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Serious Eats

Help needed – Kenji’s carne asada sans tomatoes


Does anyone have a good substitute for chipotles in adobo that doesn't have tomatoes in it that would work with Kenji's Best Ever Carne Asada (it IS the best ever!) recipe? I want to make that next weekend for friends, but one of them can't have tomato and there's tomato paste in all the canned chipotles in adobo sauce I've found. Any suggestions? I'm willing to make something and have access to a spice grinder, grocery stores, a Pezney's not too far away and anything Amazon sells that'll get here before Friday. I already have a wide variety of dried chiles at home, so could use those.

For the uninitiated with this recipe – it is OUTSTANDING. I have made it multiple times and it gets scarfed up by everyone and the salsa/marinade that goes with it is amazing on it's own. I've done it with skirt, flank and bavette steak so far, with bavette being the winner in terms of taste/texture (but you can't go wrong with any of them). I've been using meat from my local wagyu farm (best results) but it's been good with steak from whole foods/other local butchers, too. Definitely worth the effort. Double the salsa recipe so you can make the carne asada again immediately or eat the salsa with chips/everything else.

by Brak_attak

4 Comments

  1. User5281

    I would get dried chipotles and rehydrate and process them with the anchos and guajillos.

    Adobo is basically ketchup, onion and a little extra vinegar so you may need a touch more sugar and vinegar to balance things.

    If you can’t find dried chipotles you could add more anchos, they’re pretty similar but not as spicy or you could add some smoked paprika – hot or mild to your preference.

  2. bearchunk

    I think some tomato is traditional in Mexican adobo. You could make your own adobo and just exclude the tomato paste. Or you could rehydrate and then blend the dried chipotles with a little stock and vinegar, that would prob be pretty close.

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