Why It Works
- Beef shoulder (chuck) has more fat and connective tissue than flank (the traditional cut), so it stays juicy while still crisping up in the pan.
- Simmering the beef gently in salted water with bay leaves tenderizes it while concentrating its natural beefy flavor.
- Cooking the onions separately builds sweetness and depth in the dish without the risk of softening the beef’s crisp edges that comes with cooking the alliums and meat together.
- Frying the beef in small batches prevents crowding, allowing it to brown and crisp instead of steaming.
Vaca frita, or what I like to call ropa vieja’s crispy cousin, is proof that sometimes the simplest list of ingredients can unlock the deepest flavor and best texture. The name translates literally to “fried cow,” and the recipe is nearly as straightforward as that. Simmered beef, a mallet or something blunt to smash it with, a short marinade, and a quick sear in hot oil is all it takes to turn a humble cut into crunchy, juicy, tender shredded bites of beef.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
The Best Cut of Beef for Vaca Frita
Most vaca frita recipes tell you to reach for flank steak, a lean cut with long fibers that shreds relatively quickly. It’s traditional, and for good reason: Flank’s structure makes it easy to pull apart into uniform strands, and its mild flavor means it takes on marinades beautifully, sure to deliver a predictable, no-fuss vaca frita every time. But after chatting with the Cuban butcher at my grocery store—and double-checking with a few of my Cuban family members—I decided to try falda de res, which in most American supermarkets is sold as beef chuck roast or shoulder roast. The advice was unanimous: Sure, the flank will get tender sooner, but taking the extra time needed to simmer the shoulder cut will reward your patience with deeper flavor and a better balance of fat, moisture, and beefiness. And when you’re cooking a dish as simple as vaca frita, in which the beef is both the star and the stage, every ounce of flavor matters.
Simmer in Plain Water, Not Broth
That’s also why I simmer my beef in plain water with just a couple of bay leaves and a hit of salt, rather than in a rich broth. It might sound counterintuitive—you’d think broth equals more flavor—but here the logic flips. When you simmer beef, most of the flavor actually moves into the liquid, not the other way around. In a soup or stew, that’s exactly what you want, since the broth is the star. But for vaca frita, where the liquid doesn’t go into the final dish, why waste time? Using water keeps this recipe simple, allowing the beef flavor to shine through. The chuck slowly tenderizes in the cooking liquid, while its flavor concentrates. The result is meat that tastes purely of itself—clean, intensely beefy, and perfectly primed to soak up the garlicky lime marinade.
Smash It Up
Once the chuck is cooked through and falling-apart tender, I reach for my meat mallet. Smashing the meat before shredding it further with your hands or two forks is a faster, more efficient way to break the fibers into a mix of fine threads and bigger hunks. That combination of textures is crucial: The thin, stringy pieces crisp up in hot oil, while the thicker ones stay juicy, giving you the crunchy-tender contrast that defines great vaca frita. And if you don’t own a mallet, don’t overthink it—use a potato masher, the bottom of a skillet, or even your fist wrapped in a towel. Imperfection is part of this dish’s charm.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
The Post-Smash Marinade
The marinade is as simple as the cooking method. Five cloves of garlic are grated as finely as possible and stirred together with lime juice, cumin, salt, and pepper. That mixture infuses the warm beef with brightness and spice while you soften sliced onions in a skillet. Don’t be tempted to fry everything together. Cooking the onions separately from the beef lets you control textures more precisely. The onions become sweet and lightly caramelized, and the beef is fried in batches until it is golden brown and crisp.
The onions and beef come back together in the skillet at the end, just long enough to warm through and take on a final splash of lime. Paired with black beans and rice, vaca frita delivers a filling, weeknight-friendly meal with crisp edges, tender shreds, and a bright hit of citrus that keeps you reaching for the next bite.
My Family’s Crispy, Juicy Cuban Beef Is My Favorite Weeknight Meal
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2 pounds (907 g) beef chuck roast or shoulder roast (falda de res), cut into 4 pieces
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice from 1 lime, plus lime wedges for garnish
5 medium (25 g) garlic cloves, grated or finely minced
4 1/4 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt, divided; for table salt, use half as much by volume
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil, divided, plus more as needed
1 medium white onion (8 ounces; 227 g), halved and thinly sliced
Cuban black beans and rice recipe for serving, optional
In a large pot or Dutch oven, add beef, bay leaves, 1 tablespoon salt, and enough cold water to just cover the meat and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; simmer until beef is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
Use a spider skimmer or large slotted spoon to transfer meat to a large cutting board.(Reserve the beef broth to use in other recipes.) Let sit until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Use a meat mallet or potato masher to flatten beef and loosen its fibers, forming a mix of fine shreds and larger pieces (see notes). Remove any large stringy fibrous pieces and gristle and discard.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
In a large bowl, whisk to combine 1 tablespoon lime juice, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper, and cumin. Add shredded beef to bowl, toss to combine, and use hands to further shred into bite-size pieces; set aside.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cook until onion begins to soften and become translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer onion to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Do not wipe out skillet.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
In now-empty skillet, add remaining 3 tablespoons oil and heat over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches to prevent crowding the pan, spread beef in a thin, even layer. Cook uninterupted until bottom is crisped, 3 to 4 minutes, then us a spatula to flip beef, and continue cooking until beef is browned and crispy on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cooked beef to platter with onions. Repeat with remaining beef, adding 1 tablespoon oil if the pan is too dry.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
Return onions and beef to pan together and cook over medium heat, stirring to combine, until heated through, about 1 minute. Turn off heat and mix in remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice. Serve immediately with lime wedgesand black beans and rice, if desired.
Serious Eats / Lorena Masso
Special Equipment
Large pot or Dutch oven, spider skimmer or large slotted spoon, large skillet, meat mallet or potato masher
Notes
If you don’t have a mallet, you can tenderize the beef with any blunt object or shred it with your fingers or forks.
Make-Ahead and Storage
The beef can be simmered, shredded, and stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. To finish, follow the above directions starting with step 4, and add 1 to 2 minutes to the cook time for the beef in the skillet.
Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
