Chef Lupita
Arroz con Plátano Jarocho
Veracruz's coastal rice, cooked white with onion, garlic, and broth, then finished with sweet plátano macho fried in manteca until the edges turn dark and caramelized.
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Frijoles con Carne Oreada Cuajinicuilapense
Created by
Guerrero Costa Chica black beans simmered with carne oreada, epazote, hoja de aguacate, and chile costeño, the Afro-Mexican preserved-meat pot Cuajinicuilapa puts on the Sunday table.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Special Occasion
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
12 hr 30 min
Active Time
3 hr cook•15 hr 30 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
Guerrero's Costa Chica begins to speak differently as you move toward Cuajinicuilapa. The food tells you before the road signs do: black beans, carne oreada, epazote, hoja de aguacate, plátano macho at the side of the plate. This is not food from a single Mexico. This is Afro-Mexican Guerrero, and the pot has its own authority.
Carne oreada is beef salted and dried in the air until it concentrates. Not jerky. Not carne seca from the north. Oreada keeps enough life in it to soften in the bean broth while still giving that deep preserved-meat flavor. The women who taught me this in Cuajinicuilapa watched the weather before they watched the clock. Too much humidity and the meat spoils. Too much sun and it turns hard. The technique belongs to people who knew how to preserve food before refrigerators made cooks lazy.
The chile here is chile costeño rojo, with guajillo only to round the sauce. The herbs are epazote and hoja de aguacate, not a vague handful of green leaves. The fat is manteca de cerdo. If your market has coconut oil from the coast and your family uses it, fine, but this pot is commonly started with lard. La manteca es el sabor, and in beans with preserved beef it gives the broth a backbone.
Serve it in a clay cazuela, with tortillas from the comal and ripe fried plantain if the market has good ones. The plantain is not decoration. Along with yuca and malanga across the Costa Chica, it carries West African memory on Mexican soil. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Cuajinicuilapa, in Guerrero's Costa Chica, is one of Mexico's most important Afro-Mexican communities, and in 2015 Mexico's intercensal survey began officially counting Afro-descendant identity at the national level after decades of invisibility. Carne oreada belongs to older coastal preservation systems in which salted meat was dried by moving air and sun, a practical response to heat, distance, and limited refrigeration. The pairing of black beans with preserved beef, epazote, hoja de aguacate, and diasporic starches such as plátano macho reflects the Costa Chica's African, Indigenous, and colonial cattle-ranching histories in one pot.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans
Quantity
1 pound
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
10 cups, plus more for soaking
carne oreada de res
Quantity
1 pound
from a trusted butcher, rinsed and cut into 2-inch strips
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
2 smashed and 2 minced
dried hojas de aguacate
Quantity
2
lightly toasted
fresh epazote
Quantity
2 large sprigs
dried chile costeño rojo
Quantity
3
stemmed and seeded
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
ripe Roma tomato
Quantity
1
roasted until blistered
cumin seeds
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
toasted
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more only after the meat has seasoned the pot
warm hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
fried plátano macho maduro (optional)
Quantity
for serving
sliced
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beanspicked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 10 cups, plus more for soaking |
| carne oreada de resfrom a trusted butcher, rinsed and cut into 2-inch strips | 1 pound |
| manteca de cerdo | 2 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1 medium |
| garlic cloves2 smashed and 2 minced | 4 |
| dried hojas de aguacatelightly toasted | 2 |
| fresh epazote | 2 large sprigs |
| dried chile costeño rojostemmed and seeded | 3 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| ripe Roma tomatoroasted until blistered | 1 |
| cumin seedstoasted | 1/2 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more only after the meat has seasoned the pot |
| warm hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional) | for serving |
| fried plátano macho maduro (optional)sliced | for serving |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •5-quart clay olla or heavy Dutch oven
- •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and warming tortillas
- •Blender
- •Fine-mesh strainer
- •Wide clay cazuela for serving
Instructions
- 1
Soak the beans
Put the black beans in a clay olla or heavy pot and cover with water by three inches. Soak overnight. The next day, drain them and rinse once. This is not fussiness. Soaking gives you an even bean, one that cooks creamy instead of splitting outside while staying hard inside.
- 2
Prepare the meat
Rinse the carne oreada quickly under cool water and pat it dry. Cut it into strips about two inches long. Taste a tiny cooked scrap if your butcher's meat is very salty. If it is aggressive, soak the strips in cool water for 20 minutes, then drain. Carne oreada should season the beans, not punish them.
- 3
Start the pot
Return the beans to the pot with 10 cups fresh water, the 2 smashed garlic cloves, half of the chopped onion, and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a steady simmer, then lower the heat. Cook partially covered for about 1 hour, until the beans are beginning to soften but are not tender yet.
- 4
Brown the oreada
Melt the manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Add the carne oreada and fry until the edges darken and the surface glistens, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the remaining onion and the 2 minced garlic cloves. Cook until the onion softens and catches the meat's fat. La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable oil gives you a flat pot.
- 5
Toast the chiles
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile costeño rojo and chile guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until fragrant and pliable. Do not blacken them. The costeño gives the Costa Chica bite and color, the guajillo rounds it with fruit. Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water for 15 minutes.
- 6
Blend the recado
Drain the softened chiles and put them in a blender with the roasted tomato, toasted cumin seeds, and 1 cup of bean broth from the pot. Blend until smooth. Strain if your blender leaves chile skins behind. This recado should be brick red, not watery, and it should smell roasted before it ever touches the beans.
- 7
Season the beans
Stir the browned carne oreada, onion, garlic, and chile recado into the bean pot. Rub the toasted hojas de aguacate lightly between your palms and drop them in with the epazote. Simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours more, stirring now and then, until the beans are tender, the broth has thickened, and the meat has softened but still keeps its chew.
- 8
Rest and serve
Turn off the heat and let the pot rest 20 minutes. Taste for salt only now, after the carne oreada has given what it has to give. Serve from the cazuela with warm corn tortillas, fried plátano macho maduro, and lime halves. No me vengas con flour tortillas here. That is the north. This is Guerrero.
Chef Tips
- •Buy carne oreada from a butcher who sells it for cooking, not from a snack shelf. It should smell clean, salty, and beefy, never sour. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
- •Chile costeño rojo is the regional chile to look for first. If you cannot find it, use chile guajillo with one chile de arbol for edge. That is a compromise, not the same dish.
- •Do not salt heavily at the beginning. Carne oreada carries salt into the pot slowly. Taste at the end or you will ruin the beans before they have a chance.
- •The fried plátano macho maduro at the table is part of the Costa Chica logic: beans, preserved meat, corn, and sweet starch. Veracruz is not Cuba is not Cartagena, and Guerrero is not Veracruz. Keep the register straight.
- •Black beans are correct here. Pinto beans will feed you, but they will not give the same dark broth with hoja de aguacate and chile costeño. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans can be cooked one day ahead. They improve overnight as the carne oreada seasons the broth.
- •The chile recado can be blended up to two days ahead and refrigerated. Fry it in the lard with the meat on cooking day.
- •If your carne oreada is very salty, rinse and soak it for 20 minutes before cooking. Do not soak it overnight or you will wash away the reason you bought it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 500g)
Calories
620 calories
Total Fat
16 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
45 mg
Sodium
1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
87 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
15 g
Protein
35 g
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