Carne Guisada

When I was making my menu for the second half of the month, I asked J if he had any requests (I’m nice like that!) and I was a little surprised when one of the things he sent me was Carne Guisada. I can’t recall ever having it before, and it just seemed so random. But, I’m always up for trying new things and making my guy happy in the mean time!! So, I set out in search of a good recipe.

Of course, since I’d never had it, I wasn’t sure what a “good” recipe would be. So I emailed a friend and my mom and sent them this recipe that I’d found and asked if it looked “right”. Neither one of them use beer or peppers in their’s, but they said it sounded good, so I decided to go ahead with it. Thank goodness I did, because it was damn delicious. A little bit of spice to it, but nothing drastic, and the flavor was just amazing. I didn’t cook it in the crockpot this time, but next time I would…same method really, after the browning of the meat. When we sat down to eat J asks me, “Was this my idea?” Yes babe, it was, and a damn good one!! We had ours as tacos, with spanish rice, black beans, guac and sour cream on whole wheat tortillas. Yuu-um!! And guess what, this is just in time for TACO TUESDAY!! So, get it on the stove or in the crockpot and dinner for tomorrow is done!

Carne Guisada
As seen on The Homesick Texan

Ingredients

• 4 lbs of chuck or bottom round beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 Tbsp of peanut oil
• 1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 14.05 oz. can of diced tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced
• 2 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 2 serrano peppers, diced
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups of water
• 1 12 oz. bottle of dark Mexican beer such as Negro Modelo
• 1 Tbsp of flour (optional)

Preparation

1. In a large pot or a Dutch oven, brown the beef on medium high heat in 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil, in batches if necessary.
2. Remove beef from pot, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and cook on medium heat the onions and chiles for about 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Return the browned beef to the pot, add the herbs, spices, water, tomatoes and beer and mix everything really well. Turn up the heat to high, bring the stew to a boil and then turn heat down to low and simmer for five hours, stirring occasionally.
4. At this point, some of the meat will have turned to strings thus thickening the gravy. If you want the sauce a little thicker, add in the flour and stir, allow to cook until the sauce begins to thicken.