Cortadillo Norteño is a traditional beef and potato stew popular in the northern region of Mexico. My family is from Monterrey, Nuevo Léon,Mexico. We enjoyed many similar meat and potato dishes like cortadillo norteño. Whether it was a simple bistec en salsa, carne guisada con papa or steak ranchero, most times they included potato in some form or another.
Rice, Mexican rice, is what I like to serve along side most of my Mexican dishes. I don’t always have beans cooked and even though I could prepare them quick in the pressure cooker, it’s still a process that takes it own time to do it right. So on this night when I prepared cortadillo norteño, it was simply arroz rojo and warm corn tortillas! Click link to see full recipe for Arroz!
The video version of this recipe contains no beer and instead of peas, I added roasted poblano peppers that were diced. I also cut the recipe ingredients in half, preparing 1 lb of beef instead of 2.
Learn To Adapt Your Recipes When You Don’t Have The Exact Ingredients As Listed
On the day I recorded the video, I realized I had no beer and no frozen peas. I did have some poblano peppers, so I decided to roast them and use them in this recipe. The beer adds another level of flavor, but is not necessary if you don’t prefer to use it. Just add more broth or water with bouillon.
I love how you can see the bits of the charred skins from the tomatoes, onion and chile peppers in the stew. I can almost taste the deep flavors! The beautiful Mexican theme tortilla warmer is from my friends @carolinaperezdesigns. She sells them on Etsy and at the farmers market during the year.
This little cookbook, to me, it worth 20 of my other cookbooks! I was so fortunate to be able to find it!!! Thanks again to my friend, and fellow food blogger, Mely Martinez from Mexico In My Kitchen. Our trip to NYC and this awesome book store that carried all cookbooks. Hard to find cookbooks!
As soon as I read the recipe, I knew that I wanted to roast the sauce ingredients! I love the deep, smoky flavors you get when you dry roast tomatoes, chiles, onion and garlic on a comal(griddle)! I figured it couldn’t hurt the recipe, right?
The original recipe called for sirloin tips. I could not find that, so I went with a sirloin roast and sliced it up myself. It worked out great!
A couple of things that surprised me about preparing this traditional recipe from Nuevo Léon? The first was when the recipe instructed to use butter and flour to thicken the sauce base. The second thing was peas! Peas on the ingredient list! I love peas! Mom would often add a mix of peas and carrots to her rice. It was perfect!
I know everyone is using the fast pressure cookers that are out on the market. But, I am a diehard foodie and rather enjoy the whole cooking process. Even if it takes 3 hours! I work from home, so there is no reason why I must have the meal ready in 30 minutes. Although I do cook my beans in a heavy duty traditional pressure cooker. 30 minutes from the time it comes up to high pressure, they are ready!
Then the next day!!! Tacos prepared with homemade flour tortillas! Beans were a must this time! I purposely prepared them smaller and thicker for these tacos. Click the link to see full recipe.
Cortadillo Norteño (Mexican Beef and Potato Stew)
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 6 roma tomatoes
- 4-5 cloves of garlic skins on
- ½ white onion
- 2 serrano chile peppers
- 1 1/2 cups water or beef broth
- 10 ounces Mexican beer, optional
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp marjoram
- pinch of cinnamon, optional
- 5 tablespoons of butter
- 3-4 tbsps avocado oil
- 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour
- 2 pounds chuck roast or sirloin sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 russet or 4 white potatoes washed and sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1 full cup of frozen peas or 3 large roasted poblano peppers, diced
Instructions
Directions
- Heat a comal or large griddle to medium heat. Add the tomatoes, garlic(with skins on), onion and serrano peppers. Dry roast for 20-25 minutes, turning as needed. Remove the garlic after 15 minutes and set aside.
- When ready, to the blender, add the tomatoes, peeled garlic, onion, serranos, beef broth, beer, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper. Pulse to blend to achieve a coarse salsa. Set aside.
- Add two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of oil to a large pot and heat to medium. As soon as the butter melts, add the sliced beef. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook until beef is browned all around and begins to release it's juices. Add the flour and stir well to combine. Continue stirring for 1-2 minutes to cook out the raw flavors of the flour.
- To the pot, pour in the salsa from the blender and the bay leaves. Stir well to combine. When it comes up to a simmer, taste for salt. Cover and reduce heat to below medium. Cook for 25 minutes. Add in the potatoes and continue cooking for 25 minutes or until beef is tender. Fold in the peas and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
- Serve with Mexican rice, beans and warm tortillas. Yields 6-7 servings.
Notes
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Comments
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This dish you prepared looks amazingly delicious, Sonia! Thank you for sharing. XOXO
You’re welcome Ana!!
I made this recipe and it turned out very good, the touch of cinnamon was very different than my family is used to. However one of the ingredients is oregano but in the directions it never says when to use so I got to the end and realized I hadn’t added it so I went ahead and did so. I just thought I’d mention in case you wanted to revise. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I will fix it, thank you Miriam.