I've eaten at a zillion taquerias in my life and most slice real thin and season with dry spices and a few fresh squeezes of citrus while on the flat top.
But I go to Mexican places so I'm not familiar with Tex-mex.
In all seriousness the photo you posted shows a piece of meat with a pretty big difference between the large end and the small end. Probably best to cut up the meat into pieces because they're going to cook at different rates.
I usually get my fire going as hot as possible, Cook the steak 90% on one side and then flip it over for a very short time. I I sacrifice a little crust on the bottom for a perfect crust on top. I can't find anything in his writing but I feel like that technique was taught by Kenji Alt. then like barefly i cut it into three small pieces and then cut against the grain on a diagonal. Even though I'm a little nervous that cutting it into three small pieces is only my need to get it to look like Chili's steak fajitas! so take that piece of advice with a grain of salt!
Cutting into smaller pieces is kinda essential for ease of use. 3-4 pieces from a full skirt. If you didn't cut it, you'd need a slicing knife that looked more like a short sword or a machete.
I've found that the key for me is to cut not just against the grain, but at an angle, like 45ish degrees off the vertical. Produces broader, flatter slices that chew easier. Getting a better cut of it is also kinda important, imho. I get really nice ones from Crowd Cow.
Adding a vote for sous vide for like 8 hours, then high heat blast... it's a cut that will take some flavor in the sous vide bag, due to it's structure, but I do them naked, then season, then sear at Warp 10, turning often.
I also find it's good to cut a full one down to about 8" before cooking, and then in half down to about 4" after cooking. Makes them more maneuverable on the grill and easier to get even heat on.
Last edited by Potkettleblack; August 7, 2020, 06:37 AM.
I only cut them if there is a difference in thickness from one end to the other. Cook the thicker ones a little longer. But there's lots of ways to get tasty fajitas.
Just don't cook them in a crock pot. My wife does that. It drives me bonkers.
Soy sauce and lime juice - not only do both add flavor, but the acid in the lime juice help break down connective tissue and the soy sauce has proteases that will tenderize the steak. I cut my skirts into 3 pieces and then marinate for several hours. Cook them over crazy hot coals until medium doneness.
Here’s a good read from Kenji at Serious Eats. His recipe for skirt steak is very good but I like Alton Browns marinade a little better.
Have you tried a different cut of meat? Flap meat comes to mind.
There's also flank steak. Too much meat for one dinner, so you'd probably cut it in half or thirds, and freeze the rest.
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Good idea. I didn’t know about an inside and outside skirt. I rarely buy any meat but chicken at Kroger. All my steaks are from Costco. Do you know if they sell skirt steak at Costco? I’ve never noticed, nor looked for it there.
The recipe for the first fajitas I cooked called for flat iron steak. Until then I had never heard of it. It called for a 4-6 hour marinate. They turned out pretty darned good, but northeast Wyoming is not exactly the epicenter of Mexican cuisine so I really didn't have anything to compare it with. For the second cook for some reason I had to leave it in the marinade (refrigerated) overnight. It was even better than the first. In later cooks when I couldn't find flat iron steak I used flank steak and sometimes skirt steak. I thought the flank steak to be slightly tougher than flat iron but it had a decent flavor. I just sliced it cross grain a bit thinner than I had done and it also came out pretty good. In my opinion it didn't have quite the flavor and was a little tougher compared with flat iron but not objectionably so. overall it's a good substitute. I grill both on a hot gasser to a bit on the rare side of medium rare. I grill it whole so the thinner ends are there for guests who preferred it less rare than I like.
Sorry for being long winded. The bottom line is you might take a look at flat iron steak for your fajitas. I get both at our local Albertsons or Smiths (Kroger). I have no idea of the grade of either. I don't recall any of the packages being marked. It made no difference to me in any case because I had a hankering for fajitas and that was all they had.
We used to have flank steak sandwiches frequently. Korean marinade, cooked on the grill, then sliced thin & on the bias (slant cut.) The family shrank, so I don't cook flank steak very much anyone.
Sous vide a flat iron steak at 135° for 2 hours then sear off quickly and slice. So tender and so delicious. I just did that for dinner two nights ago. Served with chimichurri. Same slices would have made great fajitas too, if I had chosen to go that route for dinner that night.
Costco around here has
Flank, skirt, and flap.
The flap is supposed to be the best of these, very well marbled, almost too much.
if what you are cooking is tough then I would go with the sous vide then grill.
Thanks for your suggestion zzdocxx I went today to my Costco and bought a Choice flap cut. Gonna marinate it tonight in some Goya Mojo Criollo marinade that a couple people said was great. Gonna grill it tomorrow.
I like my fajita meat cut rather thick, but I also don't always get it as tender as I would like. The Fajitas at HEB, if you are near one in TX, has excellent pre-seasoned fajitas and are hard to beat. I think they have papain (papaya enzyme) and others will have bromelain (pineapple enzyme), both to help tenderize. You may want to look into that because without tenderizing the skirt or flap fajitas can be pretty tough in my opinion.
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