The name means stewed meat. Beef is the usual choice, cut into cubes and simmered with onion, chiles, cumin and sometimes tomato until the meat breaks down into its own gravy. Many cooks thicken the sauce with a little flour to save time. It is most often wrapped in a flour tortilla as a taco, or served with rice and beans.
Spanish-language newspapers in San Antonio printed carne guisada recipes in the 1920s. By the late 1960s and 1970s, South Texas restaurant ads listed it, sometimes glossed in English as beef tips. Texas Monthly described tacos de carne guisada in 1977 and smothered beef tips in 1978.
Food writer Lisa Fain, who wrote Homesick Texan, compares the two pots directly. Both start with beef, onion and chiles and simmer for hours. Her carne guisada leans on bright green chiles and may include tomato, while her chili uses smoky red chiles and never tomato.