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Smoked Puerco Pibil is a 3 day process. For me anyway. So let's get started.
Annato seed, salt, cloves, cumin seed, peppercorns and allspice berries.
Use a spice grinder to grind into a fine powder
Tequila, sour orange, habanero peppers, spice powder and garlic
Throw it all into a blender
Cut pork into chunks and pour the achiote sauce over them to marinate overnight. Day 1 is complete.
Add some smoke flavor to the marinated pork
Mix the smoked pork with reserved marinade and pour into a tray lined with banana leaves.
Wrap the banana leaves tightly over the pork
Wrap tray tightly in foil and place back in the cooker.
Day 2 is complete
Put together 2 red onion garnishes. 1 TasunkaWitko's Mayan Pickled Red Onion (Thanks for that TS
) the other a red onion, lime and habanero
Time to bust out the tortilla press for some fresh corn tortillas
Fry 'em up
Why 3 days? Because this dish improves dramatically the next day. It is worth the wait. Puerco Pibil shredded in the sauce and reheated in the oven.
Served over rice, sprinkled with fresh lime juice, red wine vinegar and topped with pico de gallo, onion garnishes and sided with fresh corn tortillas all on a banana leaf.
This recipe is a conglomeration of several recipes I’ve worked over the years with the personally added bonus of smoke. There is so much going on in this dish it is difficult to describe. It is an absolute delight to the senses with so many colors, textures, flavors and, if you want, a show stopping presentation.
The achiote spice powder is directly from Robert Rodriguez well known 10 minute cooking school https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8EiScBEjA and it is key. Commercially produced achiote is available but freshly ground makes this a different animal. Take the time.
Primo Smoked Puerco Pibil
- 5 lbs Pork Butt
- 5 T Annato Seed
- 2 tsp Cumin Seed
- 1 T Black Peppercorns
- ½ tsp Whole Cloves
- 8 to 10 Whole Allspice Berries
- 1 T Kosher Salt
- 10 Cloves Garlic
- 3 Habanero Peppers
- 1/4 C Tequila
- 1 to 2 C Sour Orange (Naranja Agria). If unavailable use a mix of ½ Orange Juice and ½ White Vinegar and squeeze 3 or 4 limes in there. I would have preferred to have used 100% pure sour orange juice but it was unavailable at the time and I didn’t want to wait for an online order to come through so I went with the Goya Bitter Orange sold in a local latino market. It is mostly Naranja Agria but has some grapefruit juice in there. In a taste test, the Goya had a brighter, fresher taste that the OJ/Vinegar mix so Goya it was. The amount of juice added determines how dry or saucy the finished product will be. I used 1 ½ C. Do not use more than 2.
1. Grind the Annato, Cumin Seed, Whole Cloves, Allspice Berries and Peppercorns into a fine powder with a coffee/spice grinder. Annato Seeds
are like hard little rocks and if you try to grind these with a mortar and pestle you will likely have produce a gritty mess. Not allowed.
2. Put on a pair of latex gloves. Remove membrane and seeds from habanero peppers
3. Add the Sour Orange (or OJ/vinegar/lime juice mix), Tequila, Habaneros, Salt, Garlic Cloves and Spice Powder to blender. Blend on high for 2
Minutes.
4. Cut pork into 2 − 3 inch chunks and place in a large Ziploc bag. Pour the Achiote you just made over the pork. Seal and massage the bag a bit to
evenly distribute. Refrigerate overnight.
5. Set up the smoker for a 200 degree (or less) indirect low and slow adding chunks of your favorite smoking wood to the fire. When that thin blue
smoke appears, remove pork chunks from the marinade and place on the smoker for as long as you feel would be right for your tastes. My advice
is to keep it light. The smoke adds a welcome addition the recipe but we do not want to overpower all of the other wonderful things happening
here. Balance my friends… balance. An hour should do the trick. Remove the smoked pork from the cooker and place it back in the marinade
bag to re coat with sauce.
6. Clean and prep the banana leaves and line a baking tray or dutch oven with a couple of layers of them. Let enough of the leaves hang over tray
edges to fold over meat.
7. Pour the Ziploc of pork and marinade into the prepped tray and fold the banana leaves over for a tight seal.
8. Cover the entire tray tightly with foil (we don’t want any steam escaping) and place on primo indirect running at 275 − 300 degrees grate temp.
Let it cook until the meat hits 205 degrees.
9. Let it cool and place in the fridge for 24 hours. Longer certainly won’t hurt it any.
10. Re heat slowly on stove top, in oven or slow cooker and serve over rice sprinkled with red wine vinegar and fresh lime juice.
GARNISHES
Pico de Gallo - Self explanatory
TasunkaWitko’s Mayan Pickled Red Onions*
· 1 Red onion, thinly sliced
· 5 black peppercorns
· 3 allspice berries
· 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
· 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, Mexican preferred
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· 1/3 cup white vinegar
· Salt
Place the onions in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let them sit for 1 minute and then drain. Discard the water.
Coarsely grind the peppercorns, allspice, and cumin seeds in a spice or coffee grinder. Add to the onions.
Add the remaining ingredients, and enough water to barely cover. Allow the mixture to marinate for a couple hours or overnight to blend the flavors.
These are excellent!!! Thank you TW!!!
Traditional Habanero Onion Garnish
- 1 Red Onion, thinly sliced
- 3 habanero peppers
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt to taste
Put on gloves and finely slice habanero peppers. Do NOT remove seeds or membrane. Add lime juice and salt. Mix and refrigerate overnight.
Don’t be afraid of this. It is flavorful, addictive and pretty. Good stuff.
Annato seed, salt, cloves, cumin seed, peppercorns and allspice berries.
Use a spice grinder to grind into a fine powder
Tequila, sour orange, habanero peppers, spice powder and garlic
Throw it all into a blender
Cut pork into chunks and pour the achiote sauce over them to marinate overnight. Day 1 is complete.
Add some smoke flavor to the marinated pork
Mix the smoked pork with reserved marinade and pour into a tray lined with banana leaves.
Wrap the banana leaves tightly over the pork
Wrap tray tightly in foil and place back in the cooker.
Day 2 is complete
Put together 2 red onion garnishes. 1 TasunkaWitko's Mayan Pickled Red Onion (Thanks for that TS
) the other a red onion, lime and habaneroTime to bust out the tortilla press for some fresh corn tortillas
Fry 'em up
Why 3 days? Because this dish improves dramatically the next day. It is worth the wait. Puerco Pibil shredded in the sauce and reheated in the oven.
Served over rice, sprinkled with fresh lime juice, red wine vinegar and topped with pico de gallo, onion garnishes and sided with fresh corn tortillas all on a banana leaf.
This recipe is a conglomeration of several recipes I’ve worked over the years with the personally added bonus of smoke. There is so much going on in this dish it is difficult to describe. It is an absolute delight to the senses with so many colors, textures, flavors and, if you want, a show stopping presentation.
The achiote spice powder is directly from Robert Rodriguez well known 10 minute cooking school https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8EiScBEjA and it is key. Commercially produced achiote is available but freshly ground makes this a different animal. Take the time.
Primo Smoked Puerco Pibil
- 5 lbs Pork Butt
- 5 T Annato Seed
- 2 tsp Cumin Seed
- 1 T Black Peppercorns
- ½ tsp Whole Cloves
- 8 to 10 Whole Allspice Berries
- 1 T Kosher Salt
- 10 Cloves Garlic
- 3 Habanero Peppers
- 1/4 C Tequila
- 1 to 2 C Sour Orange (Naranja Agria). If unavailable use a mix of ½ Orange Juice and ½ White Vinegar and squeeze 3 or 4 limes in there. I would have preferred to have used 100% pure sour orange juice but it was unavailable at the time and I didn’t want to wait for an online order to come through so I went with the Goya Bitter Orange sold in a local latino market. It is mostly Naranja Agria but has some grapefruit juice in there. In a taste test, the Goya had a brighter, fresher taste that the OJ/Vinegar mix so Goya it was. The amount of juice added determines how dry or saucy the finished product will be. I used 1 ½ C. Do not use more than 2.
1. Grind the Annato, Cumin Seed, Whole Cloves, Allspice Berries and Peppercorns into a fine powder with a coffee/spice grinder. Annato Seeds
are like hard little rocks and if you try to grind these with a mortar and pestle you will likely have produce a gritty mess. Not allowed.
2. Put on a pair of latex gloves. Remove membrane and seeds from habanero peppers
3. Add the Sour Orange (or OJ/vinegar/lime juice mix), Tequila, Habaneros, Salt, Garlic Cloves and Spice Powder to blender. Blend on high for 2
Minutes.
4. Cut pork into 2 − 3 inch chunks and place in a large Ziploc bag. Pour the Achiote you just made over the pork. Seal and massage the bag a bit to
evenly distribute. Refrigerate overnight.
5. Set up the smoker for a 200 degree (or less) indirect low and slow adding chunks of your favorite smoking wood to the fire. When that thin blue
smoke appears, remove pork chunks from the marinade and place on the smoker for as long as you feel would be right for your tastes. My advice
is to keep it light. The smoke adds a welcome addition the recipe but we do not want to overpower all of the other wonderful things happening
here. Balance my friends… balance. An hour should do the trick. Remove the smoked pork from the cooker and place it back in the marinade
bag to re coat with sauce.
6. Clean and prep the banana leaves and line a baking tray or dutch oven with a couple of layers of them. Let enough of the leaves hang over tray
edges to fold over meat.
7. Pour the Ziploc of pork and marinade into the prepped tray and fold the banana leaves over for a tight seal.
8. Cover the entire tray tightly with foil (we don’t want any steam escaping) and place on primo indirect running at 275 − 300 degrees grate temp.
Let it cook until the meat hits 205 degrees.
9. Let it cool and place in the fridge for 24 hours. Longer certainly won’t hurt it any.
10. Re heat slowly on stove top, in oven or slow cooker and serve over rice sprinkled with red wine vinegar and fresh lime juice.
GARNISHES
Pico de Gallo - Self explanatory
TasunkaWitko’s Mayan Pickled Red Onions*
· 1 Red onion, thinly sliced
· 5 black peppercorns
· 3 allspice berries
· 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
· 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, Mexican preferred
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· 1/3 cup white vinegar
· Salt
Place the onions in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let them sit for 1 minute and then drain. Discard the water.
Coarsely grind the peppercorns, allspice, and cumin seeds in a spice or coffee grinder. Add to the onions.
Add the remaining ingredients, and enough water to barely cover. Allow the mixture to marinate for a couple hours or overnight to blend the flavors.
These are excellent!!! Thank you TW!!!
Traditional Habanero Onion Garnish
- 1 Red Onion, thinly sliced
- 3 habanero peppers
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt to taste
Put on gloves and finely slice habanero peppers. Do NOT remove seeds or membrane. Add lime juice and salt. Mix and refrigerate overnight.
Don’t be afraid of this. It is flavorful, addictive and pretty. Good stuff.
Definitely 
-worthy. 
Thanks for the morning belly laugh!
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