I have no idea if fajitas are Mexican food, Tex-Mex food, or something invented by the New York City-based marketing department of a casual-dining chain looking for a way to get rid of less-desirable cuts of beef.
I don’t care. I love ’em.
I should clarify: I love fajitas when they’re done right. They are, however, almost never done right. Gummy tortillas, overcooked and underseasoned meat, tasteless veggies, and a side platter of undefinable cheese, rotten sour cream, and limp lettuce do not qualify as “done right.”
This recipe for steak fajitas works best over a grill, but if you have a grill pan, you can fake it, and on a rainy day I have made these on a cast-iron flat-top grill that sits over two burners on my stove. I turned the fan on high and had a fair amount of cleanup to do afterwards, but the steak came out fine.
First up, make the steak rub. This is the same homemade spice mix I use as taco seasoning and just about anywhere else that a chili powder mixture is called for.
2 Tbsp ancho chili powder
2 tsp cumin (toasted & freshly ground)
2 tsp coriander
½-1 tsp cayenne pepper (depends on your heat tolerance)
½ tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp smoked Spanish paprika
1-2 tsp dried oregano
Whisk those together and set aside. There is no salt in the rub, because we’re going to salt the meat before we apply the rub.
For the fajitas, you will need:
Flour tortillas
1 lb or more of flank or skirt steak (I prefer skirt because it’s cheaper and tastes just as good)
2 red/yellow/orange bell peppers, seeded and cut into strips
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 onion, sliced very thinly
1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1. Trim the meat of any fat you can cut off without destroying the steak. Much of it will pull off with a little encouragement from a knife. You might see silver skin on a flank steak. Make sure you remove it, as it’s very tough and can cause the meat to curl as it cooks. (You can render some fat from the bits you cut off the steaks and cook with it. It’s not good for you but delivers great flavor to French fries if you fry in a mixture of beef fat and vegetable oil.)
2. Salt the entire surface of the meat, then liberally apply the ancho chile rub.
3. Light your grill. If you’re using charcoal, make a narrow mound over which your steak can sit. If you’re using propane, you’ll need one burner cranked up to 11.
4. Meanwhile, put a heavy skillet over medium-high heat on your stove. When the skillet is hot, add about a tablespoon of olive oil and add the bell peppers and as much of the Serrano as you like. Season with salt. Cook about five minutes until the bell pepper strips are softened and a little browned.
5. Add the onions and more salt and stir thoroughly. The goal now is to cook the onions down and let them caramelize a little, which will take about 15 minutes. Stir this mixture from time to time to prevent anything from burning or sticking. When the veggies are nearly done, add the minced garlic clove and about a tablespoon of the chile mixture (assuming you have some left).
6. When the grill is ready, place the steak directly over the heat. This is direct heat cooking – cook for about two to three minutes per side, then flip, cook for two to two and a half minutes more, and take it off. You don’t want to cook either of these cuts of steak past medium or they will become tough. Let the steak rest for five minutes.
7. While the steak is resting, you’ll need to heat the tortillas. (Yes, the best tortillas are homemade, and I’ve done it many times. It takes almost an hour just to roll and cook them, never mind making the dough ahead of time and letting it rest. I haven’t had that kind of time since I joined ESPN and became a dad within a two-week span.) You have two options: You can heat them one at a time in a hot dry skillet, 20 seconds per side; or you can heat them in a stack wrapped in aluminum foil in a 300 degree oven for about five minutes.
8. Slice the steak thinly on the bias. Serve with the pepper/onion mixture and any side items you desire.
Suggested sides: I’m partial to a simple guacamole of mashed avocado, lime juice, salt, cumin, pressed garlic (the rare occasion when the use of a garlic press is acceptable), and chopped cilantro. Cotija cheese or queso fresco both play nice with fajitas. And if you really want to kick it up, try adding a little of this habanero crema:
1 cup crème fraîche
1 habanero, seeded, ribs removed, stemmed, minced finely. (Note: Do this with latex gloves on. If you handle a cut habanero with your bare hands and then touch your eyes … well, it hurt like a motherf—– when I did it with a jalapeño and I couldn’t see out of that eye for fifteen minutes. I believe a habanero is almost fifty times hotter than a jalapeño. So wear gloves.)
1/8 tsp white pepper
Pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
I know that, with a steak like this, “slicing on the bias” makes all the difference, and if you do it the wrong way, you end up with something roughly like gnawing on a Sperry Top-Sider. But what exactly IS slicing on the bias?
I used to use Korean kind of marinade in my fajita meat: soy sauce, ginger, garlic, green onion, sugar, toasted sesame oil…etc.
By the way, where do you buy Ancho Chili powder: I have searced ordinary grocery store, but cannot find it.
As a vegetarian the steak part doesn’t work for me, but the rest of it is money. I’m going to try with the fake steak strips from Morningstar Farms. Stands in reasonably well for those of us who have given up meat. Thanks for the recipes!
And the real reason I’m posting to ask you this, Keith: What is your take on Oakland’s Michel Inoa signing? Heard anything about him? Seen anything? If not, any plans to take a look and write him up?
Unrelated, and I know I might get flogged for this, but is there any less expensive (and more commonly found) reasonable substitute for the pancetta in Pasta alla Carbonara? Perhaps a sausage of some sort? (I know, unauthentic, but it’s inconvenient to get pancetta while living and shopping in the middle of Texas).
During the 9 years I lived in mexico (1991-2000), did I once come across a fajita on any menu in a mexican restaurant. I’ve only come across them here in the states. I will agree though, they are pretty good. Oh, chalupas are also a Gringo spin off of Mexican food too.
Dave: Slicing on the bias means slicing on an angle as opposed to straight down through the food. In the case of skirt steak, it means cutting perpendicular to the grain of the meat and slicing down at a 30-45 degree angle relative to the board (as opposed to 90).
Blue: Try Penzey’s. I’m lucky to have a Penzey’s two minutes from my house, but their mail-order prices are just as reasonable.
Aaron: Plain old American bacon, as long as it’s not flavored with any kind of rub or maple or anything else that would be out of place in pasta alla carbonara.
Todd: Sorry I can’t help on the meat substitutes, but I’m guessing that a marinade before the rub might help too. Try the juice of one lime plus 2-3 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, and a pressed clove of garlic.
I’ve never seen Inoa and probably won’t until either the fall or more likely March.
Im sorry but what is your problem with sour creme? American/European sour creme is thicker then what Mexican’s would traditionally use, but it tastes pretty damn good.
In Mexico one would generally find a sour crema in use. To make this mix about 1 pint of heavy cream with 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup sour cream.
I find your implication that “rotten” is somehow bad. Its true, sour creme is basically a lightly fermented version of Yogurt, but do you harbor similar wholesale disdain for cheese?
As to the origins of Fajitas, they are definitely tex-mex having originated in Texas along the Mexican border. Usage of the diaphragm muscle (skirt steak) is however common in Mexico as is marinating it in lime juice.
If you really want to nail this recipe, try using home made flour tortillas. These are surprisingly easy to make and definitely worth the extra effort.
I just re-read your recipe and realized that you don’t marinate the meat. While I appreciate that your rubbed/grilled skirt steak is likely quite delicious, skirt steak’s connective tissue definitely benefits from marinating in acid before cooking.
I’m certain you could get the same flavor profile out of a marinade as you do from a rub.
but do you harbor similar wholesale disdain for cheese?
Yes, actually. I find most cheeses taste like something that has spoiled … which is what they are. I do like most cheeses made in Italy, and a few mild cheeses from elsewhere like cotija or US-made mozzarella.
Yes, marinating the meat helps, and homemade tortillas are (as I mentioned) wonderful, but one point of this recipe was to offer something that could be cooked and assembled fairly quickly. The marinade I offered Todd would work well on steak or chicken.
Not to derail a fine cooking discussion, but I’m sorry to have missed you Sunday, Keith. If you were there, I couldn’t pick you out (there was a suspicious character by the park gun in a visor with piping on his shoulders, but I couldn’t be sure), and security was pretty iffy on letting me wander the scouting section looking for you.
If you did attend, any chance on getting a post here on what you observed? Or is that going to be 4-letter content?
The guy in the visor was Ben Cherington. I was several rows back by the rest of the scouts.
I’ll write something about Bowden and Bard later this week, perhaps after seeing Lowell/Oneonta tonight.
“Yes, actually. I find most cheeses taste like something that has spoiled … which is what they are.”
Same can be said for all alcoholic beverages, most hard sausages, pickles, soy sauce, miso, kimchi and fish sauce.
My point is that much of the food we eat on a regular basis involves fermentation as a mechanism to achieve preservation. Spoiled implies something totally different, that the food is in fact rotten, has gone bad and is no longer good to eat. You call sour creme “spoiled” because it is produced using the same mechanisms you otherwise derive great pleasure from; imparting an unjust connotation on a perfectly delicious food item.
It is not spoiled sir, it is ripe!
Sounds great! I grill with skirt steak a lot, which I find picks up marinade flavors better than flank or flat iron thanks to its thin profile. Although, I do believe in terms of cost that skirt steak costs as much, or even +$1/per lb., more than flank here in NJ.
A favorite marinade of mine is what I call carne asada, but is most likely not a traditional form of the dish. It’s 2 parts tequila, 1 part each fresh lemon, lime, and orange juice. Feel free to sub in different juices here (papaya is a good choice). Then, I use a mix of the following:
– chopped onion
– crushed garlic cloves
– fresh black pepper
– hot sauce
– olive oil
Marinate 4 hours or more. Grill on high heat. Rest, slice across the grain in thin slices, and serve in warm tortillas (tossed on the grill for a few seconds per side), with guacamole, salsa, and grilled peppers.
I like to take the chopped onion from the marinade, saute them, and serve them as an accompaniment here too.
AB said in two episodes that the papain in papaya will turn meat mushy. Does the juice have less of the enzyme? Or maybe you just don’t use very much papaya juice?
Skirt steak is $8/lb at my Whole Foods, and flank is $11. YMMV, of course.
I’ve marinated with alcohol a few times, including a “margarita” marinade with tequila, lime juice, orange juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I find that I have to keep the marinating time short or else the meat (especially chicken) ends up with an off note of alcohol even after cooking.
Slightly off-topic as I haven’t done this for fajitas, however this is my favorite skirt/flank marinade:
-Equal parts soy: soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, honey or brown sugar
-Seracha to taste (I like a lot)
-Good amounts of grated ginger, chopped, scallions, minced garlic
Its a pretty powerful mixture, so a couple hours will put a lot of flavor on the meat. I like to do at least 4 hours or even over night for maximum punch. Bring it to room temperature before grilling over a medium high heat. I like a little char.