My friend Courtney’s family owned business, People’s Choice Beef Jerky, makes an array of amazing beef jerky. A while back she gave me some of their machaca to try. Machaca is a flavorful, spicy, dried, shredded beef (or pork)…looks kind of like beef breadcrumbs. At the time I used it in some egg recipes that were so good. The flavor that machaca imparts on whatever it’s paired with is awesome, spicy goodness!
So, about a month ago I wanted more protein based snacks to grab & go and decided to place an order with them. I loved their machaca, so thought I’d include that in my order…along with their artisanal sea salt & pepper beef sticks…so good! Courtney had originally given me, what looked like, a medium sized package, so when I went to order I ordered two large, thinking that I could use it in a few different ways. What I didn’t realize was that I ordered 2 pounds of the delicious beef. She texted me later and said, “I can’t wait to see what you do with all that machaca!” Okay, time to be creative!
Weirdly, coincidentally, I realized a few months ago that I was allergic to eggs…which is just wrong! I used to have hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs…you name it…but things seemed to go awry when I ate them. Machaca is probably most known for pairing with eggs…for a yummy brunch dish…but that was not an option now.
As you probably know, I’m a big fan of anything on pizza and I happened to have some dough, mushrooms, caramelized onions, goat cheese and ricotta leftover from Pizza Monday, so decided to make a kind of pizza/flatbread with all the leftovers.
WOW….is all I can say! I texted Courtney a picture afterwards and the PC beef jerky family has since made their own version in their “test kitchen”. As Charles Caleb Colton said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!” and I was honored that they liked the idea.
As I said, I already had everything I needed, so the only thing I really had to do was saute the mushrooms, (I reconstituted the machaca in the leftover mushroom/olive oil left in the pan) and assemble everything. Here’s how it came out….(layered… machaca/mushrooms/onions/goat cheese/ricotta…with some TJ’s everything bagel seasoning sprinkled over the top)….
…and I made an appetizer on crostini later in the week using the same ingredients…with many compliments!
Next up, I think it would be so good to use it on any recipe as a substitute for panko breadcrumbs….barbecued machaca shrimp anyone? I’ll let you know how that goes.
Bon Appetit!
