Barbacoa

This was a delicioso dinner y’all.  A seriously delicioso dinner.  Despite what you see on my blog here, I try to follow a low carb diet.  I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic so I am careful about my carb intake.  I have been trying to come up with meals that are veggie heavy and that do not make me miss carbs.  No small feat.  I love me some carbs.  This dinner was so good that I did not even think about not having a tortilla.  I had some grass fed beef to use up so I made it on one day and ate it on the next.  The flavors had time to get to know each other and they became very good friends.

For the beef:

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds beef suitable for stewing
1 large diced yellow onion
8 cloves minced garlic
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 1/2 Tablespoon oregano
20 whole cloves
4 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons white vinegar

To put the dinner together:

tortillas
salsa
guacamole
Monterey Jack cheese shredded
sliced limes
sauteed red kidney beans
cilantro

Dry the beef with a paper towel.  This step is really important to get a nice crust on the beef.  Generously salt and pepper the beef.  Brown the beef in a few Tablespoons oil in batches if you don’t have room in your pan.  I use a dutch oven so that I can put it in my oven to finish cooking.  Take the beef out and add the onions.  Add more oil if you need it.

Season the onions with some kosher salt and pepper.  Cook until soft, about 8 minutes.  Add in the garlic, cook for a few seconds.  Add the cumin, oregano, chipotle, and cloves to the pan.  Cook while stirring for a minute.

Add the beef, chicken stock, water, and bay leaves to the pan.

Season with salt and pepper.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat and cover with a lid.  I put the beef in a 325 degree oven for approximately 2 hours or until the beef is fork tender.  You could also keep this on the stove and simmer it until tender.  I prefer to finish it in the oven so that I can clean up the stove and make the other things that go with the barbacoa, freeing up the space on my stove.  I do like a clean work space.

After about 2 hours in the oven, this is what it will look like.  Test to make sure that the beef is tender enough to shred with a fork.  If it is not shredding easily, put it back in the oven for a bit longer.  When it is ready to come out of the oven, I take out the chipotle pepper.  My kids eat this so I want to take out a bit of the heat, but feel free to leave it in if you like.  Add the white vinegar.  Check for seasoning.

To finish off the dinner, I dress the beef like I would a taco.  Warm some tortillas, make some guacamole, saute some beans, set out some limes, cheese, cilantro, and sour cream.  If you are really feeling it, whip up some margaritas.  Sit yourself down and have some really delicious barbacoa.