My Great Street Taco Experiment

[Troutman]

Well I guess my Taco Chronicles series got by you. When I did Tacos Al Carbon I talk about the marinade being the trick. Lots of acid, lime and orange, plus soy. I got that from Ninfas here in Htown and it’s been a staple of mine since. Since then I’ve found a product, largely made with soy, called Dale’s, which I use in place of soy.

Again check out my write-ups. 3-4 hours turns that stringy skirt into a tender taco. That’s the way they do it in old Mexico !!!

[Michael_in_TX]

I will definitely be trying your marinade....I mean....Ninfa's after all.

[Michael_in_TX]

Thank you for the advice, everyone!

After doing some continued research this morning, apparently there is a significant difference between outside and inside skirt steak......so much so that the number of articles advocating avoiding inside skirt steak was surprising to me. Apparently the tenderness is night and day between the two types.

The two cuts of meat are actually in different places on the cow! There are four skirt steaks per cow, two inside and two outside. The inside steaks run along the belly of the cow whereas the outside steaks start at the front of the belly yet then arc upwards. Very interesting. I had no idea.

We used to have a Mexican market around the corner, but alas, Hurricane Harvey made quick work of that place. Curiously, I seem to have actually purchased outside skirt steak from them years ago. I remember being shocked at how long the steak was....well, that's a pretty good indication it was outside skirt steak.

So the next thing for me to do is actually start with the right cut of meat. I will then also endeavor to cut the pieces thinner. In looking at some videos this morning, I was indeed cubing the meat just a tad too large.

[gboss]

Apparently skirt steak in general and outside skirt in particular are made less common because the US exports a bunch of it to Japan. It's classified as offal for tariff purposes and it's a very popular yaniniku cut. Good luck in your quest for great skirt street tacos!

[Potkettleblack]

It is possible to make inside skirts into good tacos. Marinade becomes more essential, maybe longer marinade.

you can also use flap or flank. Or even 72hr brisket flat.

[Michael_in_TX]

It is possible to make inside skirts into good tacos. Marinade becomes more essential, maybe longer marinade.

you can also use flap or flank. Or even 72hr brisket flat.

I am currently looking into this as outside skirt steak, as I have come to discover, it stupidly expensive (or at least it is, right now).

I think I will do the other side of what I did here....that is, get some inside skirt steak and "marinade the heck out of it" for 6-12, perhaps 18 hours. And see what the results will be.

[STEbbq]

It is $10 a pound for me.

[Potkettleblack]

In a lot of areas, restaurants get all the outside skirts.

Seriously, though, the slicing makes all the difference.

[Michael_in_TX]

Okay, let's pick up where I left off.

I got a pound of American Wagyu (yeah, I know, not a regulated term) of what was labeled as sirloin, but this very much looks to be skirt steak, if not outside skirt steak. (It had the holes in the thinner end that I see on a lot of outside skirts, but not inside skirts.) In any case, it was clearly well-marbled.

What do you think?



I cut the steak in roughly half and elected to use the thinner portion tonight as as test run. I marinated it in cilantro, soy sauce, cumin, a little brown sugar, salt, pepper, zest of a lime, and juice of a lime for four hours. (This is Sam the Cooking Guy's Carne Asada Marinade if it looks familiar.)

I then did 90 seconds a side in a 600 F cast iron skillet.






(Seriously, this can't have been sirloin, look at that grain!)

I then let it rest for a few minutes, and then really finely sliced and chopped it up. Far finer than I did my previous attempt.

And here we go!



So tender! MUCH better than my previous attempt. Not chewy at all, except for a few thicker pieces that were a bit on the rare side.

So tomorrow I will do the second half, which is thicker (but not by much). I will do the same marinade, but I will let the steak come up to room temp a bit more and also do two minutes per side.

So good....all this needs is good corn tortillas, meat, onion, cilantro, and a little lime juice. (I tried it with my garlic-lime-crema and it just didn't work for me.)

Ever forward!

[GolfGeezer]

Michael_in_TX Yumm! I also suggest a shot of tequila in the marinade. Adds a great flavor and helps tenderize. I presume you are quickly heating the tortillas in the CI before cooking the meat?

[Michael_in_TX]

Yep, the tortillas go in a pan heated to about 400 F for fifteen seconds a side....nice warm and pliable. Then the meat goes on!

[fzxdoc]

Golly, you found a nice cut for your street tacos experiment. The tacos look great!

Kathryn

[bbq_esq]

I use flap meat from Wild Fork. Skirt is just too pricey for how often I make tacos (fajitas?). The prime flap is wonderful but the regular old choice works just fine too. Marinade in fresh squeezed orange juice, soy sauce, can of chipotles in adobo (this is a blended up first), whatever seasonings I’m feeling, olive oil, little fish sauce, some agave. Cut the meat down to manageable squares before marinading. Then grill over hot charcoal - I don’t like using my SnS for this, prefer the coals right on the grate. Slice and chop, serve with diced onion and cilantro, and I like using Herdez cremosa salsa because I can only do so much. Huge hit here.

[fzxdoc]

Like you, Michael, I can't find outside skirt locally anywhere. I've looked for years. So I have to deal with inside skirt if I want to enjoy the flavor.

If I ask at the local Mexican market, they can't answer whether it's inside or outside skirt. It's just skirt. So I treat all skirt steaks as if they're going to be a bit "chewy", and either butterfly/pound the thicker portions so the whole piece is the same thickness, or just grill the whole thing and slice thinly across the grain. Either way, it eats pretty good.

I like this Alton Brown video where he shows how to cook skirt steak (no mention of inside vs.outside, no marinade) and, more importantly, compares the three ways to slice it: with the grain, across the grain, or on the bias. Short answer: across the grain is best.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/skirt-steak-recipe-2014004

Kathryn