Carne Asada

Make Ahead and Storage

Keeps 2 days refrigerated and is very good cold in a torta.

Making Carne Asada

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1. Look at the steak and note which way the fibres run.

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2. Mix the lime and orange juice, garlic, cumin, oregano, pepper, oil, jalapeño and coriander.

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3. Turn the steak through it and marinate 1 hour in the fridge. No longer — the acid starts to cure it.

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4. Lift the steak out, wipe most of the marinade off and season heavily with the salt.

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5. Heat a charcoal grill or a griddle pan until it is too hot to hold a hand over.

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6. Grill 3 minutes on the first side without moving it.

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7. Turn and grill 3 minutes more, for medium rare.

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8. Rest on a warm plate for 8 minutes.

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9. Slice thinly across the grain you identified at the start.

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10. Serve with lime wedges and the resting juices poured over.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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A Few Pointers

• Across the grain, always. Nothing else matters as much.
• One hour in the marinade, not overnight.
• Rest eight minutes before the knife goes near it.

Some Background

Skirt steak has coarse fibres running in one obvious direction and everything depends on cutting across them. Sliced with the grain it is inedibly chewy no matter how well it was cooked; across, the same steak is tender. Find the direction before you cook, because char makes it harder to see afterwards.

Good Alongside

Warm corn tortillas · Pico de gallo · Grilled spring onions

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Instant Pot Black Beans, One Pan Mexican Rice, Pan de Muerto.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

Carne Asada FAQ

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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