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Mixiotes
5 from 12 votes

Mixiotes

Mixiotes are traditional packets of marinated meat, typically game or chicken, cooked with potatoes, nopales, and mushrooms in a flavorful adobo sauce made from dried chiles, garlic, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and lime juice. Wrapped and steamed, the mixiotes gently cook the ingredients, infusing them with smoky, tangy, and earthy notes. Served with corn tortillas, this dish showcases complex Mexican flavors and tender meat.

Prep Time
1 hr
Cook Time
1 hr
Marinating Time
8 hrs
Total Time
10 hrs
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 281 kcal
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients

ADOBO
  • 4 ancho chile stemmed and seeded
  • 4 guajillo chiles stemmed and seeded
  • 3 chipotle pepper stemmed, dried
  • 1/2 onion cut in half to make wedges, white
  • 3 cloves garlic unpeeled
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seed or 1/2 teaspoon ground
  • 5 clove or 1/4 teaspoon ground
  • 1/2 inch piece cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon ground
  • 1/4 cup lime juice or white vinegar
  • salt smoked if you have it
FILLING
  • 1-2 pounds meat chicken, rabbit, pheasant, squirrel, grouse, quail, in pieces
  • 1-2 pounds Yukon Gold potato cut in chunks, or other yellow potatoes
  • 8 ounces Nopales see headnotes for prep, prepared
  • 8 ounces mushroom any kind you want, fresh
  • 6 avocado leaves or bay leaves
  • corn tortilla to serve with the mixiotes

Instructions

ADOBO
    Cup of Yum
  1. Set the dried chiles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Cover the bowl and let them rehydrate. Meanwhile, if you're using the whole spices, toast them over medium-high heat in a dry pan until fragrant, then move them to a mortar and pestle. Now set the quarters of white onion and the unpeeled garlic in the pan to sear. You want both cut sides of the onion to blacken, and char marks on all sides of the garlic cloves.
  2. Peel the garlic and set inside the mortar and pestle. Add a healthy pinch of salt, about 1 teaspoon. Grind all this into a paste. Add the lime juice or vinegar and use it to clean the mortar as you move the mixture to the bowl of a blender.
  3. Add the chiles to the blender bowl, too. Roughly chop the onion and add it to the blender. Pour in water or broth and start blending. You want a puree about the thickness of barbecue sauce or house paint.
  4. OPTIONAL STEP: Push the adobo through a fine-meshed strainer to remove bits of seed and skin from the chiles, which are not digestible.
  5. BLENDER METHOD: If you don't have a mortar and pestle, use ground spices and skip the toasting. Add all ingredients to a blender and puree.
MIXIOTES
  1. You'll likely have more adobo than you need; it keeps for weeks in the fridge. Coat the meat with some adobo and put this in a covered container for at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days. I prefer a full day.
  2. When you are ready to make the bundles, soak the pieces of parchment paper for 10 minutes or so. Use this time to take the meat out of the fridge and chop vegetables.
  3. Set some foil in a bowl. Set 2 pieces of wet parchment paper inside that. Divvy up the adobo-coated meat into 6 portions, and put a portion in the open bundle. Add some of the potatoes, nopales and mushrooms to the bundle. Sprinkle a little salt over it all. Add an avocado or bay leaf or two. Fold up the parchment paper into a bundle, and tie it off with twine or a twist tie. Fold the foil over the bundle to double seal it. Repeat with the remaining bundles.
  4. Set a steamer insert into a large, lidded pot. Fill water up to the level of the steamer insert and set the temperature to high. Arrange the bundles on the steamer, cover the pot and steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  5. Carefully remove the bundles and set them on a board. Remove the foil and set each parchment bundle on a plate. Let your guests open them at the table. Serve with hot corn tortillas.

Notes

  • For tough game meats like squirrel or pheasant, simmer in salted water for 1-2 hours before marinating to ensure tenderness.
  • If no steamer insert is available, elevate mixiote bundles on stripped corn cobs or a plate over an empty can for steaming.
  • Prefer tan chipotle meco chiles but morita are acceptable; canned chipotles can be substituted but note 2 chiles, not cans, are used.
  • Use smoked salt, such as mesquite, to enhance the smoky flavor in the adobo.
  • Nopales should be prepared in advance; prepped nopales keep for several days.

Nutrition Information

Calories 281kcal (14%) Carbohydrates 39g (13%) Protein 22g (44%) Fat 6g (9%) Saturated Fat 2g (10%) Polyunsaturated Fat 2g (12%) Monounsaturated Fat 1g (5%) Cholesterol 43mg (14%) Sodium 74mg (3%) Potassium 1305mg (28%) Fiber 12g (48%) Sugar 14g (28%) Vitamin A 6990IU (140%) Vitamin C 32mg (36%) Calcium 107mg (11%) Iron 4mg (22%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 6 servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 281

% Daily Value*

Calories 281kcal 14%
Carbohydrates 39g 13%
Protein 22g 44%
Fat 6g 9%
Saturated Fat 2g 10%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g 12%
Monounsaturated Fat 1g 5%
Cholesterol 43mg 14%
Sodium 74mg 3%
Potassium 1305mg 28%
Fiber 12g 48%
Sugar 14g 28%
Vitamin A 6990IU 140%
Vitamin C 32mg 36%
Calcium 107mg 11%
Iron 4mg 22%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.