RECIPE: MACHACA CON HUEVOS

MAKE THE MACHACA

Marinade:

1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce

juice of 4 limes

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 t. cumin

1 t. chili powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

1/2 c. olive oil

Machaca:

2 lbs. skirt steak, cut into 4" x 4" chunks

1 large sweet onion (Vidalia is great), diced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1/2 c. beef broth

1 T. oregano

1 T. cumin

1 t. hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or a Mexican brand, such a Valencia)

salt and pepper

olive oil for searing the beef

Whisk all the marinade ingredients together, then place the skirt steak chunks in it.  Let marinate at least 6 hours, or better yet, overnight.

Remove meat from marinade, drain, and pat dry.  Bring to room temperature.  Discard marinade.

In a large heavy pot, heat 2 T. of olive oil.  Sear the meat well on both sides, in batches so as not to crowd them.  Remove the meat as it is browned and set aside.  When they are all nice and brown, pour out the accumulated fat in the pot. You'll have a dark layer of drippings on the bottom of the pan which you'll scrape up in the next step.  Bring the pot back up to heat, add in the onion, peppers, and garlic. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes to soften.  Add the tomatoes, broth, pepper sauce and spices, and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot to release all the browned bits.  When it comes to a boil, slip the beef chunks back in, push and prod them around so they are all submerged, and then lower the heat to bring down a  low simmer.  Simmer, covered, for two hours.  Stir from time to time, though at the heat should be so low scorching shouldn't be a problem.

After two hours the meat will be extremely tender. Lift the meat out of the sauce, let cool a bit, then using two forks shred the beef along the grain. You can also do this in a slow cooker for 6 hours or the instapot for 45 minutes.

At this point, you can return some of the meat back into the sauce in the pan, cook some more to reduce and thicken the sauce, and serve this as is.  Very nice as a burrito or enchilada filling. But make sure you reserve at least half to make the authentic, dried Machaca — it's simple:

Lay out the shredded meat in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake in a 250º oven for 20 minutes.  I used a convection oven, which I believe produced superior drying results.  Check after 20 minutes. The meat should be pretty dry, like jerky.

MAKE THE MACHACA CON HEUVEOS

Basically, this is a tangy, spicy, filling scrambled egg dish.  Start by sautéing some scallions and hot peppers in butter, and when they soften a bit, add in chopped tomato and Machaca.  Get it all nice and hot, remove from pan, and then on medium heat cook scrambled eggs (mixed with a bit of cumin) until just-about-done, at which point you'll stir in the Machaca-tomato mixture.  Garnish with cilantro. Serve with hot flour tortillas.  I also like some sliced avocado to go with it.

Here are the proportions I used:

2 chopped scallions (white part only)

1 hot long green chili

2 plum tomatoes

1 c. dried Machaca

chopped cilantro

This is favorite of mine for breakfast at Mexican restaurants. I eat it keto w/ side of avocado. Soo yummy!

~Tiffany👄