Northern Thai Style Grilled Beef, Dried Meat Recipe

Thai Fusion Grilled Cecina Beef, dried meat, is something I came up with after a trip to Mexico City where we tried cecina beef for the first time.  We modified the recipe, after My Thai wife, Mod, got home from Mexico City craving it again, and used dried Thai pepper for flavor.  My Thai wife loves her Northern Thai style dried meat but can't find it here in the USA so we had to figure out how to make it ourselves. Here is an approximation of what she got at home.

Thai Fusion Grilled Cecina Beef

Cecina just means dried meat, it comes from the Latin, seccina, "dry meat".  There are a lot of ways to dry meat.  In Thailand, they often dry it in the sun.  Mod figured this out at the grill and I have picked up the ball and run with it now.  It is really super simple the way we did it.

Northern Thai Dried Meat

It is probably not exactly like what she used to eat in northern Thailand but not too far off either.  You can get a similar flat, and thin piece of dried beef in Chiang Mai, but it will be water buffalo meat.  You will probably have to make, due with whatever you can easily get in your region.  Here in Texas, we have found it in Mexican caricerias.  If you are anywhere in the Americas, or other countries with a heavy Spanish influence, you will just google, Carnicerias near me.  When you find one just ask if they have Cecina.

The Thai Pepper Seasoning

As I have mentioned in many of my posts and recipes, we try for the most whole foods, non-processed style of cooking we can.  It not only makes it simpler, but there is also a lot of evidence that the less processed foods you consume the less total calories you tend to eat.    With that in mind, all we used were crushed, dried Thai peppers and a pinch of salt in our recipe.  For the crushed Thai peppers, we have a really popular post on how to prepare them, although you get the gist I think just from the description.   Mod calls it, Thai chili powder, she's the Thai lady so I guess that's what it is, here is her recipe.

Homemade Thai Chili Powder (พริกป่น)

Some Concerns Regarding Grilling

I just happened upon this video while writing this post and it has some great recommendations, I learned from the video.

• Clean your grill before grilling to get rid of any carcinogenic compounds.
• Pre-cook your meats if you need to so you don't have to cook at such high temperatures.
• Do not let your meat get to the charred point and if it does, when in doubt, through it out.
• Trim off any excess fat and try to find the leanest cuts of meat you can.

As always, we make our, "healthy Thai recipes" as healthy as we can and if you have any special dietary concerns we advise you seek professional advice.

The Recipe

Without further ado, here is the recipe.  Mod loves this stuff so much she had her mom send the Chaing Mai version to the US via mail and customs didn't allow it.  It is very packable for lunches and road trips or just for snacking.  We shared it with our neighbors and they loved it.  As always, you can adapt the recipe for spice level or level of dryness by adding or subtracting a little here and there.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 pounds thinly sliced meat of your choice.
• 1-4 tablespoons of Thai chili powder
• 1-2 Pinches of salt

Instructions:

1. Place the raw meat in a large bowl and thoroughly rub the Thai pepper powder and salt into the meat.
2.  Clean the grill and place aluminum foil on it to help minimize carcinogens present.
3.  Grill on low heat or low fire until the meat has reached your desired level of dryness, the lower the heat the safer you are from carcinogens.
4.  Serve hot with fresh Thai peppers for garnish or wrap in foil for later!

Printable Recipe Below!

If you like this recipe for the grill, you might also like one of these. 

Grilled Oysters with Thai Seafood Dipping Sauce

PF Chang’s Sesame Sauce Grilled Vegetables

Thai Style Spicy Lemongrass Grilled Chicken

Please share this recipe if you love it and comment and rate so we can continue to spread a healthier mindset across the globe. 🙂

Thai Chili Grilled Cecina Beef Pinterest Image