I’m pretty confident in the kitchen, but my red meat cooking skills are pretty hit or miss. I can roast the hell out of a pork tenderloin and make a super awesome cast iron chicken, but red meat gives me trouble. This weekend, I had a hankering for steak tacos and decided to take a shot at making them myself. I’d heard skirt steak was pretty difficult to screw up, so I bought some grass-fed meat from my local grocer, threw together a quick marinade with ingredients I had laying around my house and cooked it up on the griddle pan. Wrapped in warm, slightly charred flour tortillas and topped with fresh slices of avocado and hot sauce, these steak tacos were, I’m not going to lie, THE JAM. Check out the recipe after the jump!
Source: Pixabay
Ingredients:
(Makes 3-4 big tacos)
- 3/4-1 lb. marinated skirt steak (see marinade ingredients below)
- Flour tortillas
- Avocado
- Cholula, Tapatio or whatever hot sauce you desire
Source: Jessica Gavin
For The Marinade:
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2-3 limes, juiced
- 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 2 pinches of cayenne
- 2 pinches of cumin
- 2 pinches of red pepper flakes
- 1 splash of whatever beer you have on hand
- 1 splash of Worchestshire sauce
- 2 splashes soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. olive or canola oil
- 2 pinches of salt
- 5 grinds of fresh pepper
Source: Pixabay
Preparation:
1. Mix all of the ingredients for the marinade in a shallow baking dish. I realize my measurements are not super exact, but this is a marinade, which is French for “meat bath” (no it’s not) and it’s really hard to fuck up, so don’t be afraid to just eyeball it. Add the skirt steak to the marinade, turn it a few times to evenly coat it, and then put the meat in the fridge for a few hours. Remove the meat and marinade from the fridge about 10 minutes before you’re going to cook it.
2. Heat a grill pant or skillet over high heat. You want to get the pan really hot because you want to get a good, crusty sear on the meat, but because it’s thin, it cooks fast. Once the grill is good and hot, lower the heat just a touch, take the steak from the marinade and put it in the pan, cooking each side for about 3-4 minutes for medium rare. While each side is cooking, don’t move it around too much. Just let it do its thing.
3. Remove the meat from the pan and set on a cutting board to rest for five minutes. DON’T YOU DARE CUT THAT MEAT BEFORE THE 5 MINUTES IS UP. I’m watching you. You will RUIN IT. The juices need time to evenly distribute throughout the meat. Cut the meat too early and the juices will spill out and what’s left will be dry and not as delicious.
Source: Shutterstock
4. While the meat is resting, slice up your avocado and heat your tortillas on the stove top over the open flame. (If you have an electric burner, heat your tortillas in the oven or the microwave I guess?)
5. Slice the meat ACROSS the grain (as opposed to WITH the grain) to preserve maximum juiciness. Dice into small chunks if you want.
6. Assemble your tacos to your desires (you can add cilantro, diced onions, sour cream or lettuce if you want, but I prefer them simple) — don’t forget the hot sauce! — and then CHOW THE HELL DOWN.
Original by Amelia McDonell-Parry
