Lamb Barbacoa

barbacoa is absolutely one of my favorite dishes in Mexico but typically and traditionally it is made in a pit in the ground so it sort of seems like it's just out of reach for most home cooks in the United States but when you really take it apart it is meat that is wrapped in some aromatic leaves and then slowly cooked so we can slow cook in our kitchens I mean I could do it in the oven or I can do it in my slow cooker which is my appliance of choice here but first let's talk about the aromatic leaves now typically a barbacoa in central Mexico will be done in the large think they Margate or agave leaf and thankfully at the Mexican grocery store around the corner from my house they're selling these now so maybe you want to see if you can lay your hands on that other parts of Mexico pit cooked meat will be cooked in banana leaves those are readily available in Mexican and Asian and specialty grocery stores and in central Mexico and southern Mexico they use a lot of avocado leaves which are also very readily available in the Mexican markets so to start off my barbacoa here the first thing that I'm going to do since I have this my gate leaf is to cut off a chunk of it and show you how you work with it so I'm going to cut through it it's very fibrous and I will tell you that on the part of it that is exposed now you don't want to touch that part of it because they could give a rash to your hand and I'm going to soften it by putting it on to an open flame like we were roasting a chili here and I'm just going to sort of char it and soften it then we're going to cut it up and use it to line the slow cooker now my slow cooker is one that has the insert that you can take out I have a shoulder roast of lamb central Mexico they make barbecue out of lamb in the southern part of Mexico they use a lot of goat northern part of Mexico they're using a lot of beef I want to brown this because when you're doing pick cooking you get the pit really hot then you put the leaf wrapped meat in there when it's super hot but then it starts to cool down and slowly cook so I'm going to get the initial sear in my slow cooker by adding a little bit of oil to the bottom of the pot I'm going to sprinkle this meat with some salt then lay it down into the pot let's see if it's hot enough yeah I got a nice little sizzle going on there more salt over the top I'm going to brown the lamb on all sides and then continue to roast them on gay until it's softened it'll blacken in the process we got Brown to meet and we've got the softened and charred leaf there now on to the flavorings that go into this so this is kind of a classic red chili marinade that I'm doing but I'm going to actually thin it out some to make it a braising liquid and it's going to start with some herbs and spices we've got the Mexican oregano and cinnamon that are going to go in here a little bit of dark brown sugar or you could use piloncillo garlic of course a little vinegar for Tang smokiness comes from chipotle chilies and then we have two dried chilies the guajillo for brightness and the ancho for deep rich sweetness the first thing that I need to do with these ingredients of course is to clean the chilies so pull out the stems open them up let the seeds fall out not going to be terribly careful about getting every one of them out because I'm going to strain this mixture the vinegar and a chipotle chili and then the rest of our ingredients Gunilla the dark brown sugar oregano and garlic and I've got two cups of water and I'm going to blend it until it's completely smooth that'll take a minute or two I'm going to strain this through a medium mesh sieve over my lamb press that all through with a spatula now to this soften the mygait leaf I'm going to cut it into three pieces and just nestle them down in here what are they going to give a little bit of char flavor so it's going to get a rustic quality and then they're also going to give the herbal element that cooking in my game leaves back on to the slow cooker grab it here and put it on and the top on and I'm going to cook that for about six hours on high for the lamb break up the cooked pieces into large chunks spread those pieces onto a platter and sprinkle them with some coarse salt spoon that beautiful pan juice over the land to add moisture and you're ready for a party you

Channel: Rick Bayless

Views: 68,050

Rating: 4.894309 out of 5

Keywords: Rick Bayless (Chef), Barbacoa (Dish), Food (TV Genre), Cooking (Interest), Mexican Food (Cuisine), agave leaf, banana leaf, avocado leaf, lamb, Slow Cooker (Culinary Tool), lamb shoulder, Mexican oregano, garlic, Vinegar (Ingredient), ancho chile, Guajillo Chili (Organism Classification), Chipotle (Food), canela, Mexican cinnamon, Braising (Culinary Technique), Mexico One Plate at a Time

Id: xuZ2T7MypJE

Length: 6min 3sec (363 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2015