Slow Braised Beef Cheeks in Chipotle & Adobo Sauce

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This is the absolute perfect dish for those cold days when you want to fill the house with oven-love. The cheeks are meaty and require a gentle, slow cook and in this sauce, where the smoky chipotle peppers and adobo sauce elevate the stickiness of the meat, make the perfect combination. When cooked, the meat is moist, tender and falls apart at the hint of a fork, pile on top of fluffy mash or a kumara puree and the winter season is complete and worth celebrating.

 

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook time: 2.5 hrs

Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients

1kg beef cheeks
2 tbsp flour
Drizzle of “Hax Chilli, Herb & Garlic Oil OR Olive oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 x 100g tin La Morena Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
400g tin tomatoes
300ml Red Wine (I used *Madam Sass – Pinot Noir)
500ml Chicken Stock (the good stuff and GF if you prefer)
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160 (or turn your slow cooker on).

Take the cheeks, dry with kitchen paper and cut into 3 equal pieces. Dust in flour and season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle oil into a non-stick oven proof pan, when hot, seal the meat, in batches, on all sides. I did mine 3 at a time, because you don’t want to crowd the pan and boil the meat.

Once all the meat is done, using the same pan, add the onion, garlic and adobo sauce (remove the peppers from the tin and cook the sauce with the onions). Sauté gently until the onions are fragrant, soft and red.

Beef Cheeks in Chipotle & Adobo Sauce - Jax Hamilton

Return the meat to the pan make sure you scrape all the juices in with the meat.

Pour in the tomatoes, red wine (careful here as some may accidentally end up in your mouth), stock and peppers.

Cover and pop in the oven. Cook for 2.5 hours or until the meat is soft and the sauce is reduced and sticky. (You may need to remove the lid halfway through cooking time and give the meat a big stir)

JAX SAYS : This is a fabulous recipe to use a slow cooker or crockpot AND the perfect dish to freeze once cooked. It’s one of those self improving dishes that gets better the longer you leave it, although not eating it all at once is the hard part. Serve over fluffy garlic mash or kumara / cauliflower puree.