Chef Lupita
Camarones a la Diabla Nayaritas
Nayarit's Pacific shrimp, seared quickly and coated in a red sauce of chile de arbol, chipotle, tomato, and garlic, the kind of heat that belongs beside white rice and warm corn tortillas.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Guerrero Grilled Cecina (Cecina Guerrerense)
Created by
Guerrero's Tierra Caliente cecina is thin beef salted, dried until the surface tightens, then grilled over coals and served the way the region knows it: with crema, enchiladas, avocado, and rice.
Main Dishes
Mexican
BBQ
Comfort Food
35 min
Active Time
35 min cook•PT24H1H10M total
Yield6 servings
Guerrero's Tierra Caliente, the hot country around Ciudad Altamirano, Arcelia, and Coyuca de Catalan, knows cecina as work food and celebration food at the same time. Thin sheets of beef, salt, dry air, a hot grill. Nothing decorative. The plate arrives with crema, red enchiladas, avocado, and rice because the meat is only one part of the table.
The defining ingredient is not a chile. It is the beef itself, cut thin enough that the salt can travel through it and the surface can dry into that firm, almost leathery skin before it hits the coals. In Guerrero homes, the women who serve this dish know the balance: salty meat, soft crema, chile guajillo on the enchiladas, ripe avocado, plain rice to catch everything. This is a 32-state cuisine. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Do not confuse this with a wet marinade. Cecina guerrerense is not carne asada wearing sauce. The drying is the technique. In a modern kitchen, you use the refrigerator uncovered on a rack because clean airflow matters more than pretending your apartment window is a Tierra Caliente patio. If you have safe outdoor drying conditions, good. If not, the refrigerator does the work. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Cecina in Mexico descends from Spanish salting and drying techniques adapted to local climates after cattle became widespread in the colonial period. Morelos, especially Yecapixtla, became nationally famous for cecina, but Guerrero's Tierra Caliente developed its own table tradition, serving the grilled salted beef with crema, rice, avocado, and red enchiladas rather than presenting it as a stand-alone cut. The dish reflects the dry inland cattle country of northern Guerrero, not the coastal seafood cooking many outsiders wrongly assume represents the whole state.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
beef top round or sirloin flap
Quantity
2 1/2 pounds
sliced across the grain into 1/8-inch sheets
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 tablespoons
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fresh lime juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
softened, for rubbing the beef before grilling
corn tortillas
Quantity
12
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
6
stemmed and seeded
dried chile ancho
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
dried chile de arbol (optional)
Quantity
1
stemmed
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
white onion
Quantity
1/4 small
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for frying the enchilada sauce
Mexican crema
Quantity
1 cup
queso fresco
Quantity
1/2 cup
crumbled
ripe avocados
Quantity
2
sliced
Mexican white rice (optional)
Quantity
3 cups cooked
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
salsa de molcajete with chile serrano (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef top round or sirloin flapsliced across the grain into 1/8-inch sheets | 2 1/2 pounds |
| fine sea salt | 2 tablespoons |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh lime juice | 1 tablespoon |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo)softened, for rubbing the beef before grilling | 1 tablespoon |
| corn tortillas | 12 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 6 |
| dried chile anchostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| dried chile de arbol (optional)stemmed | 1 |
| Roma tomatoes | 2 |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| white onion | 1/4 small |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1/2 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo)for frying the enchilada sauce | 2 tablespoons |
| Mexican crema | 1 cup |
| queso frescocrumbled | 1/2 cup |
| ripe avocadossliced | 2 |
| Mexican white rice (optional) | 3 cups cooked |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| salsa de molcajete with chile serrano (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp slicing knife or butcher-prepared thin beef sheets
- •Wire racks set over sheet pans
- •Cast iron comal
- •Charcoal grill or heavy grill pan
- •Blender
- •Large Guerrero-style terracotta clay platter
Instructions
- 1
Cut the beef
Lay the beef on a board and slice it across the grain into long sheets about 1/8 inch thick. If your knife work is not there yet, ask the butcher to do it. Tell them cecina, not steaks. The pieces should be thin enough to bend but not so thin they tear when salted.
- 2
Salt the sheets
Rub both sides of the beef with the fine sea salt, black pepper, and lime juice. Use your hands and cover the edges. Stack the sheets in a shallow dish, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours. The salt tightens the meat and begins the cure. Do not drown it in lime. This is cecina, not ceviche.
- 3
Dry the cecina
Set wire racks over sheet pans and lay the beef in a single layer. Refrigerate uncovered for 18 to 24 hours, turning once halfway through. The surface should look darker, dry to the touch, and slightly firm at the edges. In Tierra Caliente, clean dry air does this work outside. In your kitchen, the refrigerator is the clean airflow. No me vengas con atajos.
Do not dry raw beef at room temperature in a humid kitchen. Tradition uses climate, salt, and airflow together. If you do not have those conditions, use the refrigerator. - 4
Toast the chiles
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo and ancho chiles separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, until they smell deep and warm. Toast the chile de arbol for only a few seconds if using it. Do not let any chile blacken. Burned chile makes bitter enchiladas, and the crema will not save you.
- 5
Soak and blend
Cover the toasted chiles with hot water and soak for 15 minutes. On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, garlic, and onion until the tomato skins blister and the garlic softens. Peel the garlic. Blend the drained chiles with the tomatoes, garlic, onion, oregano, kosher salt, and 1 cup of fresh water until smooth.
- 6
Fry the sauce
Melt 2 tablespoons of manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Pour in the chile sauce carefully because it will sputter. Fry for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the color darkens and the fat begins to shine at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This sauce is for the enchiladas that sit beside the cecina, not under it.
- 7
Make the enchiladas
Warm the corn tortillas on the comal until pliable. Dip each tortilla quickly through the hot guajillo-ancho sauce, fold it in half, and set it on a platter. Spoon a little more sauce over the top. Finish with crema and queso fresco. These are soft table enchiladas, not baked casseroles. Así se hace y punto.
- 8
Grill the cecina
Prepare a charcoal grill or heat a heavy grill pan until very hot. Rub the dried beef sheets lightly with 1 tablespoon softened lard. Grill 1 to 2 minutes per side, just until the edges char in spots and the meat firms without turning hard. Cecina is thin. Look away and you will make leather.
- 9
Serve Guerrero style
Pile the grilled cecina on a large clay platter with the red enchiladas, Mexican crema, sliced avocado, cooked white rice, lime halves, and salsa de molcajete. Serve immediately with warm corn tortillas. The plate should look generous, not arranged with tweezers. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher for top round sliced for cecina. If they give you thick milanesa, pound it thinner between two sheets of plastic. Thick beef will season only on the surface and grill unevenly.
- •The traditional outdoor drying works in dry heat with clean airflow. Humid coastal air is not your friend here. Guerrero has coast, mountain, and hot inland cattle country. This dish belongs to the dry inland table.
- •Use Mexican crema, not sour cream. Crema is looser and sweeter, and it softens the salt of the beef. Sour cream turns the plate sharp in the wrong direction.
- •The chile guajillo gives the enchiladas their red color and clean fruitiness. Chile ancho gives body. Chile de arbol is optional because this dish is not about proving you can suffer.
Advance Preparation
- •The beef must be salted and dried 18 to 24 hours ahead. Plan for it. Cecina is a waiting dish before it is a grilling dish.
- •The guajillo-ancho sauce can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat it in a spoonful of lard before dipping the tortillas.
- •Cook the rice the morning of serving and keep it covered. The cecina should be grilled at the last moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 555g)
Calories
905 calories
Total Fat
44 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
23 g
Cholesterol
145 mg
Sodium
2570 mg
Total Carbohydrates
77 g
Dietary Fiber
14 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
54 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Occidente Main Dishes
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Colima Pork and Rice Stew (Chilayo)
Colima's chilayo is pork backbone and ribs simmered in guajillo broth, sharpened with cumin and vinegar, then thickened with ground rice and served over white morisqueta.
Chef Lupita
Cuyutlan Fire-Roasted Fish (Pescado en Vara)
Colima's coastal pescado en vara, small whole fish skewered upright beside a wood fire, brushed with chile guajillo, chile de arbol, garlic, lime, and eaten on the sand.
Chef Lupita
Hongos Silvestres Michoacanos
Michoacán's Purépecha mushroom guiso, built from rainy-season hongos de monte, chile guajillo, serrano, tomato, and hierbabuena, then scooped up with warm corundas.