Monday, February 16, 2009

Carne Con Chile

This recipe is super easy and good Mexican food. You can make it with some rice (let me know if you need a spanish rice recipe), or you could get really mexican and serve it over some eggs and tortillas for breakfast.

This recipe also calls for Caldo de Pollo, which is basically a chicken bouillon powder. I almost always use organic chicken stock from costco in my other cooking, but for some recipes, you've gotta bring out the Caldo. This is one of them. Sorry, this is also one of those recipes without any real amounts, but it's totally tasty and definitely worth trying.

Cut and trim some pork (loin, steak, or butt) - I usually buy tenderloin from Costco; it's way cheaper there than at the grocery store

Brown in small amount of hot oil

Add Caldo de Pollo - probably a couple tablespoons and a couple tablespoons of minced garlic.

When meat is well browned add tomato chile mixture:
  • Blend serrano or jalapeño pepper in small amount of water. Add one can of diced tomatoes and blend even more.
Add to browned pork.

Add one can of water.

Allow to simmer until meat is very tender.

You can also throw in some chopped zucchini in the sauce. We made this for my nieces once and weren't sure how they'd handle the spicy. So, we transferred some of the browned meat (and garlic and Caldo) into a separate container with just squash and tomato sauce, and then added the jalapeño for the adults. It was a hit.

I have also frozen this dish and it was just as good the second time around.

5 comments:

banananutmeg said...

Funny, the local grocery market near our house (that we rarely shop at because it is SO dang expensive) had a meat sale this weekend. I sent aaron to the market to pick up a few pork roasts from the sale, but he came home with pork steaks and didn't understand the difference. I've never used pork steak, but now I have a recipe that calls for them. Yay! I can't wait to make me some carne con chile!
and I DO need a good rice recipe.
These are so great. I've made a similar stoup recipe before and it was a big hit around here, even with my kids. Yum.

banananutmeg said...

1)do you cut the pork into chunks when you brown it?
2)after adding the tomato mixture, do you cover the pan when you let it simmer?

banananutmeg said...

3)one more (cuz aaron is dying for me to make this recipe) I haven't cooked with Jalepenos in a VERY long time, but we are big lovers of all things hot n spicy. DO i take the seeds out before i blend it? or throw the whole pepper in the processor?

Elena said...

yes. cut the pork into small pieces. no need to cover the pan. jalapeños can be tricky. you never know how much spice they'll have. I suggest getting a couple. Take out the seeds and taste the tomato chile mixture. if you want it spicier, add some more instead of starting out with it too hot. good luck!!!

Elena said...

i meant to say start out with just one seeded pepper and then taste it.