Entry in progress. Penniless lexicographer taking a break—B.P.
 
 
Glossary - Mexican food recipes, cooking terms
Mixiote Thin parchment-like membrane of the maguey, or the dish made by wrapping meats and vegetables in it much the way we use parchment paper, and cooking them in a steamer of barbacoa pit.
   
Wikipedia: Mixiote
Mixiote traditionally is a kind of pit-barbecued meat, usually mutton or rabbit in central Mexico. The meat is cubed with the bone and seasoned with pasilla and guajillo chili peppers, cumin, thyme, marjoram, bay leaves, cloves and garlic. It is then wrapped in small packages made of the tough outer transparent skin of the leaves of the maguey or century plant, which gives it a unique flavor. The maguey plant is better known as the base for the mildly alcoholic drink called pulque.
 
Frommer’s Yucatan Peninsula Travel Guide- Menu Glossary
Mixiote—Rabbit, lamb, or chicken cooked in a mild chile sauce (usually chile ancho or pasilla), and then wrapped like a tamal and steamed. It is generally served with tortillas for tacos, with traditional garnishes of pickled onions, hot sauce, chopped cilantro, and lime wedges.
   
Mexico Connect
Mexican Hot…Or Not
Karen Hursh Graber
 
MIXIOTES
The word mixiotes refers to one of the most delectable dishes within the wide spectrum of Mexican cooking, as well as the wrapping used to contain these steamed individual meat stews.

This wrapping, also known as a mixiote, is the outermost layer of a maguey leaf, called a penca. (Maguey is the century plant, a succulent from which the Mexican alcoholic beverage called pulque is derived. One legend has it that the god-prince Quetzalcoatl sent shooting stars to earth to form the first maguey plants.) This thin outer leaf layer is similiar to parchment paper in thickness and consistency. If you don’t live near a Mexican market where you can buy mixiotes, you can use papel para mixiotes, which are simply plastic baggies, a commonly used substitute. If you use plastic baggies, wrap each bagged bundle in foil before steaming.

Making mixiotes isn’t as difficult as it sounds, and is really a fun project to undertake with a friend. They are so delicious that you will want to make a lot, either for a large gathering or to freeze some for later use. The following recipe uses chicken, but beef and lamb are also used. The day my Poblana cooking guru, Bernarda, showed me how to make them, the smell was so tantalizing that drop-in friends waited around until they were ready and bought some nice cold beer to go with them. Good thing we made plenty!

Ingredients:
6 mixiotes, cut in half to make 12 pieces, or 12 plastic baggies and 12 8"x8” foil squares
12 chicken thighs or 6 chicken breasts, halved
1 cup fresh orange juice, from bitter oranges - naranja mateca. (If using sweet oranges, use 3/4 cup juice and 1/4 cup vinegar)
60 grams (about 2 ounces) achiote paste (a seasoning made from the seeds of the annatto tree, now available at markets in the U.S.)
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon each: dried marjoram, dried thyme, and dried oregano
6 ancho chiles, seeded and stemmed
6 guajillo chiles, seeded and stemmed
3 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, roasted and peeled
12 small new potatoes, cut in 1” cubes
6 medium carrots, sliced
12 avocado leaves (these are dried, and sold where you buy your dried chiles) (...)
 
Google Books
Eating In Mexico
by Amando Farga
Mexican Restaurant Association
1963
Pg. 100:
Delicious barbecued meat in mixiote (wrappings of banana leaves or corn shucks); roast lamb shepherd style, with salsa borracha, a piquant sauce, 
   
Google Books
The Art of Living in Mexico
by William J. Reed and William C. Malton
Wilkie Publishing
1974
Pg. 296:
Mixiote: Meat, usually chicken or lamb, doused in hot salsa, wrapped in the parchment-like outer membrane of the agave leaf ,and steamed.
 
Google Books
Webster’s New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts
by Steven Labensky, Gaye G. Ingram, and Sarah R. Labensky
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
1997
Pg. 299:
mixiotes de conejo (me-xe-oh-tas da coh-na-ee-oh) A Mexican dish consisting of fried, spiced rabbit wrapped in maguey leaves and steamed.