Ropa Vieja/ Carne Desmechada (Cuban/Colombian Shredded Beef) | Kenji's Cooking Show 

The way the steak fit into the bottom of the dutch oven was very satisfying

As a Cuban, I'd say the only things my family adds differently are a little garlic powder and "Sazón completa" or "Adobo" powder (which is mostly powdered onion and garlic with some MSG), as well as a splash of wine at the end! The wine really helps to cut through the greasiness a little bit and add a little needed acidity. We always add bay leaves too, kind of a Cuban staple. Otherwise, seems great and authentic! :)

Thank you Kenji. I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer a week ago, but I spent the entirety of the pandemic cooking for her, before and after she got sick. I took a lot of recipes and inspiration from your videos, and I feel very lucky to have discovered your videos and your books. Thanks again

Maybe this was obvious to everyone else but Kenji just blew my mind with that stove top vs oven comparison with regard to temperature consistency. I have learned so much from watch Kenji's videos

It made me laugh at the end when you were telling us this is what ropa vieja looks like when it cooks longer, and pretty much all we could see was the lid of the pot propped against the backsplash. Not complaining at all, it’s a pain to angle a camera correctly when it’s on your head, I’m just amused. And hungry! Your ropa vieja looks amazing.

The best part about your videos is you just feel so casual. And you give easy alternatives while your doing it. It makes these recipes look so doable. So many channels like these are so strict with every step but you make these look approachable. I really feel I can make this at home because you make it seem that way. Thank you

Put leftover Ropa Vieja on a toasted hoagie roll or ciabatta or baguette and melt some cheese onto it for the most glorious sandwich🤤

Interesting take on orientation of peppers, Kenji. I do the opposite. If I have a dull knife I ALWAYS place skin side down. My reasoning is that the dull knife is more likely to "slip" on the skin, and the fleshy side is easier to "grip" for the dull knife. Plus when you get to the skin (with flesh side up orientation), you can use the cutting board that's in contact with the skin to sandwich it...helping the dull knife to cut through it. I may have to experiment

There's a dish in portuguese cuisine with the same name, "roupa velha". It's made from the leftovers of Christmas Eve's traditional boiled salted codfish (bacalhau), which is served with cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and sometimes other vegetables, all boiled in the same water. Roupa Velha is traditionally eaten the next day (Christmas day) and mixes all of those vegetables and the codfish, adding some of the water that they were boiled, in a delicious shredded pot of goodness. To my knowledge (and I am portuguese) it is really only eaten in that occasion, since the whole two day/leftover thing is really crucial to its flavor. Just wanted to share since the name reaminded me of this, and it tastes so good when eaten in that special occasion.

That’s hilarious! I kept seeing you blow by the cumin and oregano and I was like, “when is he gonna put that in?!” 😂

I love the after explanation. Very useful for dialing in the texture. As Chef John says, “That’s just you cooking”. It’s SUCH an important concept for home cooks (like me) to get. I’ve cooked since I was a kid, and feel comfortable modifying to taste and preference, but I’ve met so many that do not feel the same way. This type of example really helps folks out.

Kenji whipping out the homemade chicken stock is the biggest flex every single time

I'm really glad you talk about the science of what's going on in cooking! It's super important that people actually UNDERSTAND how to cook and not just blindly follow recipes. It also helps to stop the spread of misinformation! Thanks Kenji for all you do!

Just sat down to relax, didn't know what to watch. Opened RU-vid and was greeted with a 27 minute Kenji video; exactly what I needed!

My Cuban mom never added olives and I never saw them when eating in Cuban restaurants, either. One thing she did was pull the pieces of flank steak out, shred them on a board, then put them back in. There’s a wonderful non-tomato version version, no spices or peppers, just garlic and lemon juice, called vaca frita. That’s even better. The searing happens *after* the shredding and you get bits of toasted meat. Now I want to go and make it!

Love the detail and information that you provide to the viewer, I feel like I learned a lot watching your videos

The whole theory of desensitizing yourself to the dish by smelling it all day and thus finding it tastes better the next day was kind of brilliant and definitely makes sense when you think about it. I suppose that letting the meat sit in the braising liquid overnight might also serve as a marination of sorts, albeit less effective since the muscle proteins are now cooked, which might improve dishes that were only exposed to the flavorful liquid for a relatively short period during the braise.

Great recipe that I've made a number of times! I always struggle following the recipe from this video, so here is my version of the transcribed recipe. Hopefully it helps you all out! Main Ingredients - 1.5 to 2 pounds flank steak, cut against the grain into smaller slabs - 3-6 bell peppers (any), sliced - 1 yellow onion, sliced - 6 cloves of garlic, sliced - 1 Tbs oregano - 1 Tbs cumin - 2 cups crushed tomatoes (canned, fresh, any) - 2 to 3 cups chicken stock (or water) - Salt and pepper (start with 1 tsp each, then adjust to taste) - 14 ounces olives, green or black, sliced or whole Optional Ingredients - Poblano or jalapeno peppers, sliced - Small fresh tomatoes, halved - 2-4 Tbs tomato paste - 1-2 bay leaves - Sprigs of thyme - Juice of half a lemon, or more to taste Instructions 1. Add 2 Tbs olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pot, such as a dutch oven. Set over medium-high heat. 2. Add the chopped flank steak in a single layer and sear (this is optional, but adds flavor). Continue prepping ingredients. 3. Slice the peppers, onion, and garlic. Remove the meat once seared, and set aside. Add the peppers and onions to the pot over medium heat and cook until softened. 4. Add the garlic, oregano and cumin, cook 30 seconds until aromatic. If using, add fresh tomatoes and tomato paste now. 5. Add the crushed tomatoes, stir, then add 2 to 3 cups stock. Season with salt and pepper. 6. Add the meat back to the pot, nestling it into the liquid. If using, add bay leaves and fresh thyme now. 7. Allow to come to a simmer over medium heat, then lower heat to and partially cover. 8. Simmer (not boil) for several hours. Start testing for doneness after 2 hours. If liquid reduces too low, add water and/or cover with lid. The meat is done if you can just shred it with a fork. 9. Shred the meat into the liquid. Remove bay leaves and thyme, if applicable. Add olives, stir, and taste for salt and pepper. 10. Serve with rice, black beans, plantains, or whatever you want.

Always gotta appreciate kenji. Everything he does is usually pretty spot on and correctly made with very few exceptions. It's a rare quality in youtube chefs unfortunately.

Always appreciate braised beef and a good Goonies reference.

Your videos are my favorite on youtube, they lower my stress so much and I learn a ton. You're a gem. Thanks Kenji 🤘🤘🤘

I have been in utter love with this recipe since I tried Chef John’s. I will have to try using the oven and branching out on olives like you have though! Thanks Kenji

orange bells have always been my favorite, both for snacking for their sweetness and cooking for their sweetness☺️☺️

I use a mixture of red onion, red and orange bell peppers, and poblano peppers and I really like it. Doesn't add really any noticeable heat but certainly more flavor than green bell pepper. Also it's much better with mexican oregano rather than greek oregano imo.

So excited to watch this, just saw the title and clicked right away. Kenji making one of my childhood favorites, there's no way I'm missing this video. Thanks for the Cuban love!

Came for the cool ingredients, stayed for the best ingredient of all time, all the knowledge you serve us

Yes, many Jews will prepare a braised dish on Friday to be left in an oven all night for Saturday lunch/dinner. It's called cholent. I personally use a slow cooker to prepare Saturday meals. As for dishes tasting better the next day, that has most definitely been my experience with Chinese style fried rice.

Thank you Cuba, thank you Colombia and thank you Kenji. This dish was delicious

We have a similar dish here in Brazil 🇧🇷 It's called "Carne Louca" (literally "Crazy Meat"). Insanely tasty. One of my favorite dishes for sure!

The way I was taught to prep peppers was to square off the top and bottom then cut in and 'roll' the pepper around with your knife removing the core. No seeds and no waste as you can use the top and bottom pieces, and your main section is all squared off and really easy to work with.

Yeahhh, that first shred was like hearing nails on a chalkboard. I thought another hour was needed to melt the meat and the shred should be inaudible. Fortunately you found that out too. The best ropa vieja burrito I ever had was from a food truck in L.A. at midnight after the club.

I love your videos Kenji! I always learn so much.

Thank you SO MUCH for explaining the different forms of myoglobin! I never knew this and like you said, just assumed the steak wasn’t too fresh. Now I know!

As a Cuban I have never seen ropa vieja be made like this but I'm sure it's still good!

But wait--did anybody else's mind get blown when he said that the pimento peppers in olives are usually just pimento flavored agar agar jelly cubes?

I noticed you forgot to toast the spices right after you remembered you had cherry tomatoes, every time you turned around I wanted to remind you 😭😂

I made this pretty similar to how you described but I was short on time so I transferred to the InstantPot instead of putting the Dutch oven in the oven (after browning the meat, cooking the veg and making sure to get some good colour on the tomato paste & spices). Cooked on low heat, high pressure for 1hr, then removed and shredded the meat, reduced the sauce back on stovetop, and warmed the meat in the sauce. I liked the texture of the meat, not dry at all. I don't want to be that substitutions commenter, but I thought this was a really good option to save a little time if it helps anyone else a bit short on time(or unable to budget for the cook time uncertainty).

In our cuban household we first braise the beef separately with onion, bay leaf, and oregano in water or broth. Then once the meat is done and cooling a bit we make the sofrito (onions/peppers/garlic/cumin) and tomato sauce. Then add the shredded beef to the sofrito-tomato mixture. Otherwise the onions and peppers get terribly mushy.

I love how he causally grabs things from his fridge and is just like I should use these tomatoes up first. I’m lucky if I remember if I have milk in mine.

Es la mejor receta de ropa vieja que he visto.

Mind blown about the “stews are better the next day” myth. Also my three year old daughter has requested a “Pipo’s Cooking Adventures” animated show after reading Every Night is Pizza Night. Just throwing that out there.

I'd love to see a video on the best way to sharpen your knives or how you keep them as sharp as possible. Also how you clean your massive cutting board!

9:08 - I'm big into coffee brewing and I've always thought about this! I wonder to myself why the coffee tastes better out on the porch, or as soon as I take it out of the house. Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy

My wife's favorite dish! Serve with moros y christianos and plantains and she's very happy! I was taught the dish from a Cuban chef, so to answer your question in the video with a sample size of one the Cuban version of the dish does sear the meat.

There’s a chain cafe/restaurant in Southern California (LA and Orange County…hoping San Diego soon) called Porto’s Bakery that serves the Cuban version of ropa vieja. This version looks as delicious. Thank you, Kenji, for another great recipe.

Thanks for introducing us to another interesting dish, I've never heard of Kenji. Appreciate the education. Looks fantastic

Made this the same day the vid came out, but with chicken (what I had in the fridge). Superb recipe. Can recommend anyone to try this. Super simple. Amazing flavour

Combined thyme pun and Goonies reference, very nice 👌

As a spaniard is always interesting to find dishes that have travel away, to see how they have changed with time and the availability of ingredients. In Spain nowadays, ropa vieja is made the day before you eat cocido with the chickpeas and the shreded meat leftover, all sauted with some tomato.

I'm Cuban and while this may not be the most traditional, I'd still eat it because it still looks pretty damn good and I'm sure it tastes great!

I love the Cuban version with olives (I first had it in Vinales and then have made it 2-3 times at home since then)... this looks yummy, too.

I've been intuitively preparing bell peppers like that for the past several months. Seeing you do it has me feeling mad validated.

Thanks for posting Kenji, definitely understand the exhaustion that comes from kids, especially infants! Love your instruction and real-time footage!

19:39 Kenji with another clutch Goonies reference 👌👌👌

Kenji, you are partially correct on the meat packing information you shared. Yes, nitrogen gas is introduced into the package for Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) of meats - but there is much more. First, the package enters a vacuum chamber where nearly all the air is removed. This is to get the residual oxygen inside the pack below 0.5% - which is a threshold where oxidative rancidityand oxymyoglobin formation is inhibited. Once the vacuum in the chamber is achieved, a blend of gases will be introduced to equalize the pressure. There are several gas blends used. Most common are high-ox (80% O2 / 20% CO2), low-ox (80% N2 / 20% CO2), and low-ox tri-gas (79.6%N2 20% CO2, 0.4% CO - yes, carbon monoxide) The carbon monoxide is used in beef because of its ability and propensity to glom onto the myoglobin molecule and turn it into a nice red carboxymyoglobin. Same thing happens to your hemoglobin in your blood when you inhale carbon monoxide. I’m a packaging guy btw

22:00 the scraping of those metal forks against that gorgeous enameled Le Creuset is making me break out in cold sweats

Miso soup especially cabbage, crab or clam tastes better the next day and tastes great cold as well

Here in Brazil we call this recipe "Crazy Meat". We usually put the meat inside a small 'ish bread and eat it like that. When I was a kid back in the early 2000's, this dish was very common at birthday parties.

I've wanted to make Ropa Vieja since grad school. I even had a coworker's grandmother's recipe at one point. I'm now finally inspired. Thank you! 💚🤍🧡 and ❤🤍💙

I’m glad to hear you don’t salt a lot during cooking. I don’t either and I always feel like I’m doing it wrong because chefs are always saying you should salt as you go.

To cut bell peppers with precision speed and no waste I was taught to cut the top and bottom off, slice the remaining barrel down the side into a flat rectangle and then with the knife horizontal slice off the membranes. You now have a flat surface to cut any way you please, plus the top and bottom bits can be sliced too.

Hi, I got into a small argument yesterday while cooking at a friend's place. Perhaps Kenji or another viewer can jump in and clear this up for us: So I was cutting celery into small bits for a Bolognese and since I don't use expensive knives at my own home, I use the knife a lot to push around already chopped bits on the wooden cutting board or even use it to push the big finished pile from the board into a bowl. My friend's knife was also not super expensive (definitely less than the one Kenji is using in this video from the looks of it), but he asked me to use the back side of the blade for this, which I had never done before. Now, I can totally see why you wouldn't want to use the sharp edge of the knife to scoop around large piles of chopped vegetables and drag your blade over the whole board several times in the process. I think he was right to correct me on that and I see Kenji is also making a point in always using his green spatula thingy to move his stuff. But then my friend was also reprimanding me for those small wipes one does with the knife while one is cutting just to move some of the cut material out of the immediate way by just a few millimeters, like Kenji also does in this video at between 4:30 - 5:20 for example. In my opinion that's just how one uses a knife and flipping the blade every 5-10 cuts just for a small adjustment seems very impractical to me. In my opinion the damage a wooden board can do to a metal knife at any given time is limited. It simply builds up over time and I failed to see how these small 1cm wipes would seriously harm his knife. Of course I still tried to do as he asked, but muscle memory took over several times. So please, I need to know, can one blunt a knife significantly faster or even permanently damage it by using the sharp edge from time to time to do those small wipes and adjustments on a wooden cutting board or is my friend taking this idea too far? Would be very grateful for someone's assessment and opinion on this. :)

The sound of the fork scraping the dutch oven 💀

so impressive when Kenji just perfectly tiled the pieces of steak into the Dutch oven at 3:00

You gotta love how Shabu misses the food everytime and Jamòn calmly catches it. Rest in Peace Shabu.

Has to be one of the funniest episodes! Brilliant 👌🏻

Looks great! My family (cuban) has always boiled the flank steak for ~20min without browning it first and then peeled/shredded it by hand before incorporating the shreds into the sofrito. It then cooks in the sofrito and tomato sauce for maybe 20-30 minutes. I’ll have to try out your approach to see the difference in texture/flavor.

I appreciated the explanation on the stove/oven cooking comparison, thank you

I love ropa vieja. Dunno why I've never tried making it before, now I gotsta.

Wow. I’ve always shied away from simmering dishes in the oven since it feels like more work to switch cooking techniques mid-recipe. But the distinction between constant-heat and constant-temperature cooking just totally blew my mind. Never thought about it that way but such an obvious difference in hindsight. Catch me chucking my next long braise in the oven after searing.

So glad I found this channel. Science, cultural history, delicious food. Not much of a meat eater, but I'd eat this. A couple of times it seemed like the go pro on your head showed up in the video. Maybe a head lamp? Or have you got two means of filming overhead?

Love it…very clear your instructions.

i'm from mexico. My mother used to cook this but the sauce was made with tomatoes and chipotle peppers

About stews being better the next day. I think this often true, but for a totally different reason: many people undercook stews, so reheating and adding another 10-30minutes of cooking makes it better. The meat will be more tender and the sauce thicker. No idea if there is any truth to this, but I feel like this is often the case.

this looks awesome! I haven't had good Ropa Vieja since I lived in southern Florida. With some yellow rice and fried plantains!

Appreciated the subtle Goonies reference - just for that I'll have to try this!

Come for the tasty looking food, stay for the food science lessons 👌I'm so gonna try this sooner rather than later (probably with something a bit spicier than a poblano, but not too crazy). Sounds super tasty.

This is very similar to the carne michada that I use for Pabellon. My MIL who lived in Venezuela for many years swears by the use of Heinz 57 in the recipe. Also, I switched up using the traditional flank steak for chuck roast for it's more tender and meaty flavor. Either way I'm sure it's very similar to the Colombian Carne Desmichada

Some stews/curries definitely develop a more intense flavour e,g. Kerala red fish curry - if you forget to take the souring agent out (a fermented? Dried fruit labelled fish puli in my house) after a night or two in the fridge it becomes inedibly sour

I find Chili specifically tastes amazing the next day. Really takes some time for all the spices to come to full flavor.

After mentioning it so much with regard to the stages of meat breakdown, we finally get to see Kenji make Ropa Vieja! I might be a bit too excited

definitely need an arepa video

I dont know about the next day.... But time does influence flavor. Still remember making greek food for a lot of people for the first time. And without thinking, I prepared the Yoghurt-garlic-sauce the day before. I put enough raw garlic for it to be tasty while making it. The next day I had to throw away a gallon of sauce. Forget about the taste...the shit was so spicy, you physically could NOT eat it.

My mom's recipe is from her grandmother who lived in Cuba, we sear the steak first before starting to cook too 👍

Love the oven option. BTW - the posted recipe is different from video.

The second day phenomenon was explained by Alton Brown as a byproduct of rendered fat's melting point changing. So if you cook a big piece of braised meat you eat it fresh and hot out of the pot but upon reheating it you don't hit the melting point changing the texture of the meat. Could be wrong but that always made sense to me.

Those forks scraping when Kenji shredded the steaks was the most painful 45 seconds.. and I wanted to skip it.. but also wanted to hear what Kenji was saying... so I toughed it out but I can literally still feel that sound in my teeth. 😱😱😱

Interesting point about whether foods taste better the next day. Ive often thought about this being the cook my house. When you cook all day you know the benefit of giving yourself some space from the food to be able to appreciate and even assess it, so that makes a lot of sense. Also, as a cuban american, as others noted def adobo and bay leaf (though the adobo is prob a more recent thing, cheaper easy flavor enhancers like bullion are no doubt more modern innovation) and my grandma was def more on the spanish side of cuban cooking, adding raisins, olives and escabeche (of bell peppers) to these sorts of dishes

oh my god, kenji doing my favorite childhood meal, a great surprise!

need a note in the description about which knife is being used. always impressed by your cool kitchen knifes

on bell peppers, you can actually see where the ribs are from the outside. Usually you get either 3 or 4 folds running down the length of the pepper. If you cut from fold to fold, you'll miss the ribs so you don't have to cut them out at the end.

there's a spanish plate also named ropa vieja, but it's fairly different, it mostly uses the leftovers of cocido and decent meat scraps you have around the kitchen along with some vegetables to make a kitchen sink stir fry, humble but filling (and heavy) food

castelvetrano is the only olive I can stand, it's incredibly mild & easy to snack, the way I imagined olives would taste before experiencing the salty, unpleasantly acidic reality

Funny enough, "Roupa Velha" or "Farrapo Velho" (Old Clothing/Old Rag, respectively), here in Portugal, is done with Cod, typically leftover from the day before, shredded and mixed into boiled potatoes, onions and smeared with olive oil. I had no idea the same dish name was used for meat in other parts of the world.

Tuna salad tastes better the next day. I'll usually make it a day in advance if I'm planning on having it. I think it soaks in/dries out a bit in the fridge so that even the texture is better.

Posted right as my break at work starts, perfect :D

Nice dish. It also looks pretty common for any Mediterranean country.

Excellent and easy recipe! ✨ Just thot about this… I think Filipino Caldereta is most similar to Ropa Vieja… cuz peppers and olives. Makes sense… as it’s also Spanish roots.

Man. I just made shredded beef this past weekend and was looking for something like this from you. Let’s see what I could’ve done better!

Food is the most beautiful form of art