Beef Pochero Recipe

Could there be anything more inviting than the aroma of some warm, meaty Beef Pochero greeting you at the dinner table? If you aren’t familiar with this dish, it is a perfect blend of chickpeas, bok choy, potatoes, chorizo, and of course, beef. To be honest, there’s a lot more components we add to this dish than mentioned. But the best part is that the taste never gets overwhelming. 

How does it taste like?

Our abundance of tomato sauce and fish sauce work perfectly well to create a balanced mix of semi-sweet and savory flavors. And because we also add a hefty amount of water to the stew, the taste doesn’t become too strong to sting our taste buds. Instead, you get a deliciously mild and comforting Filipino stew that also works as a viand. This would definitely work well with some freshly made rice. But it would also be great as a solo dish that’ll keep you warm on a chilly day. 

And the idea of putting all of these ingredients together to make our delectable stew is something you can essentially deduce from its name. Translating “Puchero” to Spanish will give you “stew pot,” which presents quite the self-explanatory description of our dish. But of course, you also can’t forget about the word that precedes this one. Other than its delightful taste, one distinct point of appeal our pochero has is the one of a kind soft texture of its beef. This only makes your dish all the more palatable and irresistible alongside our mix of fried bananas, potato and garbanzos. 

How to Cook Beef Pochero

Simply begin by heating up your oil in a pot. We’ll be using this to pre-cook some of our ingredients we’ll need for later. One of these ingredients is 2 large plantains or saba bananas. Make sure to slice them before you put these into your pot. And then fry them until they become golden brown. Then set these aside as we’ll need them later on. Now we’ll get our 3 pieces of chorizo that’s sliced thinly, and proceed to place this in the pot. Fry these for approximately 3 to 5 minutes. After that’s done, set them aside like we did with the saba.

Take 1 teaspoon of garlic, 1 medium-sized onion and 1 large tomato that are both diced. And then put them in your pot. We will sauté these, and then add our 2 lbs. of beef short ribs or cubed sirloin into the mix. 

After you let these cook for 5 minutes, proceed to put 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 small can of tomato sauce, and 2 tablespoons of whole peppercorn. Mix these thoroughly together, then pour 3 cups of water inside. Here comes the waiting part, as it is integral to let that beef get perfectly tender. We will let this simmer until the beef becomes soft, which should take about 35 minutes in a pressure cooker. 

Once your meat is tender, you can take out your fried chorizo and banana from earlier. Add these into your pot, alongside 1 medium-sized potato that is cubed, and 1 cup of garbanzos. Now let this simmer with your water for 7 minutes. Afterwards, we’ll be placing ½ medium cabbage that is quartered, as well as 1 bundle of long green beans inside. The latter should be equal to around 15 pieces. Once these are in, you can also let them simmer, but only for 5 minutes. 

For our last ingredient, we’ll be adding 1 bunch of pechay or bok choy to truly complete the dish. Turn your heat off, and put your cover on top. Wait for 5 minutes to let the pechay cook nicely. Then you can transfer this to your serving bowl of choice, and enjoy!

I definitely love having a good bowl of stew like Beef Pochero for lunch or dinner to serve as a comfortingly hearty dish! But sometimes, I could also be in the mood for other types of meat to have with it.

How did you like our Beef Pochero recipe? Feel free to share some of your thoughts below!