Hilachas

Hilachas is a popular Guatemalan recipe made of cooked and shredded beef that is simmered in a mildly spicy tomatillo-tomato sauce.

The name of this famous Guatemalan dish literally translates to “threads” or “rags” in English. The threads describes the appearance of the beef shredded into thin strips.

Having roots in colonial Spain, hilachas de res is very similar to ropa vieja, though it uses chiles (which translates to old clothes in English), another  traditional beef dish popular in both Cuba and the Canary Islands. Hilachas can be found in numerous versions throughout Latin America.