Banjo's Adobo Recipe for Carne Asada

Background
Adobo can either be a paste-like marinade, or a thinner sauce made with the same ingredients used to stew meats.

In making Banjo's Sous Vide Skirt Steak Carne Asada, I use the paste-like version, which is what will be shown below.

The dried chiles that make up this recipe, can be difficult to locate, so I'll post some links below where you can order them. I was able to find two (2) varieties at a local Whole Foods, so those are the two (2) that I show in this recipe.

Time
It took me about 1 hour to make this but it was the first time I ever made it, so I was slow. Hopefully, you'll be able to do it in 20 minutes!

Sauce Quantity
This will make enough sauce for 2 - 3 lbs of meat.

HEAT: Mild to Medium, maybe 4 on 1 - 10, with 1 being no heat and 10 being Habanero. A tad less heat than Texas Pete hot sauce, and a lot less heat than Tabasco sauce. I think it is comparable in flavor to Tabasco Chipotle sauce, but a little less spicy.


Dried Chile Peppers
3 New Mexico Chiles
3 Ancho Chiles

Other Ingredients
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp ground cumin
5 allspice berries
2 cloves
1 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick (or 2 tsp powdered)
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp black pepper

Steps
1. Remove stems and seeds from chiles.
1.1. Slice one side of all chiles open from stem to end.
1.2. Pull stem and all seeds out and discard.
2. For each chile, open chile out flat and place into medium heated iron skillet. Work with one chile at a time until all are done. Use wooden spoons or tongs to hold in contact with skillet. Try to keep flat. Toast fully on one side before flipping to other side. Starting with the inside heat in pan - it will turn a lighter brown. Heat all of this side this way. Take a peek now and then to make sure it's not over heating and burning or charring. Flip over to toast the outside face down. It will show bubbles on the inside face when it is about done. You will need to gather experience over time on this step so you can get an estimate of your preference - the flavor will change depending on the amount of toasting, just like toasted bread.
3. Once all chiles have been toasted, place chiles and all other ingredients into a blender.
4. Blend until smooth.

Your adobo is now ready to be placed onto meat for grilling!


Links
If you don't want to make your own, here's a link to a commercial product. I haven't tried it, so I can't speak for it's quality. This site also ships other spices such as dried chile peppers.
Dried Chile Peppers