Flank Steak in Adobo

One thing I've learned after cooking hundreds of recipes is that I end up liking about 99% of them. The handful that don't make the cut are usually because I forgot an ingredient, made a substitution that didn't work, or somehow managed to outsmart the recipe.

So when I pulled out a recipe from Cook's Country, I was pretty confident this one was going to be a winner.

Unfortunately...it wasn't.

The hardest part is figuring out exactly why.

My biggest complaint was the sauce. The recipe starts by steeping dried chiles in hot water before blending them with the rest of the ingredients. Almost every other recipe I've made using dried chiles has one extra step: strain the blended chilis. That removes all the little bits of chile skin and leaves you with a silky, smooth sauce.

This recipe skipped that step, and I think it made a difference. The finished sauce was full of tiny pieces of dried chile, which gave it a gritty texture that just wasn't very appealing.

As for the flavor, it was...fine. It had the mild heat I expected and plenty of savory flavor, but nothing really stood out. It just never reached that "I can't wait to make this again" level.

One thing that did surprise me was the flank steak. I'd never used flank steak in a long, slow-cooked recipe before, but it actually held up well. It became tender and shredded easily, so I have no complaints there.

Not every recipe can be a home run, and this one just wasn't for me. I don't think it's a bad recipe—it simply didn't hit the mark for my taste buds.

Flank Steak in Adobo

Recipe from Cook's Country

Serves 4-6

• 1 ½ ounces dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 1 ounce dried pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
• ¾ c salsa verde
• ¾ c chicken broth
• ½ c orange juice
• ⅓ c packed brown sugar
• ¼ c lime juice (2 limes)
• 1 ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 ½—3; pounds flank steak, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• Salt and pepper
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T ground cumin
• 12 (8-inch) flour tortillas, warmed
• 4 ounces queso fresco, crumbled (1 cup)
• ½ c coarsely chopped fresh cilantro