Carne colorada {Achiote marinated meat}

Carne colorada is an achiote marinated meat dish. Carne colorada translates as reddish meat, this traditional Ecuadorian dish gets its name from the orangish red color that the meat absorbs from achiote or annatto seed. Carne colorada is a typical dish from the provinces of Carchi and Imbabura in the northern highland region in Ecuador. This Ecuadorian meat dish is made by marinating beef (or pork) in marinade made with achiote or annatto, beer (or chicha), garlic, onion, cumin and oregano.

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Carne colorada is another one of the typical Ecuadorian dishes that is served as a composed plate with a variety of traditional side dishes. The exact side dishes will vary based on the restaurant or the home cook who prepares it, but some of the most popular options include fried ripe plantains, boiled mote or hominy corn, llapingachos or potato patties, avocado slices, rice, yuca or cassava, boiled potatoes with cheese sauce, empanadas, salad, curtido sauce, tostado corn nuts, among others. Once you add all the sides to the dish it becomes a huge plate (sometimes served on 2 plates to accommodate all the side dishes). When preparing it a home, you can choose to omit some of the heavier side dishes and just include the ones that you prefer or that are made with ingredients that you have available. Personally I usually serve carne colorada with fried ripe plantains, avocado slices, a small salad and at least one of the starchy sides: rice, potatoes (boiled or made into llapingachos potato patties), hominy or yuca.

Side dish recipe options:
Recipe for fried ripe plantains
Recipe for mote or hominy corn 
Recipe for llapingachos potato patties
Recipe for onion curtido or Ecuadorian pickled red onions
Recipe for tostado corn nuts
Recipe for aji criollo hot sauce 

I posted this recipe a while ago and realized that it isn’t as authentic as it could be. It tastes fine, but is missing that intense achiote flavor. I also wanted to make sure that it had that characteristic bright red color that makes this Ecuadorian carne colorada so recognizable. If you are familiar with achiote or annatto then you know that its flavor is very subtle, it is used more coloring the food than for the flavor. However, for this particular dish of carne colorada, in addition to the color of the dish, you should be able to distinctly taste the earthiness of the achiote in the meat. For this updated version, I increased the amount of ground achiote that goes into the marinade, and I also made an achiote oil to cook the meat.

The other thing that I wanted to improve was the meat, carne colorada can be made with either beef or pork. When I asked around what was the preferred option, I got different answers, so really it’s up to you. In Ecuador, many meat dishes, beef in particular, are usually made with cuts of meat that require a long period of cooking in order to get tender. I’ve had this dish at restaurants where they cook it very quickly, and as a result the meat is very tough and overcooked, but not enough to get it tender. This is unfortunately something very common in Ecuador, people are used to eating meat well done, which works great for secos and stews where you have tougher cuts of meat that are cooked slowly until very tender, but can be so wrong for steaks and premium cuts of meat. For the beef variation, I wanted to try making this achiote marinated meat dish with both a stew type meat, and cook it slower until tender, as well as with a nicer steak cut – which I would cook just medium (or medium rare – adjust based on preference). The pork variation is easier and can be made using tenderloin, which shouldn’t take too long to cook and should be tender.

Step by step preparation photos for Ecuadorian carne colorada {Achiote marinated meat}