Pibil-Style Achiote Marinade

Adobo Pibil

Preparation info
  • About

    2½ cups

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined

By Zarela Martínez

Published 1992

  • About

Pibil refers to the traditional Yucatecan method of pit-roasting meat or fish in a pib, a stone-lined hole in the ground. The Mayas have been doing this since pre-Columbian times, though now it is also applied to foods that the Spaniards brought, especially pork. The meat is rubbed with an adobo (marinade paste) and wrapped in banana leaves. It bakes and steams at the same time, becoming infused with the spices and the banana-leaf fragrance. I developed a variation of a