Childhood Potato and Beef Stew
Potato and ground-beef stew: everyday Mexican comfort food. Learn why thinly sliced potatoes thicken the sauce naturally, no flour needed.
45 min
Easy
Mexicana
4 servings
The story behind
Everyday Mexican home cooking rarely gets more honest than a stew of potatoes and ground beef. It is a one-pot dish, cheap and stretchable, born of the need to feed a whole household on a little meat and a lot of sauce. That sauce, the caldillo, is the soul of the dish: ripe tomatoes, onion, and garlic blended and then fried down until their flavor concentrates, a cornerstone technique that turns raw tomato into something deep and sweet. The potatoes are sliced thin on purpose, so they cook quickly and release just enough starch to thicken the broth naturally, with no flour required. The ground beef is browned first to build flavor through the Maillard reaction before the sauce goes in. This is spoon food, the kind served on a weeknight with rice, beans, and tortillas for scooping the stew into tacos. The smell of fried tomato and cumin fills the kitchen and signals dinner is near. Like many stews, it tastes even better reheated the next day, once the flavors have fully settled together.
Instructions
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1Start by blending the tomatoes with the onion, garlic, and a little water until you have a very smooth sauce.
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2In a saucepan with a drizzle of oil, cook the ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper until it changes color.
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3Pour the tomato broth over the meat and let it come to a simmer so it develops a good flavor.
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4Add the potato slices to the pot; make sure they are well covered by the liquid.
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5Cover the pan and let it cook over medium heat until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart.
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6Serve hot in a deep plate and enjoy that flavor that resets your day.
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