Chef Lupita
Enchiladas de Valladolid
Valladolid's enchiladas, corn tortillas bathed in a chile ancho and Mexican chocolate sauce, stuffed with smoked longaniza, crowned with a fried egg and a tangle of habanero-pickled red onion.
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Torta de Relleno Negro
Created by
Yucatán's dark torta of turkey shredded in charred-chile recado negro, a slice of egg-stuffed but, and a length of pan francés soaked deep in the black sauce.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Special Occasion
Holiday
Comfort Food
45 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•3 hr 15 min total
Yield6 tortas
This is from the Yucatán Peninsula. Specifically from Mérida and the towns of the interior, where relleno negro is the dish a family makes for a wedding, a baptism, a Day of the Dead, or any Sunday that calls for the slow work of charring chiles until they are almost black. The torta is the second life of the dish, the Monday version, when last night's relleno gets layered onto pan francés and eaten standing up at a counter.
The sauce is what makes it. Recado negro begins with chilmole, the dried chile of the Peninsula, toasted on a comal until it blackens. This is the only place in Mexican cooking where you want the chile burned. The Maya have been doing this for centuries. The bitter char, plus a burned tortilla, plus naranja agria and clove and canela, makes a sauce so dark it stains your fingers. People who haven't eaten it think Yucatecan food is just cochinita pibil. Relleno negro tells the rest of the story.
The but inside is the engineering. Ground pork wrapped around a whole boiled egg, simmered in the recado until it firms up. Slice it through the middle and the white yolk against the black sauce is the image that every Yucatecan recognizes immediately. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado de Lucas de Gálvez. They will tell you their grandmother's version, and they will be right.
The pan francés is non-negotiable. Not a bolillo from Ciudad de México. Not a baguette from a French bakery. Pan francés yucateco, the long crusty loaf that the Peninsula makes for exactly this kind of work. The crust has to hold while the crumb soaks the recado dark. If your bread doesn't take the sauce, you are eating a sandwich. You are not eating a torta de relleno negro.
Relleno negro descends from pre-Columbian Maya cooking, where the practice of toasting chiles to char (k'uut bi ik) was central to ceremonial sauces called chilmole, the same word that names the dried chile variety used today. The colonial-era addition of pork, eggs, capers, and raisins, ingredients carried from Spain via the Manila Galleon trade through the Yucatán's ports, transformed the dish into the layered Maya-European composition recognized in modern Yucatecan kitchens. Pan francés in the Yucatán is itself a colonial inheritance, introduced by French and Lebanese immigrants in the 19th century during the henequen boom, and its dense crust evolved specifically to stand up to the wet recados that define Peninsula cooking.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in turkey thighs and drumsticks
Quantity
3 pounds
dried chile chilmole (chile seco yucateco)
Quantity
8
stemmed and seeded
dried chile ancho
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
whole cloves
Quantity
6
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 tablespoon
dried Mexican oregano (oregano yucateco if available)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
cumin seed
Quantity
1 teaspoon
canela (Mexican cinnamon)
Quantity
1 stick, 2 inches
head of garlic
Quantity
1
halved crosswise
garlic cloves (for the recado)
Quantity
6
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
halved
corn tortillas
Quantity
2
toasted dark on a comal until nearly black
naranja agria juice
Quantity
1/2 cup
or 1/4 cup orange juice mixed with 1/4 cup lime juice
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
bay leaves
Quantity
2
kosher salt
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
large eggs
Quantity
4
hard-boiled and peeled
ground pork shoulder
Quantity
1 pound
raisins
Quantity
1/4 cup
soaked in warm water
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons
rinsed
plum tomato
Quantity
1
finely diced
chopped fresh cilantro
Quantity
1/4 cup
pan francés (Yucatecan French bread, or telera the length of a small baguette)
Quantity
6 pieces
cebolla morada en escabeche
Quantity
1 large red onion's worth
sliced thin and pickled in naranja agria with oregano
fresh chile habanero (optional)
Quantity
for serving
sliced
naranja agria halves (optional)
Quantity
for the table
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in turkey thighs and drumsticks | 3 pounds |
| dried chile chilmole (chile seco yucateco)stemmed and seeded | 8 |
| dried chile anchostemmed and seeded | 4 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| whole cloves | 6 |
| black peppercorns | 1 tablespoon |
| dried Mexican oregano (oregano yucateco if available) | 1 tablespoon |
| cumin seed | 1 teaspoon |
| canela (Mexican cinnamon) | 1 stick, 2 inches |
| head of garlichalved crosswise | 1 |
| garlic cloves (for the recado) | 6 |
| white onionhalved | 1 medium |
| corn tortillastoasted dark on a comal until nearly black | 2 |
| naranja agria juiceor 1/4 cup orange juice mixed with 1/4 cup lime juice | 1/2 cup |
| manteca de cerdo | 2 tablespoons |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| large eggshard-boiled and peeled | 4 |
| ground pork shoulder | 1 pound |
| raisinssoaked in warm water | 1/4 cup |
| capersrinsed | 2 tablespoons |
| plum tomatofinely diced | 1 |
| chopped fresh cilantro | 1/4 cup |
| pan francés (Yucatecan French bread, or telera the length of a small baguette) | 6 pieces |
| cebolla morada en escabechesliced thin and pickled in naranja agria with oregano | 1 large red onion's worth |
| fresh chile habanero (optional)sliced | for serving |
| naranja agria halves (optional) | for the table |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy cast iron comal for charring chiles and tortillas
- •8-quart heavy pot or wide clay cazuela
- •High-powered blender
- •Sharp serrated knife for the pan francés
- •Slotted spoon for lifting the buts
Instructions
- 1
Char the chiles
Heat a dry comal over medium-high. Toast the chilmole chiles until they blacken almost completely. This is the only place in Mexican cooking where you want the chile dark, almost burned. The Maya call this preparation k'uut bi ik, and the bitter char is the entire point. The chilmole gets the longest, darkest toast. The ancho and guajillo get a shorter toast, just until they puff and turn fragrant. Work in batches. Open a window. Your kitchen will smell like a temple. No me vengas con atajos here. Skip this step and you have brown soup, not recado negro.
If you cannot find chile chilmole (also sold as chile seco yucateco or chile negro yucateco), substitute additional chile ancho and toast them until truly black. The recado will not be identical, but it will be honest. - 2
Toast the spices and tortillas
On the same comal, toast the cloves, peppercorns, oregano, cumin, and canela for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Pull them off. Now lay the two corn tortillas on the comal and let them go nearly black on both sides. The burned tortilla is the second pillar of the recado negro. It deepens the color and gives the sauce that bitter-smoke bottom note that defines the Yucatán.
- 3
Soak and grind the recado
Cover the charred chiles with hot tap water and weigh them down with a plate. Soak for 20 minutes. Drain. Combine the soaked chiles, toasted spices, charred tortillas, 6 cloves of garlic, and the naranja agria juice in a blender. Blend on high until you have a smooth, near-black paste. Add a few tablespoons of water only if the blender struggles. This is recado negro. You can buy it ready-made in any market in Mérida, but the version you make at home will be cleaner and brighter than anything in a jar.
- 4
Build the but (egg-stuffed meatball)
Mix the ground pork with the drained raisins, capers, diced tomato, half the cilantro, and a teaspoon of salt. Divide into four portions. Flatten each portion in your palm, place a hard-boiled egg in the center, and wrap the pork around it completely. Seal the seams. The but is the Yucatecan name for this egg-stuffed meatball, and a slice of it through the middle, white yolk surrounded by dark meat, is the signature image of relleno negro. Set the buts aside.
- 5
Cook the turkey in recado
In a heavy pot or deep cazuela, melt the manteca over medium heat. Add the halved onion and halved garlic head, cut sides down. Let them caramelize for two minutes. Add the recado negro paste and fry it for five to seven minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens further and the fat starts to separate. La manteca es el sabor. This frying step locks in the flavor. Add four cups of water, the bay leaves, and the salt. Stir until smooth.
- 6
Simmer the turkey and buts
Lower the turkey pieces into the recado broth. They should be mostly submerged. Bring to a gentle simmer. After 20 minutes, carefully add the buts to the pot, spooning broth over them. Cover partially and cook at a low simmer for another hour and twenty minutes, until the turkey pulls away from the bone and the buts are firm. The broth will reduce and darken into something between a sauce and a soup. The pib version of this dish is buried in an earth oven for hours. We are not doing pib today. We are doing the home version, the one a señora in Mérida would make for a Sunday lunch.
- 7
Shred the turkey
Lift the turkey out of the pot and let it cool just enough to handle. Pull the meat off the bones in generous shreds. Discard the skin and bones. Return the shredded meat to the pot of recado. Taste for salt. The sauce should be intensely savory, slightly bitter from the char, with the perfume of canela and clove behind it. Lift the buts out and slice each one in half so the egg shows. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to the Peninsula.
- 8
Build the tortas
Split the pan francés lengthwise without cutting all the way through. Dip the bottom half briefly into the recado broth so the bread soaks dark, the way they do it at the panucherias in Mérida. The pan francés is engineered for this. The crust holds while the crumb drinks the sauce. Pile a generous amount of shredded turkey on the soaked bottom half. Lay a slice of but on top, egg showing. Spoon a little more recado over everything. Top with a tangle of cebolla morada en escabeche and a few slices of habanero for the brave. Close the torta and press down once with your palm. Serve immediately with naranja agria halves on the table. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Chile chilmole is the hardest ingredient to find outside the Peninsula. Look in Yucatecan grocery stores or online specialty importers under chile seco yucateco or chile negro yucateco. A jar of prepared recado negro from a reputable Mérida brand (Marin, La Anita, El Yucateco) is a compromise but a respectable one. Do not use generic 'mole paste.' That is a different dish from a different state.
- •Naranja agria is the sour orange of the Peninsula and it is what gives Yucatecan food its bright acidic frame. If you cannot find it, mix equal parts fresh orange juice and lime juice with a small squeeze of grapefruit. It is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •The cebolla morada en escabeche is not a garnish. It is a structural element. Pickle the red onion at least two hours ahead in naranja agria, salt, and oregano. The sharp acid cuts the depth of the recado and makes the torta work.
Advance Preparation
- •The recado negro paste can be made up to one week ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for up to three months. The flavor only deepens.
- •The full relleno (turkey in sauce with the buts) is better the second day. Make it Sunday, build the tortas Monday. This is how it works in Mérida.
- •The cebolla morada en escabeche should be made at least two hours ahead and keeps for two weeks in the refrigerator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 320g)
Calories
780 calories
Total Fat
30 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
18 g
Cholesterol
260 mg
Sodium
1700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
65 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
55 g
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