Carne Asada

My husbands go to dish at any mexican restaurant is the carne asada.  Usually made from skirt steak or flank steak, it literally translates to “grilled meat”.  Restaurants also slice carne asada thinly to put into fajitas.

Marinades for carne asada can be as simple as salt, pepper and lime, or go more complex with a variety of spices.

For my marinade, I mixed:

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup chopped cilantro

⅓ cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons lime juice

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Pour marinade on top of steak and refrigerate 2-4 hours.  (For most steaks I say the longer, the better, but not in this case.  The meat will get mushy.)

Preheat your grill to high heat.  Remove steak from the marinade and pat dry before putting it on the grill.  For skirt steak, grill each side for about 4 minutes.  For flank steak, it is more like 6-8 minutes.  When the steak is done, let it rest for 5 minutes and then slice thinly, across the grain.  Serve with tortillas and any garnish you like.  I tried a chimichurri sauce that I found online.  I wasn’t sure if my family would like it, but it was a hit!

As with all my marinades, don’t stress if you don’t have everything.  Don’t have white wine vinegar?  Use cider vinegar, or plain white vinegar.  Don’t have lime juice?  Use lemon, or even orange.  

The biggest must do for this steak is to not overcook it and be sure to cut across the grain when you serve it.  I learned that your knife needs to be very sharp to get those slices thin.  My slices were a bit too thick.  

While the most common cut of meat for carne asada is skirt steak, this recipe also works for flank steak, bavette steak or even tri-tip, but cooking times will be longer for these thicker steaks.

This was my first time making carne asada and I think we’ll do it again sometime.  The flavor was great even if the meat was a bit chewy.