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.
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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 for the first time ever and it was SO delicious. My whole house ate it and there was hardly anything left.
I’m from San Antonio, and this is the closest wonderful Carne Guisada recipe I’ve made since. Thanks!!
Looks delicious. I thought we shouldn't cook any tomato products in cast iron because of the acid or something.
I haven't heard of that. It is for safety or taste?
@barb, you are correct, Barb. Only no liquids in an iron skillet, especially acidic liquids. It can make the iron bleed into the food. It’s for safety.
@Terri, It breaks down the seasoning of cast iron. You will probably will need to re-season the cast iron skillet after it's cleaned.
@barb, once your pan is thoroughly seasoned, a bit of acid won't hurt it. and anytime you use cast it will leach iron into the food it's good for you. also you should always just deglaze to clean, and then wipe with oil (a small shot of pam works too). I've been cooking in cast for 55 years and haven't hurt them yet (so ok, I have burned a couple).
This was easy and Very good. Definitely a win and will be doing often. My husband mentioned maybe doing it with chicken sometime too. I’d assume same concept would work, but don’t simmer as long?
Yes, just until the chicken is cooked.
Very good base recipe. I have made it several times. I've adjusted less salt and more cumin to fit my tastes better. But I do recommend this recipe.
Can never have too much cumin 😄
I made this recipe it turned out good.
I would like to serve this yet I need the complete nutrition chart for sodium, sugar an carbs. To be able for diabetics.
Hi Kathleen, the information has been populated but I recommend using actual labels or your favorite database to estimate the nutrition.
ok i cant wait to try this. But your site is very frustrating with all the popup ads. It makes it hard to get to the recipe. It makes your site very "busy" and at time very uninteresting with all the ads popping up in the menu.
Hi Sharon, thanks for the feedback. Can you tell me if you were viewing from desktop or mobile?
@Rebekah, im using mobile and havent had a pop up as of yet. Thanks for the recipe, its a bit different than im used to making . I was looking for a change
I made this dish with mashed potatoes and cabbage it was delicious.
THIS!!! Is exactly what I have been looking for for years. (except with pork). I made this last night and it was amazing. I will for sure try it with pork the next time I make it. It was so good. I have printed the recipe and am going to lock this gem up in the safe.
Made this recipe and it was so easy and it was ready for lunchtime. Added rice and tortillas with beans on the side. The meat so tender and soft just like we like it.
Very good the taste was in point loved it
I love this recipe with fried potatoes and onions. On a Fresh flour tortillas with a sunny side up eggs and fresh pico de gallo.
It makes amazing breakfast tacos.
This is my most definite go to recipe for this dish! My family loves this dish and with covid we don't go out to eat as often if at all, so at least twice a month this is a requested dish, thank you for sharing!
I'm so happy your family enjoys it too!
I’m Mexican American from South Texas, and decided to attempt to make this for the first time on my own, and it came out so yummy! Not bad for my first time and a great, easy to follow recipe 😊 Paired it with a side of mexican rice, and used corn tortillas to make it into tacos, topped with mashed avocado. SO GOOD!