Mexico: One Plate at a Time

Cooking in underground pits is an elemental part of Yucatecan cooking. In fact, it’s downright sacred, as we’ll see during the preparation of mucbil pollo at an intimate candlelit Hanal Pixan ceremony (think of it as the Yucatán’s version of Dias de Los Muertos.) Rick heads to Yaxunah to see the entire process of making cochinita pibil, from the digging of the pit to the garnishing of the tacos. Rick also visits the smoky ovens in Temozón, a village known throughout Yucatán for its purveyors of smoked meats. Then, he places a big order at Momocoa, a Southern-American-slash-Yucatecan barbecue joint in Merida run by Chef Paloma Ponce. All of the smoke stokes Rick’s inner pit master, so back in Chicago he makes short ribs with ancho BBQ sauce and pollo pibil.

In Mexico, golden crispy churros are served with a cup of nourishing, frothy hot chocolate, and there’s perhaps no better snack in the whole republic. In this episode, Rick visits El Moro, a Mexico City institution, and then orders fistful of churros rellenos – that’s right, stuffed churros — in picturesque Coyocan. Back in Chicago, Rick’s recipe begins with classic Mexican hot chocolate and ends with churro nibbles showered atop Mexican hot chocolate ice cream.

San Pedro Atocpan is a small town that produces some 60 percent of the mole eaten in all of Mexico, and Rick is pretty much the perfect tour guide to show us around. We’ll see mole in its many mouthwatering forms, including the elegant mole madre at Enrique Olvera’s Pujol. In his Mexico City kitchen, Rick leads a lesson in red mole making. In Chicago, he makes a herbacious mole verde with fish that will make you the hero of the kitchen.