Skip to content
Open menu Close menu

Feed your appetite for cooking with Penguin’s expert authors

penguin logo

Dinner with Rukmini

Browse all of the recipes in Rukmini Iyer’s cookbooks by ingredient.

Slow-Cooked Pork Pibil with Pink Pickled Onions

Perfect for piling into tacos, Rukmini's pork pibil is slow-roasted until meltingly soft and topped with pink pickled onions.

From the book

Introduction

You may have had pork pibil at your favourite Mexican restaurant: it’s a classic Yucatán dish of pork, slow-cooked in achiote, a paste made from annatto seeds, from which the dish gets its lovely colour. Achiote paste is easily available online, and once you have it, this dish will be a staple in your repertoire – it’s so easy to put together.

Read more Read less

Ingredients

1 onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried oregano (Mexican if you have it)
8 cloves
250ml orange juice (ideally freshly squeezed)
2 limes, juice only
50g achiote paste
2 tsp sea salt
800g free-range pork shoulder, diced
For the pickled onions:
1⁄2 red onion, very thinly sliced
1 lime, juice only
To serve:
chopped fresh coriander
tortillas and sour cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 140°C fan/160°C/gas 2.

Tip the onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, cloves, citrus juice, achiote paste and salt into a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth.

In a small deep roasting tin or lidded casserole dish, mix the pork shoulder with the spice paste. Cover tightly with foil or the lid, then transfer to the oven and cook for 3 hours.

Meanwhile, mix the very thinly sliced red onion with the lime juice and set aside for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. (The acid in the lime juice will turn the onions a beautiful bright pink by the time the pork is ready.)

Once cooked, remove the foil or lid and shred the pork while hot. Serve with the pink pickled onions, chopped coriander warm tortillas and sour cream.

Note: This dish isn’t at all spicy, so it’s a good one for kids, and can be easily made ahead, frozen and defrosted in portions.

Reviews

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how it went by leaving a comment below.

Please note: Moderation is enabled and may delay your comment being posted. There is no need to resubmit your comment. By posting a comment you are agreeing to the website Terms of Use.

There are no comments yet

Be the first to leave a review

Follow Rukmini on Instagram

For the latest announcements and everyday cooking tips

Follow
newsletter

Subscribe to Rukmini's newsletter

Get the latest recipes and cookbook news from Rukmini straight to your inbox.

From the book: The Roasting Tin Around The World

Close menu