▶A mixiote is a traditional Mexican dish in which enchilada meat is cooked inside a wrapper, traditionally the outer skin of an agave leaf.
The ingredients are wrapped in small xiotl packages, the tough, semi-transparent outer skin of maguey (agave) leaves, and steamed.

▶The mixiote is typical of the states where maguey pulquero is cultivated, that is, south of the Mexican plateau, including the states of Querétaro, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Tlaxcala, and Puebla.

▶In cities, to wrap mixiotes, parchment paper – as I did – or aluminum foil was also used, a reminiscence of the ancient French cooking technique “en papillote” or our “al cartoccio”.

This technique is traditional in many culinary cultures: pepes in Indonesia; zongzi in China; dolmades in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as in Central America, where tamales are usually cooked this way, or in the preparation of pamonha in Brazil.

▶There is a wide variety of mixiotes, with beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or rabbit, often accompanied by sauce, potatoes, and nopales; I made it with chicken.

▶After a marinade of chili peppers, garlic, onion, cumin, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves, I steamed it.

And as is typical of Hidalgo, don’t forget to accompany it with a good glass of pulque.

It is believed that the first Spaniards to taste mixiotes were Duchess Catalina of Aragon and her husband, Carlos Arsillaca y Albarrán, during a field day in the Huasteca Hidalguense.

The couple, after tasting this dish at a special picnic banquet, fell in love with it so much that they succeeded in making it very popular throughout the territory.