Make your weeknight dinner easy by making this delicious Bistec Encebollado. A Puerto Rican style cubed steak with onions simmered in a broth with a lot of flavor!
The Bistec Encebollado is one of the staple Puerto Rican recipes made every day for lunch or dinner.
I remember how my grandma made it. She will mash garlic in a pilon to add to the steak while marinating. Then it will be served over an easy white rice and a vegetable salad on the side.
Now that I make the steak and onions I have learned a few tricks on how to tenderize it faster. I make it and serve it over rice, like my rice with bacon or vegetable rice. Always served with a second side, a few crispy fried plantains.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This is a recipe that doesn’t involve too many steps. It is as simple as cutting, seasoning, and cooking the meat.
- This is a recipe that we can tenderize without the need to marinate it in vinegar overnight.
Recipe Ingredients
- Meat- When making bistec, the meat that is used is the cubed steak. The thinner you can get your meat the better. This is because it will be easier to tenderize. But you can also use minute steak you just need to cook it for half the time.
- Baking soda & water- Now this is the trick to tenderize the meat without the need of marinating the meat overnight. It only takes 10 minutes to tenderize!
- Adobo- I use only a little bit of adobo because the vinegar helps to add flavor. No need to overdue it with the seasonings because the adobo is already a combination of different spices.
- Oil- The oil is used to get a good sear on the meat. This helps to add flavor to all the broth that the meat cooks in. But if you want to avoid adding oil, you can always use a cooking spray.
- Garlic paste- Garlic is essential to this recipe. But I believe that using fresh garlic paste is better if you have fresh garlic. I feel it tastes better than the pre-minced stuff.
- Onion- I always add a yellow onion but this is just a preference. You can use white or red onions. Sometimes I also add peppers to it.
- Vinegar- White vinegar is commonly used in this recipe. Depending on who is making this will be the cuantity that is used. If you like a strong vinegar flavor you add more if not just add less.
How to Make Biftec Encebollado
- Photo 1: The most important part of making bistec is to get it tender. I do this by submerging the meat in water with baking soda. Just take the meat and add it to a large bowl. Mix the baking soda with ½ cup of water and pour it over the meat. Let it tenderize for 10 minutes. Then we want to rinse off the baking soda. Wash the meat until you no longer feel it slimy and slippery.
- Photo 2: Peel and cut the onion. I like to slice it in half and cut it into ¼-inch thick strips. But in reality, this is all just a preference. You can cut the onion however you like. If you’re also adding peppers you can cut them now as well.
- Photo 3: Now we cut the meat. I like to cut it to about 1-inch thick pieces. Cut it against the grain. This helps to break up the muscle fibers and will be less chewier. Again this is also a preference because some people don’t cut it.
- Photo 4: Then we have to season the steak with the adobo. After this I almost always cook the meat, I hardly ever leave it marinating. But if you have time you can leave it marinating for a couple of hours or even overnight. But I really don’t feel that this is necessary.
- Photo 5: Now we cook the bistec. Take a large pan and set it over medium-high heat. Add the oil and let it get a little bit hot. Add the meat and sear it for 2 ½ minutes on each side.
- Photo 6: Then we add the garlic, onion, vinegar and water. Lower your heat to medium. Give it a good mix and cook for 25 minutes covered.
Recipe Tips
- While it may seem like a good idea to leave the meat longer in the baking soda to tenderize, it is not. If you leave the meat in too much time it will start to fall apart and the pieces left will become very gummy.
- This recipe is made so it can have a lot of caldito which is the sauce or broth so it can keep the meat moist and poured over rice. But if you don’t want to have as much, all you have to do is cook the meat uncovered.
Common Questions
This biftec encebollado sometimes is mistaken for bistec guisado. It is almost essentially the same recipe the only difference is that the bistec guisado also has sofrito, tomato sauce, and sazon to give the broth color and flavor.
The common vegetable used to make the bistec encebollado is onions and sometimes peppers. But you can add more vegetables to this if you like. Thinly sliced carrots are a good option because they absorb all the delicious flavor in the recipe.
More Beef Weeknight Dinners
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Puerto Rican Bistec Encebollado
Ingredients
To Tenderize
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Steak
- 1 pound bistec (cubed steak)
- 1 teaspoon adobo
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic paste
- ¼ cup water
- ¾ cup white vinegar *see notes
- 1 onion
Instructions
- Put the steak in a big bowl. Add the baking soda to ½ cup to water and mix. Pour the mix over the meat and let it tenderize for 10 minutes.
- Rinse the meat until the water runs clear and no longer feels slimy. Cut the cubed steak into strips of about 1 inch thick. Then season the meat.
- In a big pan over medium-high heat add your oil. Wait for the oil to get hot and then add the meat. Sear the meat for 5 minutes and make sure to flip it halfway through.
- Add the garlic paste, water, vinegar and onions. Cook for 25 minutes covered on medium heat. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Tenderizing- You don’t want to over do it when tenderizing the beef. If you leave the meat in the baking soda mix for a long time your meat can become gummy and mushy.
- When you add the baking soda the meat will have a different smell, thats totally fine. It can also change a little bit in color.
- Cutting- You don’t have to cut the cubed steak. This is just a preference and better for portioning for more people.
- Vinegar– I love the vinegar flavor in the meat so I add a good amount of it. If you’re not a fan of the vinegar just add ½ cup insted of the ¾ cups of vinegar.
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