← Nouns Cooking · Mexican

Ingredients

• 2 kg bone-in lamb shoulder or leg, cut into large pieces
• 4 Dried guajillo chillies, stemmed and seeded
• 2 Dried ancho / guajillo chillies, stemmed and seeded
• ½ Onion
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 60 ml Orange juice
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp Dried oregano
• 3 sprigs Thyme
• 4 Bay leaves
• 330 ml Mexican lager (or water)
• 500 ml Water
• 1 Carrot, chopped
• 100 g cooked chickpeas
• 100 g Long-grain rice (optional)
• Salt

Method

1. Soak the chillies in hot water for 15 min, then blend with the onion, garlic, orange juice, vinegar, cumin, oregano and 2 tsp salt until smooth.
2. Rub the paste all over the lamb and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
3. Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan, 325°F). Put the carrot, chickpeas, rice, thyme, bay leaves, beer and water in the bottom of a deep roasting pan or Dutch oven and set a rack over it. Lay the lamb on the rack and cover very tightly with foil and a lid.
4. Cook for 4 hours, until the lamb falls apart when prodded. The drippings collect below and become the consomé.
5. Shred the meat. Skim some fat off the broth, top it up with hot water if it is very concentrated and season it.
6. Serve the lamb in warm corn tortillas with chopped onion, coriander, lime and salsa borracha, and a cup of consomé on the side.

Tips

• If you have banana or maguey leaves, wrap the lamb in them for the closest thing to pit-cooked barbacoa.
• Use water instead of beer to keep it gluten-free.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

My Latina Table Mexico in My Kitchen