>> Pati Narrates: Today... Ah!

You saw how tender it is?

I didn't even have to make an effort!

We're tackling one of the classics.

And you're gonna do this without me, and you're gonna do so well that you're gonna want to have me over!

Chilorio, a recipe that is sure to become a keeper in your home.

I'm taking you step-by-step though this truly iconic Mexican staple, and we're using it two ways.

First, a simple but perfectly satisfying light meal, on a flour tortilla and covered in melted cheese, a Sincronizada.

And a crowd pleaser, eggs, corn tortillas, you see where I'm going here, Migas.

Mmm, this is too good!

Pati Narrates: In Mexico, I'm taking you to the town known as the cradle of Chilorio in Sinaloa, and we need a little sweet to go with that savory chilorio.

I'm making a cookie sandwich covered in crunchy sugar crystals and overloaded with cajeta.

Mmm, this has now become my favorite cookie.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Pati Narrates: At the base of the Sierra Madre mountains in the Northern region of Mexico's state of Sinaloa, Mocorito is the kind of town you might drive right past on your way to somewhere else, but if by chance you stop to explore a little, you'll be so glad you did.

The first settlers just with missionaries built this church in the late 1500s.

Mexico recently designated Mocorito a magic town for its natural beauty and historical significance.

This is the kind of place I love to share with you.

A tiny, charming, quiet little town with one major culinary claim to fame, slow-simmered tender pork packed with flavor, Chilorio.

This is Victoria and I had heard that she makes the most delicious chilorio in Mocorito.

Mocorito is the Mecca of chilorio, so if you're the expert of chilorio in Mocorito, then you've got it covered.

>> Victoria: Yes.

>> Pati: Los Tigres del Norte!

>> Pati: I didn't know!

>> Pati: No!

If you don't know who Los Tigres del Norte are, right now Google "Los Tigres del Norte" and then look at her, and then you'll understand why I'm like - >> Victoria: Yes.

>> Victoria: Yes.

No wrinkles!

No wrinkles in Sinaloa, this is crazy!

>> Pati: The reason I love chilorio so much is because it's one ingredient that you can use in so many ways.

>> Victoria: Pizza.

>> Pati Pizza!

The first time I used a pressure cooker - So I don't use pressure cookers anymore.

>> Pati: Oregano... >> Victoria: No.

>> Pati: I've made chilorio for so many years and I've always added orange juice, and the Queen of Chilorio doesn't add orange juice, that was a myth.

>> Pati: Ah, vinegar, so maybe that's why I had orange juice, >> Pati: Yay!

Simon says whatever she does, I do.

>> Victoria: Yes.

I love this kind of food.

>> Pati: Look at this!

Doesn't crack, doesn't break, and I'm really going hard on it, see?

Which tortilla have you seen that doesn't break?

I'm gonna step on it to show you!

No I'm not, I'm gonna eat it!

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Que delicia!

>> Victoria: Gracias.

>> Pati: Now I'm gonna show you how you can make chilorio at home.

Chilorio is pork shoulder or butt with all the fat on, cooked until it falls apart, and then you finish it off in a dried chile sauce with vinegar, and what results is a most delicious, seasoned, shredded meat mix that is multi-purpose and can be used for a thousand things, and you need to leave all the fat on because all that fat is going to render and turn into lard.

I have my casserole set over really high heat.

I've been making chilorio for years now in the way that Mexicans from Mexico City make it with the addition of a lot of orange juice, but when I went to Mocorito and tasted the real chilorio, I realized where that passion and taste comes from, and I also realized why it is such a multi-purpose filling.

I'll add about a teaspoon and a half of salt.

If it sticks to the pan, it's perfectly fine because you want all those browned bits.

Once it's browned we're gonna braise it because we want the meat to cook in liquid so it completely falls apart, so I'm adding 5 cups of water.

And this cooks with the lid on for an hour and a half.

The pork butt now has cooked in its own juices, in its own lard, most of the fat has rendered into the water, and the meat should be very tender, let's see!

Ah!

You saw how tender it is?

I didn't even have to make an effort.

So it still needs a few minutes for this liquid to continue to evaporate.

I'm gonna show you how to make the guajillo chile sauce, which is how the chilorio finishes cooking.

A ton of guajillo chiles, I mean a ton.

I'm putting all these chiles in water here that's already boiling.

A couple bay leaves.

8 garlic cloves that I already peeled.

I'll just let this simmer for a few minutes, I want these chiles to become really meaty.

There are many Mexican recipes that call for cooking the meat until very soft, and then shredding it, and then saucing it but you shred it with your hands.

This one calls for cooking until the cooking process forces the meat to shred and break on its own.

It's quite extraordinary.

I don't know how they thought about it, but we're getting to the point where I need to add the sauce, so let me finish making the sauce because the chiles are ready.

Adding all the chiles in here.

The bay leaves.

The garlic cloves.

A cup of the cooking liquid.

Half a teaspoon of coriander seeds.

A teaspoon of dried oregano.

A pinch of cumin.

Half a teaspoon salt.

You're with me!

And then you're gonna do this without me, and you're gonna do so well that you'll want to have me over for me to try.

so 1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar.

Recipes for chilorio range from 1 tablespoon vinegar to a cup of vinegar, so that means you add to your liking.

A teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.

(blender whirs) Pati: I mean, I haven't even opened it, and look at the color!

I need to send this clip of me making the chilorio to Victoria so she can see that I was a good student!

I'm meeting it with a lot of determination like she said.

You can see what this turns into.

It is like a dry Mexican bolognese of sorts.

We want for the sauce to thicken so this is not saucy but just really moist.

I want to see a darker color, and we want to see any fat that's in there rise to the top.

So I'll cover it, let this finish cooking 10 - 15 minutes, but you have to keep your eye on it.

>> Pati Narrates: In Mocorito, the Mecca for Chilorio, you need to eat with the Chilorio Queen, Victoria.

After that savory, truly to die for chilorio, you might be in the mood for a little something sweet.

Victoria has the perfect treat just a short walk from her restaurant.

It's your daughter!

So she has a restaurant, and her husband runs the grocery store of the town where they sell her chilorio, and he eats her chilorio, and she grew up eating her chilorio, and they seem very happy (laughs) Pati Narrates: It turns out Victoria's family is your first stop for anything food in Mocorito.

>> Victoria: Yes.

>> Pati Narrates: Because down the street making another culinary staple of Sinaloa is her sister, Fabiola.

Pati: Fifteen siblings!

(Pati counts siblings) >> Pati: Ah.

>> Pati: Ah!

Fabiola has perfected the art of jamoncillo, a soft, sweet kind of caramel fudge beloved by Sinaloans, and really all Mexicans alike.

It comes in many ways, rolls, bite-sized pieces, or covering cookies along with nuts and fruits.

The recipe sounds simple enough, just a few ingredients, but the process is a bit of an art form.

Raw milk?

>> Fabiola: Yes.

>> Pati: Just milk and sugar.

>> Pati: When you go like that with the paddle and you can leave a trace, and you can see the bottom of the pot, then you know you have to stop the fire, and then Fabiola says you have to stir it like this 500 times, and wait for it to cool down, that's what she said.

>> Pati: So she says that at this point you know when it's ready not only by how it looks, but by the smell, and it smells like cooked candy.

Yes, yes, yes!

>> Pati: I love that, so you do the savory, and you do the sweet.

Pati: Tastes really good, mmm!

Pati: Earlier when Victoria was teaching us her chilorio recipe, another one of her sisters, Martha, was in the kitchen making cookies.

They're adorable, and they're called bizcotelas.

She was kind enough to share her recipe with me.

And I love them so much, that I'm not only making them, but I'm dressing them up.

A pound of unsalted butter.

Turn this on to medium speed.

High speed.

Okay, so now that my butter is super creamy and soft I'm going to add 1 cup of sugar.

Let these two come together and become creamy and soft.

And I'm adding the eggs.

There are 4.

A teaspoon of vanilla extract.

I love these cookies.

First of all, I was intrigued with how Martha was shaping and cutting them, and I really wanted to learn how she was making that beautiful flower shape, but it turns out it's easy and it's so charming and beautiful, but then the taste is just simple, sweet, crumbly and delightful, you're gonna see!

I'm going to mix my dry ingredients, I have 8 cups of all-purpose flour.

2 teaspoons of baking powder.

A generous pinch of salt.

Mix this a little.

Then we're just going to alternate, I'm going to add a little bit of the flour mix and a little bit of milk, I have 1 cup of whole milk.

In Sinaloa they make these cookies for an everyday cookie, it's just a cookie you have just there at home for breakfast or after lunch or dinner or with coffee, and I'll show you how I made them even more special for me in one second.

This recipe makes 50 - 60 individual cookies, but we're gonna turn them into irresistible sugar dulce de leche bizcotela sandwiches.

You make balls of dough of about 1-inch to 1.5-inch, and then flatten them a little.

This is what you do to make that flower shape, and it's not as difficult as it looks, it's really easy, come, I'll show you.

You're gonna cut it 5 times like this.

You press it a little in the center.

Now in Sinaloa they make them just like this and they bake them, but we are going to dress them with crystal sugar.

I mean, look at this dressed bizcotela!

It's beautiful.

My oven is at 350 degrees and I'll put them in there from 30 - 35 minutes just until the bottoms and edges begin to brown.

Pati: Now that my chilorio is ready... and it is looking so lovely, I'm going to use this chilorio two ways.

One of the simplest things to do if you have your chilorio ready is a quesadilla so I'm grabbing a flour tortilla, because flour tortillas and cheese and chilorio go really well together.

And this is quesadilla cheese.

I'm gonna add my chilorio.

You know what?

I changed my mind.

Because I overstuffed this so much that I'm gonna stuff it a little bit more, and instead of a quesadilla, I'm gonna turn it into a sincronizada.

It has one tortilla on the bottom and one tortilla on the top, and it just allows you to add more stuff.

In Mexico we do really big lunches, and we do very light dinners, and this used to be, really, three out of four nights a week, we used to have sincronizadas.

I'll add some of the chilorio fat.

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Ooh, yes!

Mmm.

mhmm.

The flour tortillas are super crunchy on the outside and they have all the flavor from the chilorio, and then you have the cheese that has melted into the chilorio, and with the avocado this is so good.

So this is just one of the things that you can make with chilorio.

Think about a thousand possibilities, if you buy the chilorio or make the chilorio, and you have it handy, then you can make this in a snap.

Pati: One of my favorite ways to eat chilorio is in migas.

Migas is like a wet version of chilaquiles with scrambled eggs, and you want to add some kind of delicious saucy meat, and that's what chilorio is, it just goes so well with migas.

So we have some corn tortillas, and with a little bit of the oil they're gonna start to crisp, and I'll add my vegetables for these chilorio migas.

1/2 a cup of white chopped onion.

Then I'll dice an Anaheim chile, and I really started using the Anaheim when I got back from Sinaloa.

This is a chile that I haven't used in my kitchen, that I'm growing to love.

It tastes a little like a green bell pepper, no heat.

I'll add some tomatoes.

A little bit of salt, pepper.

I'll add my chilorio.

Sinaloans are incredibly proud of the chilorio.

Ah, you can see how this is coming together, and you can see how the chilorio is now cooking with the onion and tomato and Anaheim.

See?

This is what we're looking for, cause we cook the tortillas there for a while.

See how they're soft on one side, they're getting hard on the outside and crispy?

Mmm.

Mmm!

Love, love, love!

Some salt.

I'm gonna scramble the eggs, I have 8.

This is a delicious mess, just look at this.

Pickled onions.

Crumbled queso.

Drizzle some crema.

Mmm.

mmm!

This is too good!

You have your whole meal there now.

This is great for breakfast, for brunch, for lunch, but this is also great for a light dinner meal.

Mmm!

Mmm.

These are the bizcotelas.

They look adorable already.

Snap the petals off and... Mmm!

Mmm.

It's like a biscuit that wants to be a cookie.

Mmm, mmm.

We're gonna take this to the top.

I'm gonna add some cajeta, Mexico's dulce de leche.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Crazy delicious.

This is the perfect ending to so many things.

I think this has now become my favorite cookie.

>> Pati Narrates: For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit PatiJinich.com, and connect!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest @PatiJinich.