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Get ready for a "life-changing experience."

Welcome to The Pioneer Woman Cookbook Club! This month, we're featuring Rick Martínez, cook, podcast host, frequent contributor to The New York Times, and cookbook author of Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico. Ahead, Rick talks about his 20,000-mile culinary journey through Mexico, the deeply personal stories behind his favorite dishes, and offers up a carne asada recipe stuffed inside a cheesy quesadilla.

Cookbooks and recipes are often marketed with terms like "authentic" or "genuine" to describe cuisines from around the world. For chef Rick Martínez, that's the exact opposite of what he wants for his new cookbook, Mi Cocina.

"[These words] are what people use when they want to extract something—the truth, the real story, the universal flavor—from you, a single person forced to represent an entire country, an entire culture, an entire people," Rick writes in the cookbook's introduction. The moment he ditched those expectations, he found joy and freedom in cooking. Instead, he wants to look at food as a really good story, as a fusion of many different people, factors, places, countries, and preferences. A way to remember and a mode to create new memories and new stories.

"Your stories can be big or small, old or new," says Rick. He offers the example of cooking picadillo for his father recently. It's a very simple, homey ground beef dish that Rick strongly associates with memories of his late mother. She would make it at least once a week, and his dad would use the leftovers to make breakfast tacos the next morning. From his mother, Rick learned to rely on all his senses while cooking, not only taste. It's the sound of a crackling chicken in the oven that tells you when to turn the meat. It's the scent of toasting chilis, which can go from smelling like toasted nuts to burnt in 30 seconds.

The Austin, Texas native uses the term "taste memories" to describe the recipes in his book, which he gathered together from a 20,000-mile culinary journey through Mexico. "It was an important way to discover my family's origins," Rick says. "My grandparents came from Mexico in the early 20th century, and that's where everything stopped—or started depending on how you look at it—and I felt the need for a deeper understanding of where things come from. That was a big motivation for why I wrote the book."

Mi Cocina is a book filled with delicious Mexican recipes that are authentic to Rick, and it is a story of where he traveled, what he ate, and the people he met. Plus, how to make said delicious recipes. The book allows you to be a fellow culinary traveler, tasting plenty of desserts, seafood, and vegetarian recipes along the way.

While on his 568-day journey, Rick sought out the flavors he loves—fatty, spicy, and sweet, to be exact. When he sat down at a cook's table, he asked one critical question: "Out of everything you make, what do you like best?" You can find the dishes made with love (which always taste better) with this single question. Of course, that's a hard question, even for the author himself! Recently, he's enjoyed improvising on salsa with whatever he can find left over in his fridge.

Carne asada was an obvious choice to include in a cookbook that focuses on the major regions of Mexico. It's a dish cooked all over the country, and everyone has their own way of doing it, but it's "more of an art form" in the northern states, according to Rick, a bit like getting ribs from Memphis or BBQ from Texas. "When you make carne asada in Mexico, you always make more than you need because people are going to show up," he explains. "It's like a party magnet. People bring beer, more meat, or chorizo. They're not just there to eat, but to also participate in the grilling ritual." It becomes a communal block party where you bond with your neighbors and friends by sharing some incredible grilled foods.

Rick's carne asada is a must if you're looking to bring that perfect smokey smell to your next barbecue or you want to add a meaty addition to your weekly quesadilla night. Stuffing the marinated beef inside a tortilla with plenty of melted cheese is practically a "life-changing experience."

fresh lime juice (about 3 limes), plus more for grilling

fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges)

extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for grilling

Morton kosher salt, plus more for grilling 

medium white onion, thinly sliced

mixed cuts of beef, such as flanken-cut  short ribs, rib-eye, New York strip, skirt, and/or flank

fresh chorizo links (about 4) or your favorite sausage

large chiles jalapeños, left whole

tortillas de Maíz (corn tortillas)

quesillo, chihuahua, or monterey jack, shredded

Grilled tortillas (corn or flour), guacamole, salsa, chopped cilantro, refried beans and lime wedges, for serving

Ask your butcher to slice the steaks lengthwise into 1/3-inch-thick steaks. These thin cuts are typical in México and take to the marinade quicker and also cook faster on the grill. If you're grilling flanken short ribs, strip, or rib eye, cut into 2-inch-wide pieces. If you’re grilling flank or skirt, slice against the grain into 1/2-inch-thick strips.

Reprinted with permission from Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico by Rick Martínez, copyright © 2022. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photography by Ren Fuller © 2022