The beauty of braised beef

I love braised beef, usually I use a brisket when it's on sale, brisket has become rather pricey so when my Grocery has it on markdown I buy and freeze a few. yesterday I found a flank steak on sale another cut of meat that has become pricey...anyway usually I marinate a flank steak along time and grill and slice on the diagonal so tasty, but today I decided to see if it would braise well...It did.

I laid the the flank steak in a covered dish, smeared garlic paste all over it Chile powder(I used new Mexico chili powder from the Atlantic spice company) a Little cayenne,lemon pepper and salt and pepper rubbed it in and set the oven on 350 degrees.

I cooked at 350 for one hour, at 300 for one hour and 250 for an hour and 200 for another hour, I like the meat to fall apart into strings when you put a fork into it. It could have been used after the 250 degrees cooking but I wasn't ready to serve so I left it in.


I removed the meat and just to add more flavor you really don't need to do this I laid it in a hot skillet to brown the bottom a bit...
I took the cooking liquid put in small sauce pan and added 1 can green chilies and a 1/2 small onion cooked for a few mins you don't want the onion mushy you just want it to absorb some of the flavor its cooking in

mean while I cooked 2 cups corn
steamed 12 tortillas(wrap in a kitchen towel put in a steamer above water and steam 10-12 mins covered

made Lime crema:
1 cup sour creme I used 50% fat free yesterday thin with a little creme I had light creme on hand yesterday, I juiced 1 1/2 limes added zest from one lime, salt and a pinch of cayenne stir together, this will all incorporate and make a nice sauce.

I took one tortilla(I would use 2 next time) each I was serving 3 people and dipped in the green chili sauce , put in bottom of a pasta bowl,covered with corn, added chopped shredded beef(I just chop to bite size pieces)poured some of the green chili onion sauce over meat topped with baby lettuce mix and topped with lime crema.

I serve the steamed corn tortillas on the side keep covered they dry out quickly.

The plates were completely clean and all the lime crema gone, and just enough beef left to top a salad or wrap in a tortilla for lunch today.

The nice thing about Mexican cooking is you can take any cut of meat braise it add Mexican spices green chili, corn or hominy and have a flavor packed meal....I am sure you could do this in a slow cooker if you work also, I would definatly try that if you don't have time to braise for hours...This is a good thing to do an a Sat or Sunday braise a lot of meat and use through out the week.

You can use braised meat in chili,quasadillas, tacos, salads,as a BBQ pulled beef or pork sandwich, you could use in a beef and rice soup that you could put together in less than a half hour. sometimes we just put the meat on rolls with mustard and pickles salt and pepper and it is so flavorful.

No pictures it was put together and devoured to quickly!