Dishes of Mexico, Tex Mex and New Mexico Red and Green Chile

CRAZY GOOD! Carne Asada Tacos

October 16, 2019 by Becky Spoon

I made these Carne Asada tacos for Taco Tuesday last night! They really are CRAZY GOOD! I wasn’t going to post another Mexican Food recipe for a while, but I just had to post this recipe!

I used a thin and really marbled piece of ribeye steak for this recipe. Honestly, all I did was sprinkle the ribeye all over with Julio’s All Purpose Seasoning. Here’s a link for the seasoning: Julio’s All Purpose Seasoning. Then I rubbed the steak with extra virgin olive oil and placed it in a zip lock bag and marinated for a couple of hours. When I was ready to cook, I removed the steak from the refrigerator, let the steak come to room temperature before I placed them on a hot grill!

I have lot’s of taco recipes on the blog. Here’s a couple of others we love!

So simple, these tacos are really delicious. I threw the flour tortillas on the grill to heat them a little, slathered some avocado on the bottom, added the steak, then I topped the steak with finely chopped onions that I cooked in a skillet for just a minute or so, just to take the rawness away, then I finished the tacos with cotija cheese and chopped cilantro! I used Cacique Brand Cotija Cheese: http://cheese.com/cotija/.

Crazy Good! Carne Asada Tacos

Here’s a quick recipe for the Carne Asada Tacos! Easy and Delicious. I have many taco recipes on the blog; here’s a few favorites: https://the2spoons.com/yes-baja-fish-tacos/ and https://the2spoons.com/easy-texas-tex-mex-soft-corn-tortilla-beef-tacos/.

Carne Asada Tacos

Print Recipe

Servings: 2 servings

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1 lb thin ribeye steak with good marbeling
Julio's All Purpose Seasoning or other mexican seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, cumin, chili powder)
extra virgin olive oil for coating the steak
1-2 avocados
4-6 flour tortillas
cotija cheese, crumbled
chopped cilantro
1/2 chopped onion, cook a little if you don't like the raw onion

Method

Generously coat the steak on both sides with the Julio's All purpose seasoning or other Mexican seasonings. Coat both sides with extra virgin olive oil and place in a plastic bag. Marinate for a couple of hours or even overnight. Bring to room temperature before cooking.
Start a gas gril, charcoal grill or heat a heavy iron skillet. When your grill or skillet is ready place the steak and sear on both sides until your desired doneness. We like a medium reare to medium for carne asada. When the steak is done, remove to a plate and let it rest.
Meanwhile, heat your flour tortillas in a heavy skillet or on your grill. Slather with the avodaco. When the steak has rested, slice very thin and you can also cut the slices into small pieces.
Pile the steak on top of the avocado then top with the chopped onions, cotija cheese and the cilantro. Serve with lime and your favorite salsa if you like! Enjoy!

Delicious! Easy Mexican Picadillo

October 6, 2019 by Becky Spoon

I love this Mexican Picadillo. It is versatile! It is easy! It is delicious. Mexican Picadillo can include so many ingredients, or you can just add a few. You can add olives, raisins, and carrots and If I were to add olives to this dish, I’d add a Spanish Olive like these you can get at your local grocery store. If not, on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mezzetta-Super-Colossal-Spanish-O.

The first time I had Mexican Picadillo was over 30 years ago when a friend of mine from Mexico cooked it for me. I loved it then and still do. It’s not a taco filling you can make in 10 minutes by browning some meat and adding a package of Taco Bell seasoning; it takes just a little time to soften the potatoes, but well worth it.

Easy Mexican Picadillo

The first night I made this Mexican Picadillo I served it with my Mexican Rice and flour tortillas for scooping. The next day I used the leftovers for tacos and wow, were they delicious! Here’s the link for my Essential Mexican Rice: https://the2spoons.com/essential-mexican-rice/.

Honestly, these tacos with the Mexican Picadillo are beautiful. You don’t have to load them up with a bunch of “stuff”, I just added a little lettuce, some grated cheese, a little finely chopped fresh jalapeno and a few dices of tomatoes. I finished them off with a sprinkling of New Mexico red chile powder, a favorite in our house.

Delicious! Easy Mexican Picadillo

Hope you make this recipe soon! I think you’ll love it!

Mexican Picadillo

Print Recipe

Servings: 6 Servings

Course: dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 Small onion, diced
2 Baking potatoes, diced
2 Cloves garlic, minced
2 Large tomatoes, diced
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Ground cumin
1 tbsp Chile powder
1/2 tsp Dried Mexican oregano
1 Jalapeno, seeded and minced
1-2 cups beef Broth

Method

Add the oil to a skillet and heat. Add the ground beef and cook until browned.
Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a little. Add the salt and pepper along with the cumin, Chile powder and oregano. Combine and cook a few minutes.
Add the potatoes, tomatoes and beef stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until potatoes are soft and most of the liquid has absorbed. Check for seasoning and adjust.
Serve with rice and tortillas or use as a filling for tacos, burritos, etc.

Easy Essential Mexican Rice

October 6, 2019 by Becky Spoon

This Mexican Rice recipe is my go to for all my Mexican food dishes. Easy and delicious, and it takes 20 minutes to finish.

I use a long grain rice for this recipe. I love Basmati because it doesn’t get gummy, stays flaky. I buy the burlap bags of basmati from Sams Club. Here’s a link for it : https://www.samsclub.com/p/royal-basmati-rice-20-lbs/131053.

Want more rice recipes? Try my Rice Pilaf! https://the2spoons.com/so-easy-instant-pot-cilantro-lime-rice/.

Mexican Rice

Here’s the simple recipe! Enjoy

Mexican Rice

Print Recipe

Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cube Knorr Tomato Bullion with Chicken flavor
2 cups water
1 garlic clove, minced

Method

Add the oil to a saucepan. When heated add the rice and cook until the rice has browned a little.
Add the garlic and cook about a minute stirring to prevent it from burning.
Add the water and Tomato Bullion. Stir to dissolve the Bullion cube. Reduce the heat to simmer, place a lid on the saucepan and cook about 20 minutes until the water has absorbed. Toss with a fork.

We Love New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas Too!

August 22, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Jump to Recipe

New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas! Awe…we love them too! Just like the green chile beef enchiladas! Ok! I promise! This is the last New Mexico chile post for a couple of days! Several days ago I posted New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Sauce, then New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Sauce Beef Enchiladas. Yesterday, I posted the New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Sauce and I promised I’d post my Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas too! So here we go!

Hope you enjoy this recipe! It is absolutely one of our favorites. I make a large batch and store in the freezer in quart bags so that when we get a craving for New Mexico style Mexican food the sauce is already ready!

Just like green chile sauce, there are so many uses for the red chile sauce. Enchiladas, burritos, tacos, red chile pork, and tamales to name a few! I love it for breakfast on a breakfast burrito loaded with eggs, sausage, and potatoes.

We Love New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas Too!

The New Mexico Hatch Red Chile is the green chile that has been allowed to ripen, then they are dried. Many times they are strung on a ristra and you can hang them in your home to dry or continue to dry. http://newmexicocatalog.com/html/ristras_and_wreaths.html.

After the chiles are dried they are ready for use. The stems are removed from the chile, the seeds are removed, they are toasted a little in an iron skillet or griddle, then added to a pot with water and cooked for a little bit until they become soft. They are then removed from the liquid, placed in a blender or food processor and blended to a puree. They are then strained through a strainer so that any skin or seeds are left behind and you are left with a beautiful chile paste to use to make your sauce.

I often have red chile that I purchased in New Mexico; however, if I am out, you can purchase at your local grocery store like the photo below. They do come bagged by different brands. The HEB I go to has bins of dried chile, so I usually get them from the large bins, but either they both are the same. Just be sure and check for the heat you want, as there will be mild, medium and hot.

We Love New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas Too!

I usually serve these with my pinto beans and easy Mexican rice. https://the2spoons.com/pinto-beans-for-refried-beans/.

I don’t have a recipe on the blog yet for the easy Mexican Rice but it is: Place a little oil in a skillet and add one cup long grain rice. Cook the rice until it has browned a little, making sure not to burn. Add one chopped garlic clove and stir quickly so that it too will not burn. Add two cups of water and one cube of Knorr Tomato Bouillon with Chicken Flavor, breaking it up into the water and stirring to help it dissolve. When the water comes back to a boil, immediately reduce to a simmer, place a lid onto your pan and cook until all the water has absorbed about 15-20 minutes. Delicious!

Hope you love these as much as we do! Use this sauce for so many other recipes! I love this for breakfast on burritos! Make the red and green chile and make your dishes Christmas style like they do in New Mexico! Perfection!

New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Beef Enchiladas

Print Recipe

Course: dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

8 oz (about 20-25 dried whole red New Mexican chile pods, mild, medium or hot, or a combination
2-4 cups water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 tsps Mexican Oregano, crushed and 1 tsp salt or to taste

For the filling and assembly

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
12 corn tortillas
oil for frying the corn tortillas
1/2-1 lb cheddar cheese grated or a combination of cheddar and monterey jack (the amoun djust depends on how much cheese you want…some for stuffing and some for topping).
salt and pepper to season the ground beef
Prepared Red Chile Sauce

Method

For the Red Chile Sauce

Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chile pods. Toast the chile pods in a heavy skillet over medium heat until they are warm and release their fragrance, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
Remove the chile pieces and place into a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until the chile is soft.
Remove the chile from the liquid and place into a blender or food processor. Blend until a smooth paste. Strain the paste, pushing through with the back of a spoon. This takes a few minutes. You just want to keep straining, pushing the puree through leaving behind any skin or seeds, adding a lilttle water if you need to.
Warm the oil in a skillet, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is limp. Add the chile mixture to the onion mixture, along with the oregano and salt , adding more water. You want a pourable sauce, not a thick sauce.
Cook for about 15 minutes, taste and adjust the seasonings. When ready the sauce will coat the back of a spoon but still be pourable. At this point I always strain again, pushing through the sauce, leaving behind any solids. This is not mandatory, but if I'm making enchiladas I want a very smooth sauce. Enjoy!

For the filling and assembly

Heat a large skillet with a little oil. When sizzling, place a corn tortilla in the oil for just a second to soften and remove to a paper towel. I place one side of the tortilla in oil, place the not oiled side up, repeat the process and put the oil side onto the unoiled previous tortilla. Sounds complicated, but not turning in the skillet and letting both sides into the oil helps with the tortillas holding together and to not fall apart…so basically your first tortilla is oil on the bottom, none on top but you'll top that with the oiled one, on and on. Set the tortillas aside.
Grate your cheese and chop your onions.
Cook your meat in a skillet with salt and pepper just until lightly browned.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Get a large baking dish or individual plates if you prefer. Line up all your ingredients so easy folding.
place a tortilla down on a flat surface. Add your desired amount of beef, onion and cheese. Roll the tortilla with the seam side down and place in the baking dish or in a plate. Continue until all the tortillas have been used. You want to kind of eye the filling to make sue you have enough to the last tortilla or that you have used all of it by the last tortilla.
Ladle some of the sauce over the enchiladas, insuring the ends have sauce and the entire enchilada is covered in a little sauce. Add cheese down the middle of your enchiladas. You can cover if you really like them cheesy, but remember ou have cheese in the filling.
Place the enchiladas in the hot oven and cook just until your cheese has melted.
I serve these with Mexican rice and pinto beans! Yum! Delicious!

Another Favorite! New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Sauce

August 21, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Oh, my gosh! New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Sauce is poured over the beef enchiladas on the right! We love the red chile sauce as much as the green! Here’s the link for those oh, so delicious Red Chile Beef Enchiladas: https://the2spoons.com/new-mexico-hatch-red-chile-beef-enchiladas/

Another Favorite! New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Sauce

Another Favorite! New Mexico Hatch Red Chile

New Mexico Hatch Red Chile Sauce

Print Recipe

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

8 oz (about 20 to 25) dried whole red New Mexican chile pods, mild, medium or hot, or a combination
2-4 cups water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 tsp crushed Mexican oregano
1 tsp salt, or more to taste

Method

Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chile pods. Toast the chile pods in a heavy skillet over medium heat until they are warm and release their fragrance, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
Remove the chile pieces and place into a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until the chile is soft.
Remove the chile from the liquid and place into a blender or food processor. Blend until a smooth paste. Strain the paste, pushing through with the back of a spoon. This takes a few minutes. You just want to keep straining, pushing the puree through leaving behind any skin or seeds, adding a lilttle water if you need to.
Warm the oil in a skillet, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is limp. Add the chile mixture to the onion mixture, along with the oregano and salt , adding more water. You want a pourable sauce, not a thick sauce. Cook for about 15 minutes, taste and adjust the seasonings. When ready the sauce will coat the back of a spoon but still be pourable. At this point I always strain again, pushing through the sauce, leaving behind any solids. This is not mandatory, but if I'm making enchiladas I want a very smooth sauce. Enjoy!

We Love New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Beef Enchiladas

August 20, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Jump to Recipe

New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Beef Enchiladas are a favorite in our home and it is no secret that the 2 Spoons love Mexican food whether it be our beloved Tex-Mex or New Mexico style which is different when it comes to the sauces. New Mexico style uses a green enchilada sauce and a red enchilada sauce. Both sauces have additional uses and they both are made from the Hatch Chile.

Green chile sauce is made from roasting fresh Hatch green chiles. The Red sauce is from Hatch green chile that has been allowed to ripen, turn red and then dried. They are grown in Hatch New Mexico and you can’t duplicate these growing them anywhere else. Here’s a link for the village of Hatch which is considered the Chile Capital of the World! http://www.villageofhatch.org.

We love both. The green and red chile both come in mild, medium and hot. You kind of don’t know what the heat level you are getting because hot is sometimes really hot and sometimes it’s not hot at all. I usually get a medium and a mild and maybe a few bags of hot and mix until the right heat for a dish.

We Love New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Beef Enchiladas

The recipe for these beef enchiladas with Hatch green chile uses my green chile sauce from a previous post. Here’s the link for that post: https://the2spoons.com/a-favorite-new-mexico-hatch-green-chile-sauce/. Sometimes we make beef enchiladas with a red and green sauce which is called Christmas in restaurants in New Mexico. That’s usually what I order because I want a little taste of both! Yum! So delicious are they both! I’ll be posting a new recipe for the red chile soon so you too can make Christmas Enchiladas. Sometimes we like to do the green chile enchiladas with chicken, but beef is our favorite.

We love New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Beef Enchiladas

Cannot wait for you to try this recipe. I think you will love it. I make up large batches of the green and red sauces and freeze them so that when I want New Mexico food, I have it already prepared.

New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Beef Enchiladas

Print Recipe

Course: dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves minced or grated
1 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups pureed green chile, mild, medium-hot from fresh roasted chile that the seeds have been removed, the stems and the outside char has been romoved.
2 cups water
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp dried Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

For the filling and assembly

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
12 corn tortillas
oil for frying the corn tortillas
1/2-1 lb cheddar cheese grated or a combination of cheddar and monterey jack (the amoun djust depends on how much cheese you want…some for stuffing and some for topping).
salt and pepper to season the ground beef
Prepared Green Chile Sauce

Method

For the Green Chile Sauce

Warm the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the flour and continue cooking for another 1 or 2 minutes.
Mix in the chile. Immediately begin pouring in the water or stock, stirring as you go, then add the salt. Add the cumin and oregano if adding.
Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, until thickened but still very pourable. Use warm or refrigerate for later use.
For an extra smooth sauce, I like to strain pushing the solids as much as you can through with the back of your spoon. You won't get all the solids, but you will definitely get the amazing flavors.

For the filling and assembly

Heat a large skillet with a little oil. When sizzling, place a corn tortilla in the oil for just a second to soften and remove to a paper towel. I place one side of the tortilla in oil, place the not oiled side up, repeat the process and put the oil side onto the unoiled previous tortilla. Sounds complicated, but not turning in the skillet and letting both sides into the oil helps with the tortillas holding together and to not fall apart…so basically your first tortilla is oil on the bottom, none on top but you'll top that with the oiled one, on and on. Set the tortillas aside.
Grate your cheese and chop your onions.
Cook your meat in a skillet with salt and pepper just until lightly browned.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Get a large baking dish or individual plates if you prefer. Line up all your ingredients so easy folding.
place a tortilla down on a flat surface. Add your desired amount of beef, onion and cheese. Roll the tortilla with the seam side down and place in the baking dish or in a plate. Continue until all the tortillas have been used. You want to kind of eye the filling to make sue you have enough to the last tortilla or that you have used all of it by the last tortilla.
Ladle some of the sauce over the enchiladas, insuring the ends have sauce and the entire enchilada is covered in a little sauce. Add cheese down the middle of your enchiladas. You can cover if you really like them cheesy, but remember ou have cheese in the filling.
Place the enchiladas in the hot oven and cook just until your cheese has melted.
I serve these with Mexican rice and pinto beans! Yum! Delicious!