You’re going to want to save this Cochinita Pibil recipe. Flavorful and soft, juicy meat. Gimme 3 tacos to start please!
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Not everyone has memories of climbing Mayan ruins and women grinding spices on a metate.
I didn’t realize the impact Southern Mexico had on me until years later. The colors, the flavors, the smells, and especially the food!
This dish is straight from the heart of Yucatan in Southern Mexico.
Table of Contents
🐖 Ingredients
Check out the picture above. These are the ingredients you will need.
It’s actually not very hard to make this recipe. You’re making a sauce, marinating pork, and cooking it for a long time in banana leaves. Easy!
From Red Pork Tamales to Pork Chile Colorado with Nopales, pork is a very common ingredient in Mexico.
Achiote Paste
One of the main ingredients in the marinade is achiote. Pronounced “AH-shee-oH-teh.”
Achiote paste is made with annatto seeds and several spices. It is what gives this dish its unique flavor.
Look for it in the spices area or in Latin markets, or the Mexican food area of your local grocery store, or order online.
🍊 Sour Orange
Sour oranges are hard to find. They are native to Southern Mexico and hardly ever travel north.
No worries. You can recreate its distinct flavor.
Sour Orange Substitute:
- Substitute sour oranges for equal parts oranges and limes.
- No lime? Use lemon juice.
- The juice will taste sour and slightly sweet.
Here are the spices that you will need to make the marinade.
They will give a lot of flavor once they are mixed with the achiote and sour orange juice.
Making the Sauce
- Add all the ingredients for the sauce into the blender.
- Blend until smooth.
Taste the marinade. It should taste like garlic and citrus juices.
Personal taste comes into play here. If you think it should be sweeter, you can add another orange. If you think it should be more sour, add the juice of another lime.
🐷 Cut of Pork
- Cut off as much of the fat as you can.
- There will still be plenty of fat left for the meat to come out tasty.
I recommend Pork butt or Pork shoulder. This is pork shoulder. Pork loin is too lean.
Authentic Cochinita Pibil is fatty, and shoulder is a fatty cut of meat. Some people in Southern Mexico do not trim the fat off because they say the fat gives extra flavor.
Traditionally, Cochinita Pibil is made with an entire pig and cooked underground. It takes all day.
- Marinate the pork in a large bowl.
- Cover the pork.
- This goes into the fridge overnight. Or marinate for a minimum of 4 hours.
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tip
Depending on the size of the pork, you might have extra marinade left over. Freeze it for later use. It can stay in the freezer for up to 6 months.
🍌 Banana Leaves
• To cook with banana leaves, you need to make them pliable.
Look for them at a Mexican market, or if you have an Asian community near by, look for them in the freezer section.
- Cut 3 pieces of the banana leaves. About 3 feet each.
- Place one of the pieces and over the stove (or over a hot skillet).
- Move it gently, carefully, and quickly over the flame with your hands or tongs as it turns dark green.
When it changes colors, that’s when it’s ready. Go to the faucet, and rinse the banana leaves. See video for further reference.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Add one piece of the banana leaf lengthwise.
- Then add another piece of the banana leaf criss cross.
- Add the marinated pork.
- Cover with the ends of the banana leaves that are overflowing.
To assemble in a slow cooker, you are overlapping the banana leaves criss cross.
Be sure not to add too much pork. The slow cooker lid needs to fit in order for the meat to cook properly.
This is an authentic Cochinita Pibil recipe except for the slow cooker part. Below are the Dutch Oven recipe and Instant Pot instructions.
- Add water around the banana leaves.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker.
- Set the slow cooker.
The pork meat will be snug inside the wrapped banana leaves. This will help the Cochinita Pibil tacos from drying out.
Do NOT add the water directly on the meat.
Dutch Oven Instructions:
- Follow the instructions up until step 19.
- Cover with the lid. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Bake until pork is tender. 2 ½ hours.
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Follow the instructions up until step 12.
- Place the metal trivet inside the instant pot. Add ½ cup water.
- Put one piece of the banana leaf in the pot, put the second piece across, making an X.
- Add the pork to the middle of the leaves.
- Fold the leaves over the pork to tuck them in.
- Lock the lid. Move valve to “Sealing.”
- Cook on High Pressure for 60 minutes.
- Full natural release for 20 minutes.
- Once the meat is ready, remove the pork.
- Place the pork in a separate container. Discard the banana leaves.
- Shred the pork. The meat should be soft and falling off the bone.
🍴 Sides
Serve with warm corn tortillas to create tacos and top with chopped fresh cilantro, Mexican pickled onions, and tomatillo habanero salsa.
This Cochinita Pibil recipe is a keeper! Tender meat that melts in your mouth. The delicious aroma and flavorful bite of this dish is worth the effort.
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Did you make this recipe? Please rate the recipe below!
Cochinita Pibil
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
For the Marinade
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ cup lime juice
- 1 3.5-ounce package achiote paste
- ½ tspn oregano
- ½ tspn whole cumin
- 2 whole cloves
- ½ tspn black peppercorn
- ¼ piece cinnamon stick
- 10 garlic cloves
- ¼ onion chopped
- 2 tspns salt
For the Pork
- 4 lbs pork shoulder chopped
- 9 feet banana leaves cut into 3-feet pieces
- ½ cup water
To serve
- 1 dozen corn tortillas for tacos
- pickled red onions
Instructions
- Add all the marinade ingredients into a blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Chop up the pork into pieces.
- The size of the pieces do no matter since the meat will be shredded later.
- In a container, pour some of the marinade over the pork.
- Individually marinate the pieces of pork.
- Do not add all the sauce over the pork. Use only what is necessary.
- Cover the pork, and let sit in the fridge overnight.Minimum 4 hours.
- When ready, heat the banana leaves over a hot griddle or gas stove.
- Move the banana leaf quickly and carefully over the flame.
- As soon as it turns dark green, it is ready.
- Wash the banana leaves.
- Place one of the banana leaves into the slow cooker lengthwise.
- Place another banana leaf, over the other leaf criss cross.
- Some of the banana leaves will overflow out of the slow cooker.
- Add the marinated pork into the banana leaves.
- Cover the meat with the overflowing banana leaves, wrapping the pork.
- Add the water around the banana leaves. Not directly into the pork wrapping.
- Set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours, or high for 6 hours.
- Once it's ready, remove the lid to the slow cooker.
- Open up the banana leaves.
- Carefully remove the pork to a separate container and shred the meat.
- Discard the banana leaves.
- Serve as tacos on corn tortillas and top with pickled red onions.
Video
Notes
DUTCH OVEN INSTRUCTIONS:
- Follow the instructions up until step 19.
- Cover with the lid. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Bake until pork is tender. 2 ½ hours.
INSTANT POT INSTRUCTIONS:
- Follow the instructions up until step 12.
- Place the metal trivet inside the instant pot. Add ½ cup water.
- Put one piece of the banana leaf in the pot, put the second piece across, making an X.
- Add the pork to the middle of the leaves.
- Fold the leaves over the pork to tuck them in.
- Lock the lid. Move valve to “Sealing.”
- Cook on High Pressure for 60 minutes.
- Full natural release for 20 minutes.
I was raised in Cancun and getting cochinita every Sunday morning was a most! I have been in the USA for about 12 years and this is THE BEST recipe for cochinita that tastes just like Cancun, yes, I can call myself and expert on this one because I eat cochinita since I was 8 years old and from the amazing Yucatán people who made this by cooking it on the ground!! Thank you soooooo very much, my cravings for this have been satisfied!!
You rock Mama Maggie!!
Thank you. Your words made my day!
It looks and sounds really good! I will definitely have to look for the veal shanks at the butchers shop this weekend. Bookmarked!
Great! Hope you enjoy!
Can you make this without the banana leaves? I have everything but the leaves
Yes, but you lose some of the flavor that the banana leaves give. Don’t worry though. Without the leaves, it’ll still be very tasty!
Congratulations beautiful page, the recipe is perfectly good, I live in Cancun Mexico 20 years and I love cooking, so I give a 100 . My name is Margarita but my family and friends call me Maggie!!!! God bless you!!!!
What an incredibly flavorful recipe! The meat is so tender and makes for the best tacos — love it. Thanks for sharing!
OMG – you can buy banana leaves on AMAZON!!! Yeah! I was sitting here thinking I can’t make this because I cant buy banana leaves anywhere! Thanks for linking that!! I’m SOOO super excited to make this recipe!! The authentic aspect sounds amazing!
Omg the amount of love and flavour you put into that pork…..I am hungry now!! (:
I’m in love with Mexican recipes and this one tops my list. So easy and such amazing flavors. Will make a batch of these soon
Yum! I love all of the spices that go into Conchinita Pibil. It’s such a perfect meat dish to serve in tacos, over rice, or even in frittatas. Great weeknight dinner!
Wow, this is such a cool recipe! I have never cooked with banana leaves before but have always wanted to. After seeing this mouthwatering pork, it’s a must!
Next time I’m craving a real authentic meal but I want to make it at home, I am making this! It looks amazing.
The fact that it can be made in the instant pot is such a plus! I love the mix of flavors and the fact that it is pork. I never cooked with banana leaves, but you bet I will look for them and give this a try!
I am such a sucker for everything in this recipe. I mean, slow roasted pork with pickled onions??? SO good! I have honestly never heard of Achiote paste, but I’m going to look for it now. It sounds delicious and I’m dying to try it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I love that you layed out the ingredients all in one photo. It makes it a lot less intimidating to me. Especially because I am always intimidated when cooking meat recipes that AREN’T chicken 😉
This is such an amazing and flavorful recipe. I am drooling with the flavors. Delicious and best starter option too.
Holy moly this looks INCREDIBLE! I love Mexican cuisine and this is definitely something I need in my life! And I love the fact that you listed how to make it in the instant pot! THANK YOU!