Carne en su Jugo

Author: @notaroyalfan1 Serves: 6-8 Time: ca. 90′

Difficulty: moderate

Ingredients

• 2 lbs of chuck roast cut into 1/2 inch pieces (My grocery store already had packaged meat for tacos so it saved me from having to cut it myself)
• 3-4 tablespoons of meat seasoning
• 2 cups of cooked pinto beans
• 8 slices of bacon, chopped
• 6 cups of water
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 10 tomatillos
• 2-3 oranges
• 2 tablespoons of beef bouillon
• 1 white onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 serrano peppers (more peppers if you’d like to roast them & add to your plate )
• Lime wedges, optional
• 1 avocado, optional
• The recipe calls for 2 cups of cooked pinto beans. You can use canned pinto beans, but I don’t like to since they typically contain more sodium. I cook my beans in the slow-cooker. Rinse 2 cups of pinto beans and add to the slow-cooker. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper plus 7.5 cups of water. Mix and leave on high for about 4.5 hours. I do this in the morning so that they’re ready by lunch time.

Procedure

First, you want to season your taco meat. Use the fresh juice from the 2-3 oranges plus season whichever way you like but I use the meat seasoning pictured, which I purchased from Amazon but Walmart carried it too.  

As the meat marinates for a bit, rinse all your produce.

Cut the onion in half. One half you will set aside for the tomatillo salsa, the other chop into small pieces and set aside.

Take 1/2 of the cilantro bunch, chop and set aside. The other half will be used for the tomatillo salsa.

Take your bacon slices and chop. Add bacon to the pot and cook it thoroughly. Remove the bacon and set aside, but leave the bacon fat in the pot. 

Add the meat to the pot so it begins cooking in the bacon fat. You don’t want to brown the meat, just release some of its juices.

While the meat is cooking, blend the tomatillos, garlic, onion, 2 serrano peppers, cilantro and 2 cups of water until smooth.

Once the meat has released its juices, add the tomatillo salsa. The salsa will be a bright green but will change color once you add to meat.

Add half the cooked bacon onto pot. The other half will be used for garnish. 

Add the 4 cups of water and beef bouillon to the pot and stir. Cover and cook on a medium flame for about 20 minutes.

To serve, add your preferred amount of pinto beans  to your bowl plus a ladle full of the Carne en su Jugo.

Top it off with cilantro, onions and bacon plus some avocado slices. I grab a lime wedge and squeeze its juice on top.

Roast an additional serrano pepper to add to your bowl if you want an extra kick. It’s so good!

Bon Apatite!

About this recipe

I first tried it a couple of years ago when visiting Zamora, Michoacan in Mexico. There is a restaurant called, La Pantera Rosa (The Pink Panther). It’s not a large restaurant but right at the entrance, you have a few women making fresh tortillas. Since the restaurant is always busy, it’s nice to watch the ladies while waiting for a table. Once you receive your plate, you can roll up the warm tortillas and eat along with the soup.