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Craving comfort food? This dish is for you! Carne Guisada is a Mexican beef stew featuring tender beef smothered in a luscious tomato-based gravy. Pair it with Mexican rice, refried beans, and homemade flour tortillas for a tried and true Mexican dinner!
Growing up, I remember carne guisada being one of the recipes my mom would cook when she didn’t know what to make. It was a tried and true recipe that was always delicious, filling, and used easy and common ingredients she always had stocked. She made variations using pork, chicken, nopales, or even potatoes, but my favorite was when she used juicy and tender pieces of beef.
Here’s why I love this recipe:
- It’s simple. The gravy that coats the beef is what holds all the delicious flavor. It’s made from simple and inexpensive ingredients like tomatoes, onion, peppers, and a couple of Mexican spices like cumin and oregano.
- It’s versatile. Carne guisada can be a main dish on its own or used as a filling for burritos, gorditas, sopes, huaraches, tortas, or even topped on sheet pan nachos.
What Is Carne Guisada?
Carne guisada, which means ‘stewed meat,’ comes in many variations depending on the Latin American country or even the specific region in Mexico where it’s made. Growing up, I often heard this term used to describe different dishes. For example, what I call my authentic chile colorado recipe might be known as guisado rojo to others, while my chile verde is sometimes called guisado verde, and so on.
This Mexican version of carne guisada features beef chunks that are slow-cooked in a tomato-based gravy made with the Mexican trinity of Roma tomatoes, onions, and jalapeños. It’s a humble and delicious stew that screams comfort, especially when paired with homemade tortillas.
Choosing a Cut of Beef
Carne guisada is a humble dish that’s usually prepared with cheaper cuts of beef that are slow-cooked. You can use chuck roast or bottom roast, but I like top sirloin since it has a stronger beefy flavor and doesn’t need to cook as long. I recommend using cuts of beef that are not extra lean or thin so they don’t overcook and get tough and chewy.
Ingredients in Carne Guisada
- Beef: I used top sirloin steak so it gets super tender in a quicker amount of time compared to chuck roast. It also has a strong beefy flavor that pairs well with the tomato gravy. But you can use a chuck roast if you prefer.
- Kosher salt and pepper: Generously seasoning the beef with kosher salt and pepper adds tons of flavor and balances the gravy.
- Olive oil: Used to sear the beef chunks. You can also use other neutral-tasting oils like canola or avocado oil.
- Yellow onion: Chopped yellow onion is cooked with the beef and adds a hint of sweetness and tang when softened.
- Jalapeño: Jalapeno adds a small amount of heat to balance the sweetness of the onion and tomato. Feel free to make it mild by removing the ribs and seeds or using a bell pepper or anaheim pepper instead. To make it spicy, use a serrano pepper.
- Garlic cloves: Minced garlic adds an extra layer of flavor to the stew.
- Soy sauce: This stew uses simple ingredients, so adding a splash of soy sauce really enhances the flavor.
- Cumin and oregano: The beef chunks are seasoned with simple Mexican seasonings like cumin and oregano.
- Roma tomatoes: The base of the stew gravy is roma tomatoes. They slowly release their juices, tenderize the beef, and then reduce and thicken for a luscious and slightly sweet gravy.
How to Make Carne Guisada
Prepare the beef by patting it with a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture, then season with salt, cumin, oregano, and black pepper. Brown the beef on all sides.
Add the jalapeño, yellow onion, garlic cloves, soy sauce, cumin, and Mexican oregano and stir together to combine. Cook until the onions are translucent, and the jalapeños soften before adding the Roma tomatoes, then cover and cook for 20 minutes.
Uncover and continue cooking for an additional 5-10 minutes until the carne guisada has thickened to your liking, keeping in mind that as it cools it will continue to thicken.
Serve and garnish with chopped cilantro, warm tortillas, Mexican rice, and refried beans.
Recipe Tips
- Beef cut: You can use cheaper cuts of beef like chuck roast or chuck shoulder with a few adjustments. Chop the beef into smaller cubes and make sure to cook them in the tomato-gravy for a longer period of time. You can add beef broth as it cooks to keep it moist.
- Adjust the spice: I used jalapeño peppers to add a little kick, but you can keep it mild by removing the ribs and seeds or substituting a bell pepper, poblano pepper, or Anaheim pepper.
- Swap the protein: Guisado is usually made with beef, but feel free to use pork or even chicken.
Serving Suggestions
Carne guisada is a filling and comforting main dish! I like to pair it with the following recipes:
- Use as a filling for gorditas or burritos, or as a topping on sopes, homemade tostada shells, or Mexican huaraches.
- Make tacos with homemade corn tortillas or flour tortillas, and top with salsa macha or chile de arbol salsa.
- Pair it with sides like Mexican rice, frijoles puercos, arroz verde or some Instant Pot refried beans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Carne guisada is made from chunks of beef simmered in a tomato-gravy sauce made from tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, fresh garlic, and seasonings.
Carne guisada means “stewed meat,” whereas carne asada means “grilled meat.”
Carne guisada naturally thickens slightly as it cooks and reduces and as it cools. If you’d like to thicken the sauce even more, create a cornstarch slurry by whisking together 1 to 2 tablespoons of water and 1 to 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a small bowl. Then, stir the slurry into the cooked beef until it thickens to your liking.
Storing and Reheating
To store, place the carne guisada in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
To reheat, microwave the carne guisada for 1-2 minutes until warm, or on a skillet over medium-high heat.
More Mexican Recipes
If you tried this Carne Guisada Recipe or any other recipe on Isabel Eats, don’t forget to 🌟 rate the recipe and let me know how it went in the comments below! I love hearing about your experience making it!
Carne Guisada
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sirloin steak, diced into 1-inch cubes
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon Mexican oregano
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups beef broth, divided
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 1 jalapeño pepper, diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
Instructions
- Toss together the beef, salt, cumin, oregano, and black pepper in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, whisk together ¼ cup of the beef broth and the flour to create a slurry. Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned.
- Stir in the onion, jalapeño, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and soy sauce. Stir and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Pour in the remaining 1 ¾ cups of beef broth and the slurry. Stir to combine and bring everything to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.
- Uncover and cook for an additional 3 minutes to thicken the sauce slightly. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Taste and add more salt as needed.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve immediately with warm flour tortillas and a side of Mexican rice.
Notes
- Beef cut: You can use cheaper cuts of beef like chuck roast or chuck shoulder with a few adjustments. Chop the beef into smaller cubes and make sure to cook them in the tomato-gravy for a longer period of time. You can add beef broth as it cooks to keep it moist.
- Adjust the spice: I used jalapeños to add a little kick, but you can keep it mild by removing the ribs and seeds or substituting a bell pepper, poblano, or Anaheim pepper.
- Thickness of the sauce: If the sauce isn’t as thick as you want it to be, carefully pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the sauce into a small bowl. Whisk in ½ tablespoon of flour to create a slur, then stir it back into the pot until the sauce begins to thicken.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Photography by Ashley McLaughlin.
My family and I enjoyed this, It was better than some other recipes for carne guisada I’ve tried. Sirloin was a good choice for the meat. I followed the recipe except that I used an Anaheim pepper instead of a jalapeno. I’ll make this again.
This was a hit!! It was very simple to put together but tasted like I’d cooked all day. We loved the deep, rich sauce. We will keep this in our winter rotation.
This recipe was easy to make and it came out delicious! We loved it! I paired it with Mexican rice and it was awesome. I will definitely keep this recipe. Thank you!
Made this as written, prep was quick and easy. I used a chuck roast in the instapot pressure cooker. My entire family loved it. Great recipe to feed a crowd.
Thank you so much.
This recipe was a total hit! I served it with warm tortillas and a squeeze of lime.
This recipe sounds delicious, but I would use poblano peppers,anaheims ,or sweet peppers to avoid the hot flavor of jalapeños or Serranos. The soy sauce would have to be Kikkoman.