Cooking From The Homesick Texan Cookbook – Carne Guisada

This week for The Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook Off…We were allowed to cook any recipe from the book we wanted…It was pretty hard to choose…Since there are so many I want to try…but I decided on Carne Guisada…which translates as “stewed meat”. I’d never heard of it before and it just seemed like the kind hearty dish a cowboy would eat.

According to Lisa Fain (author), “Carne Guisada can be a meal in itself, served in a bowl with tortilla chips. It’s also wonderful nestled between refried beans and rice. I like to wrap it up in flour tortillas for tacos, and the leftovers are a hearty topping on a pile of scrambled eggs.”

I chose the in a bowl with tortilla chips…I’m always looking for a reason to eat tortilla chips.

So about 5 hours from when I started cooking the Carne Guisada was ready…yes it simmered for 4 hours…the meat was so incredibly tender…slightly spicy…but not really chili…more like a bowl of meaty gravy.

Definitely a recipe I will make again.

Carne Guisada

adapted from The Homesick Texan Cookbook

• 4 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tbs bacon grease
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, diced
• 2 jalapeno chiles, stems and seeds removed, diced
• 2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 14.5-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 tbs ground cumin
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 bottle of dark Mexican beer (I used Negra Modelo)
• 2 cups water
• salt and black pepper

Season the beef with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven, brown the beef on medium-high heat in 1 tablespoon bacon grease. You may need to do this in several batches. Remove the beef from the pan with a slotted spoon. Add the final tablespoon of bacon grease. Reduce the heat to medium-low heat and cook the onion, bell pepper, jalapenos, serrano chiles for about 10 minutes or until the onions start to brown. Then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the browned beef back to the pot, along with the tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, oregano, cilantro, bay leaf, beer, and the water. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Then turn the heat down to low and let simmer uncovered for 2 to 4 hours, depending on how tender you want the meat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*This post is part of The Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook Off sponsored by Hyperion and hosted at girlichef.