Carne Guisada - A Mexican Pot Roast
Are You Ready For Some Comfort Food?
Today we are making Carne Guisada. This Mexican pot roast will be
braised in spices so that we will end up with a beautifully tender
roast that will fall apart under your fork.
Here are a number of reasons why braising is a wonderful way to prepare a meal.
- You can use an inexpensive cut of meat. In this case it's called chuck. Cooking it slow and low means tender and flavorful.
- Once you get all the spices and ingredients in the pot, the rest is on auto pilot. Put your feet up and take a break until it's ready to serve.
- Clean up is a snap because you only use one pot. Well maybe two if you make some rice.
- The last and most important reason is taste. The flavor is amazing.
Tips For Making Carne Guisada
The
one thing I want to suggest you do when making this dish is to get all
of your ingredients measured out in dishes so they are ready to go in
the pot when you need them.
That way when you are working with
medium high heat, sauteing the onion for example, it doesn't burn
because you are gathering your other ingredients.
So get all your ingredients measured out, vegetables chopped, and your garlic minced. You will appreciate it later.
Tips For Flavor
When
making this dish, I am going to ask you to coat the meat with flour
and then sear it. These steps will greatly enhance the flavor of your
roast. Searing accomplishes two things:
- It will seal in the juices of the meat.
- Creates a brown crust that sticks to the bottom of the pan, creating what is called fond.
Fond is little bits of meat and juices stuck to the bottom of your pan where
great flavors are born.
You will use a technique called
deglazing
to get these stuck pieces off the bottom of the pan and into your
sauce. All you have to do is add a little liquid (wine, broth, lemon
juice) and stir or scrape the bottom of the pan.
I also want to
mention the chipotle peppers in this pot roast. In case you are not
familiar with them, they are smoked jalapeno peppers. They are very
hot, so add them according to your tastebuds.
I don't like things terribly hot but I do like that
smokey flavor they give so I use one pepper in my carne guisada. I also try and remove most of the seeds where a lot of the heat resides.
So if you don't like much heat try
one small pepper and you will be fine.
Now let's get dinner going.
Carne Guisada Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 3lb. chuck roast
- all purpose flour to dredge (coat) roast
- sea salt
- pepper
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 med yellow onion chopped into chunks
- 1/2 to 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
- 3/4 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 plus 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
- 4 to 5 cups beef broth
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes with basil and herbs if you can find it
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 4 carrots, cleaned and cut in half
Directions:
Before we start: You do have all your ingredients measured out and prepared, right? Good, now we can begin.
Use a heavy stock pot or dutch oven with a tight fitting lid.
Add 1 tbsp. of oil and heat over medium high heat.
Salt and pepper the roast on one side. Use a fork and press the salt and pepper into the meat.
Fill
a platter (big enough to hold roast) with 1/2 cup of flour and spread
it out. Place the roast, salt and pepper side down into the flour.
Salt and pepper the second side of the roast and then turn it over to
coat with flour. Coat the whole roast.
When the oil is hot,
carefully place the roast in the pot to sear. Searing the roast will
lock in the juices and form a crust on the roast creating those nice
flavors. Let the roast sear for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on a side.
Don't move it around at this point.
Then turn the roast over. I
found it easy to turn the roast over with two sets of tongs. After you
have browned all sides of the roast, take it out and set aside on a
plate.
At this point you will notice some nice brown carmelized bits of meat and juice stuck to the bottom of the pan.
That's the fond I was telling you about.
With the temperature still on medium high, add the onion, chipotle pepper, and cumin and saute for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
Now
add the tomatoe paste and stir frequently for a minute or two. Since
the tomatoe paste has a fair amount of sugar in it, it will carmelize
and turn a dark red brick color (more delicious flavor for our carne
guisada).
Add the garlic and stir 2 minutes.
Now it's time to deglaze.
Pour 1/2 cup of beef broth into the hot pan and stir to help losen the
bits of meat etc. which have stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Add
the roast back to the pan, along with the wine, black beans, carrots,
diced tomatoes, cloves, 1/2 tsp. salt, and enough beef stock to cover
at least half of the roast.
If you wanted to use a crock pot, this is the point I would put this mexican pot roast into one.
Put the lid on, lower the temperature to low/simmer and relax. Notice the wonderful aroma filling your house.
Your carne guisada will be done in 3 to 3 1/2 hours.
I'm serving mine with
refried beans and
cilantro lime rice in
flour tortillas. Yummy.
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