North America → Mexico → Yucatán
🍽️ DINNER

Cochinita Pibil

Pork marinated blaze-orange in achiote and sour orange, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted until it shreds itself.
Yucatecan · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 210 min · plus 4 h hands-off time
~722 cal · 66g protein · 33g carbs · 35g fat · 4g fiber · 6g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
Shredded achiote-red pork on banana leaves with pickled red onions
AI-generated illustration
Cochinita pibil is one of the great dishes of the Yucatan, and its name reaches back to the Maya: pibil comes from p'ib, the earth oven, a stone-lined pit in which food is slow-cooked underground. In villages across the peninsula whole suckling pigs are still wrapped in banana leaves and buried over hot stones to roast for hours on feast days.
Its defining flavour is older than the Spanish conquest. The brick-red marinade of ( seed) ground with the juice of bitter Seville oranges, garlic, and spices predates European contact, when it seasoned the venison, turkey, and game of the Maya rather than pork; the pig arrived with the Spanish and married perfectly to the old seasoning.
The result is meltingly tender, tangy, earthy meat, traditionally eaten in tacos or tortas and crowned with sharp pink pickled onions and fiery habanero. In the Sunday markets around Merida it is sold from early morning and often gone before noon, and it remains a proud emblem of Yucatecan identity.
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Make it yours

✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.

Ingredients

Serves 6
  • 3 lbs pork shoulder, cut in large chunks
  • 3.5 oz block () paste
    Hard to find? ground annatto seed worked to a paste with vinegar, garlic, oregano and cumin - the brick is just annatto and spices pressed together, so the homemade paste is honestly close; El Yucateco and La Perla bricks are easy to order online
  • 1 cup sour orange juice (or lime and orange mix)
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp each dried oregano and cumin
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 large banana leaves (or parchment and foil)
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 habanero, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup lime juice
  • 12 corn tortillas, to serve

Instructions

  • 1
    Blend the achiote paste, sour orange juice, garlic, oregano, cumin, and salt into a loose marinade.
  • 2
    Coat the pork (or jackfruit) completely and marinate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
  • 3
    Pickle the onion and habanero in the lime juice with a pinch of oregano and salt, this is the mandatory sidekick.
  • 4
    Line a Dutch oven with softened banana leaves, add the pork and all its marinade, and fold the leaves over.
  • 5
    Cover and roast at 325°F for 3-3.5 hours until it shreds at a touch (90 minutes for jackfruit).
  • 6
    Shred into the juices. Serve on warm tortillas topped with the pickled onions.
Yucatán peninsula Mayan tradition.

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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination

📍
Yucatán. Cochinita pibil is mestizo rather than ancient. The Maya pib, the earth oven, and the achiote are pre-Hispanic, but the pork, the sour orange and the banana leaf all arrived with the Spanish after 1527, so the dish as it is eaten now could not have existed before contact. Calling it an ancient Maya recipe reverses the actual history.
🗺️
Mexico. Underneath almost everything is nixtamalization: dried maize simmered and steeped in lime water, then hulled and ground. It softens the kernels into a masa that will hold together as a tortilla, adds calcium, and releases the tryptophan the body turns into niacin, which is why maize-eating Mesoamerica escaped the pellagra that later maize cultures suffered.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.

More from Mexico

EnfrijoladasCorn tortillas bathed in silky black-bean sauce, folded and finished with cheese, crema, and onion.
BirriaJalisco’s chile-marinated slow braise, served as a rich consomé with tortillas, or griddled into dripping quesabirria tacos.
Pozole VerdeHominy and chicken in a bright green broth of tomatillos, pepitas, and herbs, Guerrero’s Thursday ritual bowl.
Browse all Mexico recipes →

Good to know

You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Oven, Blender.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Cochinita Pibil?

Pork marinated blaze-orange in achiote and sour orange, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted until it shreds itself.

Where does Cochinita Pibil come from?

Cochinita Pibil is a Yucatecan dish from Yucatán, Mexico.

Can Cochinita Pibil be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

This Cochinita Pibil recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.

Is Cochinita Pibil safe for people with food allergies?

Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.

How long does Cochinita Pibil take to make?

About 7 h 55 min in all: 25 minutes prep and 210 minutes cooking, plus 4 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.

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