Expert Score

Lamb Barbacoa

📍 Los Angeles Mexican-Californian $$$

at Broken Spanish

"Lamb barbacoa at Broken Spanish is slow-cooked in maguey leaves — the leaves are layered in a pit, the lamb is placed inside, the pit is covered and the lamb is cooked for hours. The result is meat that is so tender it requires no knife, just a willingness to eat something that has been transformed by time and technique."

— Expert, 95/100 credibility
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Expert Reviews

What Critics Are Saying

Expert 95/100

"Lamb barbacoa at Broken Spanish is slow-cooked in maguey leaves — the leaves are layered in a pit, the lamb is placed inside, the pit is covered and the lamb is cooked for hours. The result is meat that is so tender it requires no knife, just a willingness to eat something that has been transformed by time and technique."

Expert 93/100

"The barbacoa technique requires infrastructure that most kitchens do not have — the maguey leaves, the pit, the timeline. Broken Spanish has the infrastructure and the patience. The lamb emerges from the process with a smokiness that cannot be replicated in an oven. The handmade tortillas are the only acceptable vehicle."