Cook Menudo

Menudo is a rich Mexican stew made with tripe, pig's feet and spices. It is eaten with bread rolls or rice to absorb the delicious, flavorful sauce. Learn how to cook menudo and enjoy this traditional dish during holidays and special occasions.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds tripe
  • 1 1/2 pounds pigs' feet (or for white menudo, calves' feet)
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 1 large can of hominy
  • 6 Pasilla peppers, seeded
  • 6 Guajillo peppers, seeded
  • 4 teaspoons powdered Mexican oregano
  • Salt

Steps

Getting the Ingredients Ready

  1. Prepare the tripe. Wash it in cool water and shake it dry. Place it onto the cutting board and remove the extra fat with a sharp knife. Once all the fat is trimmed, place it onto the cutting board and dice each piece of tripe into bite-sized chunks. Rinse the tripe with water and set it aside.
  2. Cut the pigs' feet. Rinse them in water, pat dry, then cut them in half.
    • To make white menudo, use calves' feet instead.
  3. Peel and chop the garlic. Remove all the layers of skin from the garlic cloves. Place the cloves onto the cutting board and cut each piece in half. Place these aside.
  4. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the skin off the onion as well as the tough outer layer of the onion. Place the onion on the cutting board and slice the onion into bite size chunks. Set these aside.
  5. Cook the peppers. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place the seeded peppers in the boiling water, along with two garlic cloves. When the peppers are soft, remove the pot from heat.
  6. Blend the pepper water. Pour the peppers, garlic and water into a blender and process until smooth.

Cooking the Meat

  1. Boil the tripe and pigs' feet. Place them in a large stockpot and top it with {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of water and the remaining garlic. Bring the water to a boil. Skim the foam from the top of the water as the ingredients cook.
  2. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and keep cooking the meat until it's tender, about 3 hours.
  3. Add the pepper mixture. Strain the excess water from the pepper mixture. Add the strained peppers to the stockpot.

Finishing the Menudo

  1. Add the salt. Taste the menudo and add the salt. Taste again after 15 minutes to see if it needs more salt, and add more as necessary.
  2. Stir in the hominy. Just before you're ready to serve the menudo, pour the can of hominy into the stew and stir well.
  3. Serve the menudo. Menudo is traditionally served with powdered oregano, fresh chopped onion, and bread rolls.[1]
  4. Finished.

Tips

  • To give the menudo even more flavor, serve it with cilantro, onions and lemon with tortillas on the side.
  • When tasting the menudo, make sure it has cooked at least 2 hours before you taste it. This will give the ingredients time to flavor the water and will give the meat inside the menudo time to cook.
  • Have the butcher cut the pigs feet in half if they aren't pre-cut and packaged.
  • Calves feet tend to give menudo a thicker consistency and richer flavor.
  • Use yellow hominy which tends to have more flavor than white hominy.
  • A great addition are chiletepines or chiltepines (tiny, round, red chiles found in the mountains of Sonora in great abundance, and now farmed for the consuming public) or take habaneros and put them in a blender with water, salt to taste and make a thick soupy paste as a salsa to add with a teaspoon to menudo or any other soup you want to spice up.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.moms-mexican-recipes.com/menudo-recipe.html

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