Deng's Pollo Pibil

The flavor of the month for me is Latin American cuisine and I’ve been reading and experimenting like crazy for the past few evenings. Yesturday I decided that I would make Pollo Pibil for Deng and I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. This one comes from the Yucantan in Mexico.

Many of the meat dishes in the Yucatan are called pibil to signify that they are are steamed in a pit (which in Mayan is called a pib). The ingredients are so exotic and I had a fun time pounding the spices myself (I never knew annato seeds were so hard!) in my late grandmother's huge stone mortar and pestle. Some of the marinade ingredients are orange and lemon juice, annato seeds, oregano, cumin, pepper, cloves, cinnamon and garlic.

Luckily I have several books that deal with regional dishes of Latin America and it was tough deciding which one I should cook for Deng, but I think I made the right choice. The chicken has to be marinated for 24 hours. I’m excited to cook it but itchy fingers will have to wait until tomorrow morning.