Recipe · Main course · North coast, Lima and criolla cooking
Beef seco with coriander
Beef slow-cooked in a green sauce of coriander and ají amarillo, with dark beer, served with rice and beans.
- Serves 4
- About 2 hr 30 min (estimate)
- Intermediate
A meat stew in a green sauce of coriander and yellow chilli, served with rice and beans: seco is a classic of the north and of Lima. Its most famous version is made with kid goat, seco de cabrito; this recipe offers an adaptation with beef, which in Peru is called seco de res or seco de carne.
Seco de cabrito, the model
According to Wikipedia, cabrito a la norteña, or seco de cabrito, is eaten on the north coast, from La Libertad to the Ecuadorian border: milk-fed kid marinated in chicha de jora, slow-cooked with coriander, ají amarillo and loche squash, served with cassava, salsa criolla, white rice and beans. PROMPERÚ lists it among the typical dishes of the north, where kid goats are raised. In Lima, the menu at Panchita offers a seco with asado de tira, with beans, rice and cassava.
What beef changes
Beef needs longer slow-cooking than milk-fed kid, and a cut rich in collagen (chuck, cheek, short ribs) to stay tender. Chicha de jora, hard to find in Switzerland, is replaced by dark beer and a little vinegar. So it is neither a seco de cabrito nor an exact recipe from the north: it is a family adaptation.
Our version
Keep the meat just covered while it simmers, then let it reduce at the end: the amount of liquid depends on the casserole and the cut.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Estimated preparation time
- Active time
- 35 minutes
- Cooking
- 1 hr 45 min to 2 hours of simmering
- Total
- About 2 hr 30 min
Techniques: Simmering, Blended sauce.
The seco
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- A cast-iron casserole with a lid
- A blender
- A cooking thermometer
Method
- Dry the pieces of beef, season with salt and pepper. Brown them in the casserole with the oil, over a high heat, in two or three batches, 3 minutes per side. Set aside.
- Blend the coriander with 150 ml of stock until you have a smooth green purée.
- Lower the heat, fry the onion for 8 minutes in the fat from the meat, then the garlic, ají amarillo and cumin for 2 minutes.
- Add the coriander purée and cook it for 5 minutes, stirring: it darkens, thickens and loses its raw herb taste. This is the base of the seco.
- Return the meat and its juices, pour in the beer and the vinegar, then stock just to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over a very low heat for 1 hr 30 min.
- Check from time to time: the meat should stay just covered. Add a little stock if the sauce reduces too much.
- Add the carrots and continue for 20 minutes uncovered, so that the sauce reduces. Add the peas for the last 5 minutes.
- The meat is ready when it falls apart with a fork. The sauce should coat the spoon: if it is too thin, let it reduce uncovered; too thick, add a little stock. Adjust the seasoning.
- Serve with the rice, the beans, some cassava and a salsa criolla.
Signs of success
- The sauce is dark green, almost khaki, glossy, and smells of cooked coriander and chilli.
- The beef can be cut with a spoon, without being stringy.
- The carrots are tender but whole, the peas still green.
Precautions
- Beef: at least 70 °C at the core, comfortably reached by simmering for this long.
Allergens identified
No major allergen in the list of ingredients. Possible: gluten (dark beer), celery (depending on the stock used).
Read the label of the stock and the ají paste.
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- Seco de cabrito or cabrito a la norteña: milk-fed kid marinated in chicha de jora, slow-cooked with coriander, ají amarillo and loche squash, served with cassava, rice, beans and salsa criolla; in Piura, with a tamal.
- Seco de cordero: with lamb, a variant mentioned by Wikipedia.
- Seco limeño with asado de tira: with short ribs, as on the menu at Panchita.
Reasonable substitutions
- Chicha de jora impossible to find: dark beer and vinegar recreate its acidity and malty note; it is an adaptation, not the same fermented drink.
- Alcohol-free: replace the beer with stock and an extra spoonful of vinegar.
Storage
- Seco reheats well: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen; reheat it to at least 70 °C.
Going further
Sources and dates
3 sources
Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.
Figures and rules cited
- in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen: Cooling and keeping cooked leftovers (United Kingdom) . The same source asks you to thaw food in the fridge and to eat thawed food within 24 hours.
Official source: GOV.UK (Food Standards Agency), cooling, freezing and defrosting food safely (18 December 2017) (new tab) , published on 18 December 2017 · consulted on 3 October 2026 - to at least 70 °C: Reheating a dish that is already cooked (Switzerland)
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - at least 70 °C at the core: Minimum core temperature for meat, poultry, fish and seafood (general Swiss guideline) (Switzerland) . A food safety guideline, not a culinary doneness criterion: some meats are served more cooked.
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene: four basic rules, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026
Sources consulted
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Cabrito a la norteña (seco de cabrito: chicha de jora, coriander, ají amarillo, loche; side dishes) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- PROMPERÚ, the cooking of the north coast (seco de cabrito) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Panchita, main menu (seco limeño with asado de tira, beans, rice and cassava) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.