This simple carne guisada recipe is for Tex Mex style or Mexican beef stew. Beef chunks cooked in aromatic brown gravy until tender. It’s so easy to make and you likely already have the ingredients on hand!
Carne guisada is a warm, satisfying, delicious dinner that is traditionally served with homemade flour tortillas, rice and beans.
How to make Carne Guisada
What type of meat is carne guisada? You’ll want to use stew meat which can be any kind of beef chuck or beef round.
I typically pick up the packet of meat that says “stew meat” and is already conveniently diced up.
If using a chunk of meat such as top round, you’ll need to cut the beef into 1-inch cubes.
Dice up an onion. Optionally, you can also dice up a green bell pepper.
We typically don’t make it with the green pepper, but it’s a common ingredient in carne guisada.
Some people will even substitute a spicy pepper such as jalapeño or poblano.
You’ll also need tomato or tomato sauce. We usually use Spanish style tomato sauce since we always have it on hand, especially when tomatoes are not in season.
The beauty of this recipe is that is can be made on any night with whatever you have on hand.
Besides the beef and vegetables, the sauce is seasoned with ground cumin. Of course, if you can freshly grind your own it tastes the best.
All-purpose flour is used to thicken it up into a nice gravy.
This carne guisada recipe cooks low and slow for at least 1 ½ hours.
The meat should be fall-apart tender and the gravy thick and rich.
It’s not a quick meal, but it produces the best flavor!
Carne Guisada Recipe
6
servings10
minutes1
minute606
kcalTender chunks of beef simmered in a flavorful Mexican gravy. Flour tortillas are the perfect accompaniment for this carne guisada recipe.
Ingredients
3 lbs stew meat
1 tablespoon oil (lard, bacon grease, etc)
1 medium onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced (optional)
3 tablespoons tomato sauce or 1 large tomato, diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup water or chicken stock
Flour tortillas, rice or mashed potatoes, for serving
Directions
- In a large pan, brown the stew meat in oil of choice with onions and green pepper (if using) over high heat.
- Add the tomato sauce (or tomato), garlic powder (or fresh garlic), cumin, salt and pepper and stir well.
- Sprinkle the flour over the meat and mix well. Add the water (or stock) and mix well so there are no lumps.
- Bring to a boil, cover pan and reduce heat to low. Cook for 1 ½ hours, or until meat is tender.
- Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
- Serve with rice, tortillas or mashed potatoes.
