Mexican Roast Beef with Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce

There are so many wonderful Mexican recipes – too bad we can’t serve them all for Cinco de Mayo. Can you imagine what a spread that would be? Endless tables of yummy, spicy foods. I know Hubby and Kiddo would be in dining heaven!

As always, thoughts of celebrating the 5th of May bring on a desire to cook up as many Mexican dishes as possible. We’ve got the tried and true favorites in our future – tacos and enchilada. Mexican cooking is more than just tacos and enchiladas – just as Italian is more than Spaghetti and American is more than hamburgers. This spicy, delicious roast with a rich, spicy sour cream sauce is just one example.

While mixing up the Chipotle Peppers and onions in the food processor, I gave the mixture a little taste to see if I needed to add anything to the original recipe. Holy Moly – that’s some hot stuff!!! Glad I didn’t follow my original instinct and throw a few roasted jalapeno peppers into the mix. It’s always a good idea  to taste first (especially when dealing with spicy foods for the first time), add later. The sauce reminded me of a dish we had in New Mexico a few years back. It was absolutely brain-frying hot – served with Sopaipillas (puffy fried dough) and plenty of honey to offset the heat. (We shall see – I might just be putting a little honey on the table to dip our tortillas into).

Can you tell – I’m blogging as I cook – so we’re experiencing this together. Isn’t that fun?

Dinner is complete – time for the reviews. This dish took a little longer to cook than anticipated – my roast took about two hours to reach rare. I chose rare because I was concerned about the Chuck Roast drying out or cooking up too tough to enjoy. By rubbing the roast with salt, followed by the Chipotle Sauce; the salt drew the spice of the Chipotle Sauce deep into the meat. It was spicy – no doubt about it. And beyond delicious. My guys (my biggest fans and harshest critics) could not rave enough – throughout dinner I heard a multitude of “oh my God, this is good!” And that it was. While we skipped the honey, the drinks certainly flowed.

Mexican Roast Beef with Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce
4 lbs Rump or Chuck Roast
6 Garlic Cloves, peeled and silvered
Hickory Smoked Sea Salt, to taste
1 Can (7 oz) Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
1 Onion, cut into large chunks
1 Cup Sour Cream
8 Flour Tortillas

Note: Hickory Smoked Sea Salt can be found at specialty markets such as World Market. They have a wonderful collection of salts and spices galore.

Make 1-inch-deep cuts with tip of a sharp knife over entire beef roast. Push garlic slivers into cuts as far as possible. Rub meat with salt. Set aside.

Remove stems from peppers. Place peppers and onion in a food processor fitted with a blade. Process until smooth. Spread half of the pepper mixture over beef. Cover roast and let rest at least an hour. Cover and refrigerate remaining pepper mixture.

Preheat oven to 325-degrees.

Place beef, fat side up, on rack in a shallow roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer so tip is in center of thickest part of beef and does not touch fat. Roast meat to 5-degrees below desired doneness, about 1 ½-2 hours or 25-30 minutes per pound for medium. About half-way through the roasting time, add some water to the bottom of the pan to keep the meat from drying out.

Remove roast from oven, tent to keep warm and let rest 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Mix remaining pepper mixture with sour cream. Heat over medium heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Slice roast beef and serve with Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce.

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Suggested Sides:

Mexican Salsa Rice

Super Easy Refried Beans Two Ways