Carne en Polvo is a must for our famous Colombian bandeja paisa. This beef dish can be made with flank or skirt steak that’s cooked and processed until it has a powder consistency. It's also delicious served with scrambled egg, plain white rice or this rice and vegetable soup.
Colombian- Style Powdered Beef (Carne en Polvo)
Ingredients
- 1 pound flank steak or skirt steak
- 5 cups water
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 Scallions chopped
- ½ cup chopped onion
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Place the flank steak in a plastic bag and add the garlic, scallions, onion cumin, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for about to 2 hours.
- In a medium pot, place the flank steak and water and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the beef for about 1 hour or until the beef is cooked.
- Remove the beef from the water and set aside to let it cool. You can save the water used to cook the beef to make soup or just as a beef stock for other dishes.
- Cut the beef into chunks and place in a food processor. Process until the beef is of a powdered consistency as indicated in the picture.
Notes
Nutrition
Carne en Polvo is also known as carne molida in Colombia. This dish is a staple in the Andean region of Colombia. It is a bit bland if you it eat alone, but it is great as part of the “Bandeja Paisa” or on top of this Colombian rice and vegetable soup. My grandmother some times would mix it with hogao and serve it over white rice which was delicious too.
Carne en Polvo (Powdered beef) was one of my favorite foods growing up because I didn’t like to chew meat. My mom found that serving beef this way was the best way to get me to eat it. She used a molino to grind the meat, but I don't have one here in the United States, so I use a food processor to make mine.
Other beef recipes that you may like:
Carne Desmechada (Shredded Beef)
Bistec a la Criolla (Steak with Creole Sauce)
rebecca subbiah
good for babies love your use of cumin in food
velva
Your home must always smell delicious! I think the comment left by Rebecca was very true. This recipe would be a great way to serve beef to young children.
velva
Erica- would you be interested in doing a blog post as a guest on my site? You could write about anything that you would like about Columbian food and/or culture.
I love your web site and the recipes! If you are interested you can send me an email at fvknapp@embarqmail.com.
Velva
Anonymous
Colombian food 😉
Anonymous
Hi Velva, just a small observation; when referring to the the South American country of Colombia, the demonym is, Colombian, not Columbian. Regards
Erica
Thank you Rebecca and Velva for your comments!
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie
Sounds like a great recipe to serve with rice or pasta. My daughter would definitely like it, she's getting better about chewing meat, but would prefer not to 🙂
Queen B
Oh my goodness, your blog is amazing !!
Rachel
Erica thanks so much for your great recipes! My husband is from Cali and I had been looking for some recipes in English to make him his kind of comfort food. :0) You should have seen his face when I told him about the bandeja paisa recipe.
We live in Madrid and I don't have a food processor here... Any other way I can get a similar result for Carne en Polvo without one?
Thank you.
Erica
Hi Rachel, Thank you so much for your nice comment! I am glad you like my blog 🙂 Actually, the best way to ground the meat is wit a "molino" It is a manual grinder we use in Colombia to ground the corn for arepas and the meat for carne en polvo, here in the USA I use a food processor. I have to check more to see if you can use something else.
Respondon
It looks delicious (and I do like it on a bandeja paisa) but flank steak is very expensive in the US to be treated that way. How would it work with a cheaper cut?
Erica
Hi Respondon- I always use flank steak for this recipe, but I am going to try a different cut next time and let you know.
Thank you for your comments.
Jamie
Hi. I like to use cube steak. The same for stews. This works very well too !
Amy
Erica, thanks for sharing this recipe.
To help with others' questions, we lived in Bogota, Colombia for 4 years and our maid always made this dish with ground beef (carne molida). We loved it.
OLGA
Hola Erica:
I am from Bogota andhave lived in Canada (Toronto area) for 39 years. I came to Canada with no knowledge in cooking, we always had maids. I learned to cook here and therefore my food was American/ Canadian ( Roast beef, Shepperd Pie etc.) I tried at the time but was very difficult to find the ingredients. In the last years more people from South American have inmigrated to Canada so it's easier to find the ingredients. probably not as much as in US. I found your website going to google and looking for "pandeyucas". I am delighted to find all these recipes and even though you are from a different region - Antioquia- Colombian food is Colombian food and delicious no matter where from. Thank you so much for bringing a little piece of our "tierra" to people like me.
melissa
Hi erica i am wondering what other type of meat could be used to make the carne en polvo.
Erica
Melissa-Skirt Steak.
Jamie
Hi,
I like to use cube steak. The same for stews. This works very well also
Yesse
I know this was posted years ago but when you add to pot of boiling water, do you also add all that's in the bag (garlic scallions and onions) or just the plain meat. I'm planning on making this tonight.
Thanks you
Erica Dinho
No, just the meat.
Kristina
Came from Medellin 50 years ago as a child. Remember fondly the delicious carne en polvo that “Barbarita” our cook used to make for us, as well as many other amazing dishes from Antioquia. I have missed them terribly.
I wonder if a pressure cooker would work ?
Than you for the simple recipe. I can’t wait to make it.
Erica Dinho
Yes.
A real Colombian
Shorty what is this ? do you mean carne Molida?
are you really Colombian?
Erica Dinho
En Antioquia le decimos carne en polvo y carne molida.Yes I'm 100% Colombian!
Martha Cain Grady
Gracias por esas deliciosas recetas Colombianas, mi pregunta la carne molida lleva una salsa o queda jugosa después de molerla
Erica Dinho
Algunas personas la combinan con hogao.
Carlos Andres
Mi mamá nos hacía carne en polvo cuando hacía sopas (sopa de patacón, sopa de tortilla). La carne en polvo sabe deliciosa cuando uno la remoja en la sopa!
Claudia
Purely theoretical, but I wonder whether an immersion blender would work in the absence of the classic mill grinder or a food processor?
Claudia
Purely theoretical, but I wonder whether an immersion blender would work in the absence of the classic mill grinder or a food processor?
My siblings and I are very much missing our Colombian mother and abuelita this Christmas, as always. Yearning for tastes and smells of warm, happy times with them. Thank you for your recipes, Erica!