Cuban food
Before I met my half-Cuban husband I had never tasted Cuban food. It just wasn’t a cuisine that we would easily find growing up in Ohio. When he talked about Aroz con Pollo or fried yucca and plantains I just had no idea what these foods were like.
I’ve definitely come to love Cuban food. Whenever we have a chance to visit an area with a great Cuban restaurant we will do anything necessary to arrange our schedule around eating Cuban food. One of our favorite Cuban restaurants is Cuba Libre in Philadelphia. We literally used to plan our anniversary getaways around eating at this restaurant!
Ropa Vieja
On one particular visit to Cuba Libre I ordered their Ropa Vieja. It was perfect! My husband and I sat there eating slowly and looking closely to see what the ingredients were in the hopes of replicating the deliciousness at home. Later we compared what we learned about the Cuba Libre version of Ropa Vieja with Josh’s family’s recipe. Several experiments lead to our own perfected recipe.
I’ll have to admit to you, this takes time to make! The first 7 hours of cooking are done in a slow cooker, but then there will be 1-2 hours of simmering, stirring, and gently brining the Ropa Vieja to the right flavor and consistency. Some of this process is tough to explain in a recipe, so use your own judgment when it comes to how much liquid to add at certain stages. My husband says the idea is to add liquid, summer to reduce, add liquid, and simmer to reduce again. In this recipe I might say “add a splash of wine” or “add a little more wine” and you can just decide how much you feel is right to add in those places.
Set the Mood for Cooking
When you make this, enjoy the process! More than a few times I’ve come home to a husband wearing a fedora and blaring Cuban jazz while cooking all sorts of Cuban delights in the kitchen (ladies, is that not just a dream come true?!). He fully enjoys the art of creating his signature dish, Ropa Vieja. Sort of a miracle he’s even letting me share the recipe!
Print 
Cuban Ropa Vieja
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe Scale
Ingredients
5 pounds beef roast (skirt steak is traditional, but we use beef chuck roast)
6 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
10 bay leaves, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning at the end
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning at the end
Dash of onion powder, plus more for seasoning at the end
1/4 teaspoon cumin, plus more for seasoning at the end
Bottle of red wine (we use Merlot)
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounce can tomato paste
1 can (14.5 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 small jar chopped pimentos
Instructions
- Place the beef roast in a slow cooker fat side up and add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 5 bay leaves, ground black pepper, salt, onion powder, cumin, and half the bottle of wine (reserve the second half of the wine for the end of the cooking process). Set your slow cooker to cook on low for 8 hours. When your beef roast has been cooking for 7 hours, move to step 2.
- In a large pot, sauté the onion and bell pepper in olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes.3. Add 2 minced garlic cloves and a splash of wine then sauté for a few more minutes on medium low.
- Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, pimentos, 5 bay leaves, a dash
of cumin, a dash of onion powder, a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, and a
little more wine and simmer for 10 minutes. - While the mixture simmers on the stove, remove the roast from the crock pot and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Move the crock pot containing the broth from the cooked roast close to the stove. You’ll need it as you finish the dish.
- Ladle half of the broth from the roast into the pot.
Simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, shred the meat with forks.7. Add the shredded meat to the pot along with the remaining broth from the slow cooker and simmer for 20 minutes to an hour (depending on how much time you have) uncovered to let the sauce continue to reduce. - Remove bay leaves and serve the ropa vieja with rice and Cuban jazz music.
We estimate this serves 10 people.
Recipe Card powered by
Jennifer Van Huss says
September 25, 2014 at 9:06 pmI have never had cuban food before either! That does look very good! I might just have to attempt to make this!
Karen @ From the GardenTable says
September 25, 2014 at 9:36 pmI have never had Cuban food either but I love to try new things! This looks like it is worth trying.
Annette Browning says
September 25, 2014 at 9:44 pmI LOVE cuban food! I've never had Ropa Vieja though and it looks amazing.
Elizabeth Copeland says
September 26, 2014 at 3:16 amHubby and I are big fans of Cuban food and love to spend our date night at the local Cuban restaurant. This looks like a great way to bring those flavours home.