Carne Guisada Recipe (Mexican Style)
This easy carne guisada recipe is for Tex Mex style or Mexican beef stew. Chunks of beef simmered in fragrant brown gravy until tender. It's so simple to prepare and you probably already have the ingredients on hand!
Recipe for Carne Guisada
Carne means "meat" in Spanish. Carne de res is how you say "beef" and it often gets shortened to just "carne." Authentic carne asada is grilled and carne guisada is stewed.
Carne guisada is a comforting, filling, flavorful dinner that is traditionally served with homemade flour tortillas, rice and beans.
My cousins in Texas like to serve it over mashed potatoes which is really yummy, too.
You can also roll it up taco style and top with cheddar cheese - yum!
I highly recommend serving with the homemade flour tortillas if you can. They melt in your mouth and complement the meat perfectly.
You don't even need utensils to eat when you can scoop it up with a tortilla!
The beef cooks low and slow so that all the ingredients melt down into a stew.
To make it an even heartier meal, you can add potatoes and carrots while it's simmering.
I love to cook it all in my cast iron skillet for even more flavor.
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!
If you want a delicious dinner in about 20 minutes, try my Mexican Pork Stew (Puerco en Salsa Roja) recipe instead.
That guiso has only two ingredients yet tastes like it was simmering for hours!
Carne Guisada Recipe (Mexican Style)
Tender 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
Instructions
- 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.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 8ozAmount Per Serving: Calories: 606Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 226mgSodium: 982mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 4gProtein: 78g
Nutritional information provided is an estimate only. Please consult the labels of ingredients you use for more accurate results.
Try this Mexican pork stew:
You might also like this great Southwestern side dish packed with veggies and cheese! Calabacitas con Queso:
I made this tonight and it tastes just like the Carne Guisada at the taco place I go to! My husband is not big on Mexican/Tex-Mex food, but he does love Carne Guisada! So this will be on the menu at home more! Thanks for the recipe!
I made it for my family for dinner this evening. It came out delicious! I added elote seasoning and boiled the beef for an hour and a 1/2 1st, then I followed the directions and simmered everything down for an hour on low. I made yellow rice, guacamole, and black beans to go with it. I also had corn tortilla shells on the side. Is so glad that I have another recipe to add to my list.
Thx for the recipe. I made it and am satisfied. Tried others with glowing reviews (don't know how they received them). I appreciate you said we can omit bell peppers (I don't like them). Followed to a t. Can you give any tips to make it feel (um) fattier. You know that stickiness on your lips. That's how I remember it growing up
I know what you mean! It's the stickiness when the fat breaks down after cooking for a long time. Use a fatty cut of beef or if your meat doesn't have a lot of marbling, add more than 1 tablespoon of oil when cooking. My grandma always used lard.
@Terri Cain, to make it a gravy type sauce/thicker, I pull the meat out after it has cooked for hour and half and then put all onions, peppers, and liquid together in a blender and put back in pot with meat and cook for another 30 minutes to hour. Makes for the perfect stickiness feel.
My family on both sides has been in Texas since before it was a state! This recipe is as close to my mother's carne guisada that I have seen however if you need to make it thicker use a half packet of brown gravy and when you serve it either on a plate or in a burrito use chil con queso.... I promise it is amazing
I have never had carne guisada but this smells amazing. However, I just did a taste test (still have to simmer it) and it is wayyyyy too salty. I would knock it back to 1 tsp of salt. Salt is one seasoning that doesn’t have to cook to improve the dish. You can leave it out altogether and add at the table. My husband took one little bite and said we need to cook another batch without salt and combine them. He said it is inedible right now. I have to agree. Perhaps it wouldn’t be bad over rice of potatoes which tend to offset salt, but on tortillas. Nope.
@Melody, Slice a BIG potato in 1/2 " PCs
Drop in a cook 20 min . Lots of salt will be removed ...take taters "out".
I have made the carne guisada twice now, and the family loves it. This is now a staple in our house. One time we ate it with rice; the second time I gave a choice of tortillas or mashed potatoes. All were very good. Easy to make and delicious to eat.
My family LOVED IT thanks for sharing definitely making again
We love this recipe! It took me 6 hours on low . Delicious
Thanks!
Taco night is a norm in our house about once a week. We had stew meat in the fridge and I wanted to try something different. I close this recipe over many others because of the ingredient list and that it stewed for hours to develop flavor, and that it did! Definitely a new favorite in our house and can’t wait to share it with others! Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! I cooked mine in a crockpot & let it cook slowly. My family loved it!
@Beth, how long did you cook in crock pot?
Hi Sonia, I don't know if Beth will see your comment so I just wanted to say it would be around 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.
I work at an assisted living facility, I made this today and they loved it!
This makes me so happy! My grandma is in a memory care facility so this means a lot.
I loved this recipe it was definitely worth looking up recipe, but I'm curious as I live in Virginia and I'm a Texas native , now that I can .are homemade Guisada do u have any recipes for Barbacoa by chance?
This is my grandpa's recipe. He uses beef cheek for his barbacoa: Mexican Barbacoa Recipe
This is amazingly delicious, I’ve made it before but mine didn’t come out like this , think I put too much water or flour but this is amazing. Thank you
@Norma Garcia, use chicken stock and add a half packet of brown gravy
Actually it was tomato sauce
This came out delicious! I accidentally got tomato paste so I used the whole little can and went heavier on the cumin as someone suggested. The low and slow cooking made the meat extra tender. Never made stew before and this was super easy.