Carne en Su Jugo Mexican Soup

Flavorful soups that make good use of the blender to do the chopping are the best! Additionally, you only have to buy tomatillos & cilantro at a minimum to make it since everything else is usually on-hand. This traditional Mexican soup has many variations, the name means 'meat in its juices’.

Ingredients
Cooking oil
1-1.5 lbs steak or stew meat cut into chunks
Salt & pepper
Garlic powder
Cumin
Mexican or regular oregano
1-1.5 lbs poached tomatillos (apx. 10-20 depending on size)
.5 cup cilantro leaves
.5 cup onion 
2 cloves garlic sliced
1 dried cayenne pepper chopped,  2 serrano peppers or equivalent
2 bay leaves
4 cups broth
2 cups cooked pinto beans 

Serve With: cilantro, radish, lime, avocado, green onions, tortilla chips, rice

Instructions
Peel & poach tomatillos. Heat a heavy bottomed soup pot for searing. Assemble & prep the ingredients. Chop the beef. Season the beef chunks with one tsp. ea of the spices listed. Sear good and brown on all sides. While beef is searing, in the blender, combine the tomatillos, cilantro, onion, garlic, hot pepper, bay leaves, 2 cups broth, and 1 tsp ea salt and pepper. Blend on high until smooth. Add the sauce to the beef plus 2 cups of broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Check the seasoning. Cover and cook for 1 hour or until beef is tender. Enjoy!

Tips
Better than Bouillon jars are great to have on hand for making broth.Whole dry peppers keep well and can be pre chopped before cooking (the chopping attachment on an immersion blender is great for this task, also good for garlic).And old fashioned pressure cooker gets dry beans done while the meat simmers.