What Barbacoa means
Barbacoa is a Mexican main dish name of Taino origin meaning "meat cooked in a pit". It comes from Taíno barbacoa (framework of sticks over a fire). It is pronounced bar-bah-KOH-ah, and it is most associated with central Mexico.
The Spanish picked the word up in the Caribbean and carried it to Mexico, where it attached to maguey-wrapped lamb cooked underground. English barbecue descends from the same word.
This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The plated dishes, most named for a cooking method or a place. Cochinita pibil is pork cooked in a píib, the Maya earth oven. Barbacoa gave English the word barbecue. Chiles en nogada is named for the walnut sauce that covers it.
