Weeknight Grilling: Charcoal Grilled Skirt Steak

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of celebrating a wonderful housewarming party given by two of my favorite folks! Congrats MrC and TammyC, we had a great time. While doing some serious munching TammyC asked me, "how come it seems like you don't cook much anymore?" I had to laugh, and I explained that I've just been doing a lot of the same stir fry, and have made a few dishes that we had in China, but am waiting until after I do my post on China before publishing them. Anyway, I thought I'd do a post on what we had for dinner tonight. The Missus wanted skirt steak, AKA "harami" or "arrachera". You'd be hard pressed to beat the wonderful flavor of grilled skirt steak. You really don't need to do much to it……. and it's pretty quick. Even grilling on charcoal (a combo of hardwood & mesquite), along with a couple of ears of corn, some eggplant, zucchini,sliced onions and green bell peppers, and making a chipotle-tomatillo salsa took only a shade more than an hour total.

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This is not a recipe…. I mean, can I call meat plus four ingredients a recipe????

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Anyhow, I used  Rick Bayless's recipe from his book Authentic Mexican as my source, only adding some Mexican Oregano.

There are just a couple of key points. After grilling, remember to let the meat rest a few minutes to let the juices redistribute. Shirt steak will be a tough cut, unless you slice it across the grain in 1/4" to 1/3" slices. Don't do that, and you might as well eat shoe leather. Skirt steaks are pretty thin so it's over direct heat all the way…..

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So what's the recipe???

Not much really. 1 1/2 lb shirt steak, seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and a pinch of crumbled Mexican Oregano. Grilled 'til medium rare.

Really…… that's it!

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I'm figuring this'll be good in tortillas, maybe as fajitas, in a sandwich perhaps….. or on top of rice.

And now it gives me no excuse for not grilling on a weeknight. Heck, if I had a gas grill, it would be even quicker…..

11 comments

  1. Yum! I love Rick Bayless as a personality too. He’s so intense in a good way. I loved watching his show on kpbs. Better than a lot of what’s on cable these days. I remember you mentioning not watching a lot of foodnetwork type shows but… haha. 🙂

  2. Hi Lynnea – Thanks!
    Hi Carol – Simple, but very tasty…..
    Hi Dennis – A friend of mine thinks Bayless is kinda reminiscent of a mad professor….

  3. We love our Charbroil Red grill! 😀
    I think I may have to try this recipe this weekend. Husband wants to grill more before the season changes.

  4. The wrapping it up in a tortilla sounds like heaven, except for the eggplant of course, that I would pour soy sauce over and eat with a bowl of rice. I’ve decided, when I die I want to be wrapped in a tortilla and then be cremated, 30 minutes into it I ought to smell like hot tortillas and chicharrones. What a way to go!

  5. Hi Rosa – This is a real simple recipe.
    Hi Kat – It was!
    Hi Tera – Thanks.
    Hi AZ – LOL! I thought you’d want to wrapped in nori, with a ume in your belly button, and go like an onigiri! ;o) Thanks again for reading!

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