Beef Chimichangas recipe for Kathy
English version for Kathy:
Ingredients:
2 pounds medium lean beef or pork cut into large pieces (~5”)*
1 tsp cumin
1 ½ tsp chili powder
Salt to taste
1 ½ cup of beef or chicken broth
4 TBS oil (corn oil is the best, olive oil is fine)
1 large onion, chopped
Heat 2 TBS of oil over high heat in a large pot or skillet. Using skillet is messier since pot has higher sides which prevent hot oil from getting all over your stove top. Add meat few pieces at the time and fry on high heat (I use max setting) turning until nicely browned. The main reason for browning is flavor. It does not need to be browned all around; you just need some browning for good flavor. Add cumin, chili powder, salt** and broth. Bring to boil, remove scam (optional) and reduce heat so that broth is barely boiling. Cover and cook until meat is fork-tender (2 to 3 hours depending on a meat). Remove with the slotted spoon and cut across fibers into smaller pieces (~2”). I use kitchen scissors but knife is also fine. If meat is already soft, break it into shred with a fork.
Heat 2 TBS of oil in a skillet on a medium heat. Add chopped onions and sauté it stirring frequently until soft (10-15 minutes). Add meat and some of the meat juices and sauté stirring occasionally until meat starts separating into shreds. Add more juices during cooking so meat stays moist. I usually use all of the cooking liquid and cook it as long as it takes for juices to evaporate so meet is moist but not super-wet. This may take from 30 minutes to an hour. Just remember, as meat cools down, it becomes drier and secret of good chimichangas is in moist meat. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Assembling chimichangas:
Stuff tortillas with shredded chicken or meat. Two-three generous table spoons of meat should be enough for one chimichangas. Distribute meat evenly into slightly elongated pile in a middle of tortillas so there is enough tortillas left around to wrap the meat. Put some shredded cheese (about a tablespoon) and jalapenos (optional) on top of the meat pile. Fold into the envelope. First fold shorter sides, then the longer sides.
Fry chimichangas over medium heat using enough corn oil to cover generously the bottom of the skillet. When one side looks browned enough, turn it over and fry another side. Start frying from the side there the sides of your “envelope” are folded. Make sure that heat is not too high or your chimichangas may get browned before meat is heated through and cheese is melted.
Serve with salsa and sour cream.
* You can use the cheapest meat available. Beef chunks that are sold in Costco are great. Any beef on sale is good as long as it does not have too much fat. You will need to remove fat and throw it away and that increases the cost.
**Start with a teaspoon and then if it is not enough add more. Always taste first before adding more salt. It is very easy to add salt but impossible to remove once you put too much.
***This meat can be stored in refrigerator in a zip-lock bag for up to a week or frozen for up to a month.
Step-by-step photos:
Meat is trimmed, cut and ready to be browned:
Meat is browned and ready to stew:
Water or chicken broth is added to cover meat to half depth:
Here you can see that after broth reaches boiling point, meat shrinks quite a bit and ends up being fully submerged:
This is how fully cooked meat should look like. At this point it also should be fork-tender:
Here pieces of meat are moved to a skillet with fried onions:
This is how chimichangas meat should look like when it is ready (make sure it still has plenty of broth to stay moist):
As meat cools down, it gets drier and becomes darker in color:
Here meat and cheese is placed on tortillas and ready to be wrapped:
Frying chimichangas:
