If you’re a fan of Mexican food and you’ve never tried this dish, you’re going to love it. Beef Steak Ranchero’s is so very versatile and it can be made mild or spicy. It can be served with or over rice, for breakfast with eggs, tacos, burritos, tortes, the skies the limit because you’ve got well seasoned and marinated beef, onions and tomatoes and, in this recipe, we’re adding potatoes.
2.37 lb. Raw packaged Beef Carne Taco Meat from the grocery store, $3.98 per lb.
What kind of Beef
As you read the title, “Beef Steak” Ranchero’s you were probably wondering what cuts to use. At my local grocery, they put together packages of beef for stews, tacos and burritos. It’s usually just the miscellaneous scraps from steaks and roasts that is too meaty to waste and throw away. Sometimes it’s even pre-seasoned but I like to get a few packages at a time that isn’t seasoned so, I can do whatever I want with it. One for the fridge and one for the freezer.
If you don’t have this available to you, I would recommend buying the cheapest cuts you can find because the meat tenderizes as it cooks so there’s no reason to get real spendy with this dish. Also, you’re going to need to get familiar with my Blackened Seasoning recipe because I use it on the meat.
Plate of Beef Steak Ranchero’s with rice, beans and a folded flour tortilla.
How to serve this Dish
As I mentioned above, there are so many different ways to eat Beef Steak Ranchero’s. The way I prepare it, in the video down below, I just serve it with beans and plain white rice. You can serve it with Spanish rice, if you prefer, but I find the Ranchero’s flavor has plenty of spice to blend in with white rice. Also, the addition of Potatoes in this recipe makes Ranchero’s great in burritos or along side a Chili Relleno. What ever you decide, you might want to consider a few classic Mexican additions because, you can never go wrong with a squeeze of lime, chopped green onion or chives and cilantro.
Kosher Salt & Pepper to taste and consider adding lime, green onion and cilantro when serving.
Boiled the potatoes beforehand for 20 minutes then refrigerated overnight. Cook the diced potatoes and onions together but separately from the meat and tomatoes before combing. Follow the instructions in the video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make Beef Steak Ranchero’s with Potatoes. Also, this meal can be cooked in a slow cooker.
4 lbs Boneless Beef Chuck Roast, raw, still in the package.
Slow Cooker Roasts
I think that most people know that roasts are at their best when they’re cooked slow and low and this Bloody Mary Roast with Gravy is no exception. I use a standard Crock-Pot for this recipe or “Slow-Cooker” but you’re more than welcome to cook this in the oven, with a lid, at 200° Fahrenheit for the recommended 8 hours. The gravy is just a synch.
Fully cooked and shredded Bloody Mary Roast(Beef Chuck), on a white cutting board.
Bloody Mary Roast with Gravy Ingredients:
1 4 to 5 lbs Boneless Beef Chuck Roast 2 cups Bloody Mary Mix, Zing Zang
Gravy 2 tbsp Butter 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour 3 cups Roast Juice
Kosher Salt to taste
Cook in a Crock-Pot on low for 8 hours then make your gravy. I recommend adding Roasted Onions, Potatoes and Carrots as a side. Just follow the instructions in the short video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make this Bloody Mary Roast.
1/3 Boneless Ribeye, Dry Aged with the end heal cut off into 1 steak.
The Best Steaks
I’ve learned several different things about cooking great steaks, over the years, and the one constant, that everyone can agree on, is it’s got to have flavor. How it’s achieved, however, varies with preference and style. The 3 most common cooking methods are grilled, pan fried, oven baked/broiled or a combination of the three. So, other than variations of added ingredients, flavor can come from the fire and whatever you choose to fuel the flames on a grill or whatever you decide to throw in a pan. But, what if you could achieve flavor just as good with out any other ingredients than basic Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper. Dry aging your beef is a really great way to do it.
One raw 6 lb Boneless Beef Ribeye ready for Dry Aging.
What is Dry Aged Beef
One of the greatest kept secrets in gourmet cooking is how to properly age beef. It’s something that our ancestors had knowledge of but, because of refrigeration, the practice was no longer necessary to pass on to the following generations. It’s now considered a luxury and can be quite expensive to purchase. Steaks that would normally cost the average grocer $5 to $6 dollars per lb can cost upwards of $20+ per lb after dry aging.
This process used to be done out doors where one couldn’t predict the weather, temperatures or exact humidity that is involved to perfect aging and prevent spoilage. Meat had to be protected from carnivores and other predator’s like insects but, now that we understand the science behind this incredible process, we can actually use refrigeration to our advantage and predict outcome almost every single time.
To do this at home, Dry Aged Wraps or Bags are used to protect the meat from other ingredients in your fridge and vise versa. Healthy Bacteria’s and Molds containing Penicillin form on the outside of the meat just like aging cheese but you don’t want to add any off put flavors or spread mold anywhere else in your refrigerator. That’s why I’m recommending these Dry Aged Bags. I am an Amazon affiliate but I’m not affiliated with this company, at all. I just found that you get more for your buck with this particular brand because the others are almost twice as much for less bags.
Boneless Beef Ribeye incased in Dry Aging Wraps, ready to start aging.
Now, Dry Aged Beef is simply a controlled atmosphere of humidity and temperature that ages the meat like a fine wine or cheese. The best meat for dry aging are sub-primal cuts on the bone like a strip loin, ribeye or sirloin. Water evaporates from the muscle and safe bacteria’s, with a variety of penicillin’s that form a harden surface around the beef as it ages for a period, on average, 21 to 28 days. Beef cuts with large fat portions can protect the meat from drying out to much as the enzymes in the dry aged beef break down the tissue, leaving the meat quite tender.
Dry Aged Boneless Beef Ribeye aged 28 days.
Preparing and Cooking Dry Aged Steaks
Once the Beef has been aged properly, steaks can be cut into portions. Most people will trim off the outside layer, all around the steak, before cooking. Only about an 8th of an inch is necessary but, if cooked properly, it’s safe to consume. The fattier parts can be cooked and rendered down in water, to prevent burning, and the fat can be used to cook the steak in, if you’re pan frying.
I highly recommend minimizing the added ingredients to your steaks when cooking. If you’ve never had aged beef steaks you should try it with Kosher Salt and Pepper only, at least for the first time. If you’ve been following my blog and channel, you know I love garlic, butter, herbs and grilling as much as the next guy but, dry aging adds flavor that doesn’t require any of those things. If you add them or even barbecue these steaks first you’re going to cover up the natural flavors that dry aging adds to your steak and you’ll never fully understand or appreciate the process if you do because that taste will be berried and lost to the fire and/or other ingredients.
I would recommend cooking your dry aged beef steaks in a straight pan fry with the aged fat on the stove and maybe the oven(like I show you in the video) or a full cook under the broiler in the oven. Cooking time will vary upon steak thickness.
Dry Aged Beef cut into a few Steaks, ready for trimming.
A word of caution
Most professionals won’t advise folks to try dry aging beef at home because of the technicalities. For example: a high humidity of 80% and an average temperature of 33° to 38° Fahrenheit are recommended at all times. This means, NO PEAKING. If you’re just trying to do this in the family refrigerator, it’s best to do it in one that is either a) not opened 20 times a day and/or b) separated from the bulk of the ingredients.
I use a drawer and a crisper is best because it allows you to control the humidity for fruits and vegetables. Obviously I’m aging meat instead but vegetables favor a higher humidity so I adjust the fruits and vegetable setting to vegetables. Most refrigerators are already set to the correct temperature. All you have to do now is follow the instructions in my video tutorial and be patient.
If all goes well, you’ll have a perfectly aged portion of beef. However, if there’s a real funny smell to your beef and it smells spoiled it most likely is. Properly aged beef will smell almost like nothing, for the most part, but will have a small hint of nuttiness’ to it, which is normal and how it should be.
How to Dry Age Beef at Home video tutorial by PoorMansGourmet.
