Marinade Marries Sous Vide - Beef Fajitas

[Troutman]

Since everyone in our household either works or goes to school during the week, we try to plan meals and do big cooks over the weekend. Anyway, being Texans we have TexMex food as part of our DNA so beef fajitas is always on the menu. Typically I like to buy inside skirt for fajitas because of the amount of fat content and the beefy flavor. Unfortunately, as most of you know, its like eating rubber bands if not marinated. I like my marinades full of a lot of citrus as the acid provides breakdown and the flavor profiles give the meat a citrusey sweetness. I've had good luck with;

1 1/2 cups of fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tbls of Worcestershire
2 tbls of light soy sauce
1 small onion chopped
2 scallions chopped
2 pickled jalapeno peppers chopped
1 tbls fresh cracked black pepper

....added to a plastic bag for about 6-8 pounds of meat. Let it sit in the fridge overnight. Prior to the marinade I dry brined the meat for about 6 hours with Kosher salt.

This is what I normally do. Most of the time I get good results but still run into a certain degree of toughness after the cook. So I'm thinking being new to sous vide I'd set up a water bath and SV the meat after the marinade to add to the tenderness factor. I turned to Kenji to see what he recommended only to find out he likes fajitas done the traditional way (go figure). So reading further one recommendation was to NOT cook too long because it changes the texture of the meat. Found this to be true in top round so I chose a 5 hour bath after the 24 hours marinade. Went ahead and ice bathed them after the hot bath and stuck them in the fridg bagged up ready for the week ahead.

Well it's Wednesday and the Astros are going to play LA in Game 7 of the WS so needed a quick meal. Perfect time for some tacos, so out comes the prepared skirt meat. Here's the result of that long massage;



....were certainly very moist and compliant, so far so good. Added the appropriate seasoning and fired up the gasser for a 10 minute sear.....




.....sliced and ready for the troops to help themselves........




....meat had great tenderness (more so then just marinaded alone), good moisture and collagen formation and great beefy flavor. The only thing I might add to the formula is to go a bit longer on the bath, perhaps 7-8 hours next time. I'd like just a bit more tenderness from the SV.

OK forget about cooking, it's time for the first pitch and the building of my own ASTROS CELEBRATORY TACOS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





ASTROS WIN !!!! ASTROS WIN !!!! TROUTMAN OUT

[HouseHomey]

You sir! That's outstanding. Will you please tell me how thick those were? That's a lot of weight for three pieces.

[Troutman]

About 5-6 lbs of pre-cooked weight, about 1/2" thick but they taper off at the ends to paper thin.

[FlaBouy]

Damn... I think I am gonna make a run at sliced flank using this... BTW...What's an Astro?

[Troutman]

Flank works really well as well. I just prefer skirt or flap for fajitas. An Astro is a strange character who is most synonymous with the words VICTORY, GREATNESS AND CHAMPIONS. Put that in your pipe and smoke it !!!

[Potkettleblack]

I don't understand the "don't cook too long" concept with something like inside skirt because the whole idea is that you are TRYING to improve the texture. 8 hours for those badboys. Shock and fridge, dry, sear blazing hot to reheat, maybe 2 minutes a side. You want those crispy edges where they get really thin... that's part of the appeal.

[Troutman]

No argument here, this was my first SV run with skirt. I've just had long baths with top round get a spongy texture. I want tenderness not necessarily textural change, if that makes sense. I do think next time 8 hours would be about right.

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[RonB]

In order to cut down on red meat, (my wife's idea... ), we normally make chicken fajitas, but these look great.