Tlayuda con Chorizo Oaxaqueño y Quesillo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large cast iron comal or heavy 14-inch skillet (or charcoal grill)
• •Medium skillet for the chorizo
• •Small heavy saucepan for refrying beans
• •Bean masher or sturdy wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Refry the black beans

   Heat the manteca de cerdo in a small heavy saucepan over medium. When the lard shimmers, add the chopped onion and cook until it turns translucent, about three minutes. Add the cooked black beans with their broth and the epazote. Mash them with a bean masher or the back of a wooden spoon until you have a thick, spreadable paste. Some chunks are fine. The beans should hold their shape on a spoon, not run off it. If they are too thick, add a splash more broth. Season with salt. Keep them warm over low heat while you prepare everything else.

   Lard is not optional for the beans. Oil makes a thin, flat-tasting refrito. The manteca gives them body and a flavor that belongs on a tlayuda. If your beans taste good enough to eat alone with a tortilla, they are ready.
2. 2

   Cook the chorizo

   Crumble the chorizo oaxaqueño into a dry skillet over medium heat. No oil, no lard. The chorizo carries its own fat and will render it within the first two minutes. Break it into small, uneven pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks. You want some bits crisp at the edges and others just cooked through. The skillet will turn orange-red from the chile and the vinegar will sharpen the air. Cook for seven to eight minutes, until the meat is browned and the fat has separated. Leave the chorizo in the skillet with its rendered fat. That fat is flavor.

   Taste the chorizo before it goes on the tlayuda. Good chorizo oaxaqueño should have a vinegar bite that hits first, then the warmth of the chile ancho, then the pork. If it tastes sweet or flat, it is not oaxaqueño. It is somebody else's chorizo.
3. 3

   Prepare the quesillo and cabbage

   Pull the quesillo apart into long, thin strips with your fingers. It should come apart in threads like string cheese, not crumble. If it resists, it is too cold. Let it sit at room temperature for fifteen minutes and try again. Shred the cabbage as fine as you can manage, almost like slaw. The cabbage goes on raw, at the very end, and the fine cut is what lets it drape across the hot filling without turning the whole thing into a salad.

   Quesillo in Oaxaca is sold wound into balls the size of a fist. Outside Oaxaca, look for it labeled as queso Oaxaca. It should be fresh, pliable, and mildly salty. Mozzarella is not a substitute. It melts differently and brings nothing of the flavor you need.
4. 4

   Build the tlayuda

   Heat a large comal, cast iron skillet, or grill grate over medium heat. Take one tlayuda tortilla and spread a thin layer of asiento across the entire surface with the back of a spoon. The asiento should go edge to edge. It is not a garnish, it is the base coat. Over the asiento, spread a generous layer of the refried black beans, leaving about an inch of bare tortilla at the rim. Lay the pulled quesillo strips across the beans. Scatter a quarter of the cooked chorizo over the cheese. Repeat with remaining tlayudas.

   The order matters. Asiento goes directly on the tortilla. Beans over the asiento. Cheese over the beans. Chorizo over the cheese. This is how the senoras at 20 de Noviembre build them. The asiento waterproofs the tortilla so it stays crisp. The beans anchor everything. The cheese melts down into the beans. Asi se hace y punto.
5. 5

   Grill until crisp and melted

   Place the assembled tlayuda on the hot comal or grill. Cook for four to five minutes without moving it. You are listening for the sound of the tortilla drying and crisping underneath, a quiet crackling. Lift an edge to check: the bottom should be spotted dark brown with charred patches and the tortilla should feel stiff and dry, not flexible. The quesillo on top should be soft and just starting to melt into the beans. Do not flip it. A tlayuda is not a quesadilla. The top stays open to the heat and the bottom does all the work.

   If you have access to a charcoal grill, use it. The smoky char from real coals is part of the tlayuda's identity in Oaxaca. A gas burner with a grill grate set over it is the next best thing. A comal works, but you lose the smoke.
6. 6

   Top with cabbage and serve

   Pull the tlayuda off the heat and onto a cutting board or directly onto a plate. Pile a generous handful of the shredded raw cabbage across the top. The cabbage does not wilt. It stays crisp and cool against the hot filling, and that contrast is the point. You can fold the tlayuda in half if you want to eat it standing, the way they serve them at the market, or leave it open and eat it with a knife and fork. Serve with salsa de pasilla oaxaqueño on the side. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Asiento is the single hardest ingredient to source outside Oaxaca. If you have a Mexican market that makes chicharrón in-house, ask them for the sediment from the bottom of their frying pot. Some will sell it, some will give it to you if you ask nicely. If you truly cannot find it, melt two tablespoons of pork lard in a small skillet and cook it over medium-low until it darkens and smells toasty, almost nutty. Stir in a quarter teaspoon of lard that you've let brown to the edge of burning. It's a compromise, not the real thing, but it gets you closer than plain manteca.
• •Chorizo oaxaqueño has a vinegar backbone that other Mexican chorizos lack. The acidity is what makes it work against the richness of the asiento and the fat of the cheese. If you cannot find oaxaqueño specifically, use a good-quality Mexican chorizo and squeeze a teaspoon of white vinegar into the skillet while it cooks. It is not the same, but it nods in the right direction.
• •If you can find real tlayuda tortillas at a Mexican grocery or online, buy them. They are large, stiff, and partially dried on a clay comal. If you cannot, use the largest corn tortillas available (at least 8 inches) and toast them on a dry comal over medium-low heat for three to four minutes per side until they stiffen and the edges curl. They will not be tlayudas, but they will hold the toppings without collapsing.
• •The cabbage goes on raw, always. Do not cook it. Do not wilt it. The cold crunch of raw repollo against the hot, greasy, smoky base of asiento and chorizo is the contrast that makes the whole thing work. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.

Advance Preparation

• •The black beans can and should be cooked a day ahead. A pot of frijoles negros in the refrigerator is the starting point for half the dishes in an Oaxacan kitchen. Cook one pound of dried black beans with a halved white onion, a head of garlic, and a sprig of epazote in enough water to cover by three inches. Simmer for two to three hours until tender. Salt only at the end.
• •The chorizo can be cooked and crumbled up to two hours ahead and held at room temperature. Reheat it in its own rendered fat on the comal before building the tlayudas.
• •The quesillo can be pulled into strips and the cabbage shredded up to four hours ahead. Keep them refrigerated separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 380g)