing else has the same character. Use it raw and thinly sliced on the side, not blended into the meat. Each person decides how much heat goes in their own taco.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork can be marinated up to 24 hours in advance. Longer is better for the achiote and citrus to penetrate the meat.
• •The slow-roasted lechón can be made one day ahead, kept wrapped in its banana leaves in the refrigerator, and crisped on the comal at serving time. The reheating in lard is actually better with a day of rest.
• •The salpicón should be made within an hour of serving. The radish loses its bite and the onion turns bitter if it sits too long.
• •Pickled red onions with naranja agria can be made up to a week ahead and only improve in the jar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 295g)