Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Cecina de Yecapixtla is one of the great cured-meat traditions of central Mexico: beef flank, cut into extra-thin sheets almost a metre long, salted heavily, hung in the open air to dry for a few days, and sold folded like laundry at the mercados of Yecapixtla, a small town in the state of Morelos. The finished cecina is deep red, salty, mineral, faintly sweet and slightly chewy — a jerky in intent but pliable rather than hard. It's the local pride of Yecapixtla, protected by a Denominación de Origen since 2016, and the entire town's economy depends on it. Every roadside restaurant along the Cuernavaca-Cuautla highway advertises "cecina de Yecapixtla" and the town's Sunday market is where locals go to buy their week's supply.
Method
Slice the flank steak against the grain 3mm thin. Lay on a rack. Rub all over with salt, pepper and oregano. Refrigerate uncovered 24 hours (this air-dries the surface). Bring to room temperature before cooking.
Char the tomatillos, chillies, garlic and onion on a dry pan 6 minutes. Blend with coriander, salt and lime to a coarse-smooth sauce.
Heat a heavy dry cast-iron pan or plancha over the highest heat you have until smoking. If using proper cecina (already dry), no oil needed. If using mock cecina, brush the pan with a thin film of oil.
Lay the cecina sheets in the pan in a single layer. Cook 30 seconds per side (for real cecina) or 60 seconds per side (for mock). It should char at the edges and be cooked through — real cecina is essentially already dry-cured, so this is a heating rather than a cooking step.
Lift the cecina onto a chopping board. Slice into strips 1cm wide, then chop into rough 1cm pieces.
Warm double tortillas on the hot pan 20 seconds a side. Stack in a towel.
Lay two overlapped tortillas on each plate. Pile with a fistful of chopped cecina. Top with diced onion, chopped coriander, a slice of avocado and a spoon of salsa verde.
Serve immediately with lime wedges and (if using) a spoon of refried beans on the side. Add sliced radishes for freshness. Real cecina is salty on its own — no extra salt needed.
Tips
- Real cecina is heated, not cooked. Cecina de Yecapixtla is already salt-cured and air-dried; the pan is just a way of warming and charring the outside. Thirty seconds a side is enough.
- Do not add salt to the pan. Real cecina is heavily salted already. Cook plain.
- Chop after cooking. Cooking the whole sheet keeps it tender; chopping first gives you crumbly bits that overcook.
- Salsa verde, not roja. The classical Morelense taco de cecina takes green salsa. Salsa roja is a Mexico City move.
- If substituting flank steak: air-dry it. Twenty-four hours uncovered in the fridge with salt draws out moisture and concentrates flavour — closer to real cecina than a fresh steak. Not identical, but a serious improvement.
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