Pibil-style chicken tacos with pickled onions
Cochinita pibil is the signature dish of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. It’s not spicy, but sweet-sour and spiced. It’s typically made with pork, but it’s also very common with chicken—same recipe, different main ingredient. Traditionally, this dish is cooked underground for hours. The meat turns out extremely tender and delicious. Since we can’t cook it underground at home and never have time, I’ll teach you to make it much more easily and quickly.
Ingredients (for 8 people):
- 1 kg chicken (3 thighs and drumsticks, plus 2 breasts)
For the marinade:
- 125 ml orange juice
- 125 ml lemon juice
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 small onion
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 clove
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 4 allspice berries
- 100 g achiote paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh cilantro
- Black pepper
- Salt
For the pickled onion:
- 1 red onion
- Juice of 1 lime
- Juice of 1/2 orange
- 25 ml apple cider vinegar
- 1 jalapeño
- Water to cover
- Salt to taste
For the tacos:
- 1 avocado
- Corn tortillas
- Lime
- Fresh cilantro
Preparation:
- Blend all the marinade ingredients. Put the chicken in a bowl and cover it with the marinade, mix well and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes. Preferably, leave it overnight.
- Open the pressure cooker, add the chicken along with the marinade, pour a glass of water into the bowl with the remaining marinade and add that to the pot too. Mix, close the pot, set to maximum pressure, and cook for 20 minutes once the valve starts releasing steam. After the time is up, release the pressure.
- Transfer the chicken pieces to a tray and shred them with two forks—it’s that easy. The meat is super tender, even the breast. Put it back in the sauce and stir.
- To make the pickled onion, julienne a red onion and put it in a jar. Add the rest of the ingredients, seal, mix, and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, ideally 24 hours.
- To make our tacos, warm the tortillas in a pan for 30 seconds on each side. Generously fill them with chicken, pickled onion, a bit of avocado, a lime wedge, and fresh cilantro.
- Some incredibly delicious tacos full of flavor. If you serve these to guests, they’ll want to come back to your house again and again.
