What cut of beef is used to give restaurant beef fajitas a nice appealing texture -thin and not too chewy? - Jinx
Skirt steak cut in strips across (as opposed to along) the grain.
Skirt steak is what is supposed to be used. Flank steak is used, too. Goat meat makes good fajitas, too, but I don’t know what cut they use. In order to make it not chewy, it needs to be cooked quickly over a murderously hot grill, sliced thin, then served immediately.
I use flank steak when I make them at home.
That’s a notoriously tough cut. You need to marianate in something very acidic (I use vinegar AND lime juice) for several hours.
It’s kind of a touchy thing, though. If you marianate for too long, you can start to “cook” the meat with the acid. It helps after cooking (I grill with HIGH heat and leave it rare in the middle) to cut it as thin as possible.
However, I’ve heard skirt steak is better. I can’t speak to whether I’ve had that in restaurants, but it’s harder to get than flank steak.
Skirt, definitely. As best as I know (which admittedly ain’t much), traditionally, “fajitas” referred to a grilled skirt steak, often unsliced. Flank steak fajitas, chicken fajitas, and vegetarian fajitas are technically misnomers, but seeing the various prescriptive vs. descriptive wars that have been started over “au jus” and the like, I’m not touching that one. Anyway, I definitely like skirt steak best.
I get very good results with flank steak - but you have to season it with a lot of cumin and salt, sear it on a hot grill, and serve it no more done than medium rare. Otherwise, tough city. Slicing thin helps too.
Flap meat (2 links here) . The same cut they make those “sirloin steak tips” from when you buy then for $5.59/lb at the market…
Except you buy the whole piece from BJs or Costco, and cut it yourself… for $3.39/lb.
It’s what many of the resturants use as well. Just enough fat, not a lot of connective tissue, and plenty of open spaces to soak up any marinades.
Though not for restaurant style Fajitas, I love to use good Fillet steak for home made fajitas.
Brush the steak with limejuice, techilla and a little sea salt, cook it fast to a medium-rare or medium, and then let it stand for a few minutes.
Slow cook the onions tilthey go golden, then agg the sliced peppers and cook quickly so they are still very crisp (it is good to slice them very thin for this). Then slice the cooked steak and serve with the freshly cooked vegies real sour cream and pico de gallo (sp?).
The reason being that the vegies provide plenty of bite and texture, whilst the fillet stake menas no toughness, and gooey warm meatyness.
Alton Brown just made fajitas on this evening’s show. He used skirt steak, cooked directly on very hot coals, 1 minute on each side. (Don’t touch it except to flip!) Remove after two minutes and wrap in double-layered foil. While that does its after-grill braise in the foil, put a cast iron skillet on the coals. While it heats, prep your veggies and lightly coat with vegetable oil. Place in pan. Once the veggies are done, slice the skirt steak against the grain. With the grain is too tough.
Good luck.
StG
I can’t believe all the posters were from up North! And I’m doubly (du-ubly) surprised that they use skirt steak. Hmmm…