Slowly braised beef cheeks and cabbage make an incredibly flavorful filling for your next taco night. Add all the fixin's and don't forget the corn tortillas. You could make these as crunchy tacos, but I love the flavor and texture of soft corn tortillas for this recipe. **This is an older recipe, and I have updated the recipe instructions with Instant Pot directions. See Recipe Notes. Cooking time reflects Instant Pot directions and not Dutch Oven directions. It also does not include the overnight marinade.
12large dried peppers, your choice (I used 4 each of three kinds)
1Tablespooncumin
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1Tablespoondark cocoa powder
1Tablespoongrated piloncillo(or just use brown sugar)
2teaspoonsturmeric
1teaspooncinnamon
3clovesgarlic
1small sweet onion
¼cupvinegar(I used garlic-infused rice wine vinegar because it sounded good)
2cupschicken stock
a heavy pinch of kosher salt(you can add more later)
For the Cheeks
3-4poundsbeef cheeks
2Tablespoonsneutral oil
kosher salt, to taste
112 ozdark lager, such as Negro Modelo or Dos Equis Dark
½cabbage,shredded
Taco Fixin's
your favorite taco-sized tortillas(we used corn tortillas)
diced red onion
lime juice
Mexican sour cream(if you can find it)
cilantro
your favorite guacamole
Instructions
For the Marinade
De-stem all the chiles, get rid of most of the seeds and tear into pieces.
Add all the other marinade ingredients [em]except the tumeric[/em] into a medium sauce pan.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for ten minutes.
Pour the marinade into your blender. Make sure it is no more than half full. Puree until smooth. *Be careful when blending hot liquids. Cover the blender loosely with a towel rather than snapping the lid on. Start on low speed and then increase the speed until the marinade is smooth.
Pour into a bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water and stir to cool quickly.
For the Cheeks
Pat the cheeks dry. Score them all over in a criss-cross pattern to a depth of about 1/4".
Place the cheeks in a gallon-sized zip-top bag and pour over the cooled marinade.
Press out as much air as you can, and zip the bag closed.
Place in a container and marinate in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 225F.
Heat a large, oven-safe Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
While the pan is heating. Remove the cheeks from the marinade, scraping off as much marinade as you can.
Dry the cheeks off as well as you can--they'll brown better that way--and reserve the marinade. Sprinkle fairly liberally with kosher salt.
When the pan is hot, add the oil and then brown the cheeks on all sides.
Pour in the marinade and the beer and bring to a gentle boil.
Let boil for about 5 minutes, just to cook off some of the alcohol.
Cover the pan tightly and put it in the oven.
Go to bed or work or shopping or whatever, and let the tasty marinade, time and low temperature work their magic.
If you're using extra vegetables, such as my sullen cabbage, add them during the last hour or two of cooking.
With two forks (you'll really only need one--it'll be [em]that[/em] tender--shred the meat into as small a thread as you want. Or leave it in chunks. It will fall apart anyway.
Serve now, or better yet:
Let the meat cool in the cooking liquid--speed up the process by using an ice bath again. Or let sit at room temperature for about an hour, stirring occasionally to cool and then put in the freezer. Once the meat has cooled down significantly, refrigerate the whole shebang. Cooling and reheating is always a welcome step to a braise as these meals always taste better the next day.
Reheat over medium-low heat.
Once the meat is nice and hot, pour everything through a large strainer set over another pot. Press down on the solids.
If you used cabbage, go ahead and chop it up into bit-sized pieces.
Cover and reserve the meat.
Bring the strained cooking liquid to a boil and reduce by half, until somewhat thickened and a bit syrupy.
Reintroduce the meat and cabbage to the sauce and make sure it's nice and hot.
Assemble your tacos as you See Fit, and enjoy.
Notes
I made rice in chicken stock flavored with lime juice and then folded in a bunch of cilantro after the rice was done. Very tasty, but make what you like.You may also make the beef cheeks in your Instant Pot or other multi cooker. Simply brown the beef cheeks on the Saute setting, and add the reserved marinade and beer and bring to a boil, again on the Saute setting. Once the mixture is at a boil, lock on the lid and set to high pressure for 45 minutes. Allow natural pressure release for 15 minutes and then release the pressure manually. Continue with the recipe as written, reducing the marinade in the pot on Saute or using a pot on the stove.