One of the absolute best tacos are carne asada street tacos…marinated skirt steak, charred from cooking on the grill, chopped finely and served in small corn tortillas with lime, cilantro and onion. Absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious! My husband and I made these for dinner last night and couldn’t get enough of them. They’re perfect for lunch, too, of course.
While we cooked the meat partially over smoke and finished on a hot grill, you can cook it entirely over a propane or charcoal fire.
Active time: 45 minutes
Total time 3.5 hours
2 dried guajillo chiles
2 dried ancho chiles
2 whole chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp fish sauce
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup cilantro leaves
3/4 Tbsp cumin seeds (or 1 tsp ground cumin)
3/4 Tbsp coriander seeds (or 1 tsp ground coriander)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 lb skirt steak
Street taco sized corn tortillas
Chopped white onion
Fresh cilantro leaves
The pre-made salsa you will make as outlined below
Soak the dried chiles in very hot water until softened, about 20 minutes. Remove the stem, seeds and veins and put the chiles in a blender. Put all other ingredients except for the salt and steak into the blender, and blend on high about 1 minute until fully blended into a sauce about the consistency of ketchup. Season the salsa with salt until it tastes good (you’ll serve this with the tacos). Pour half into a bowl, cover and put in the fridge until ready to use.
Add about 2 additional tsps of salt to the remaining half of the salsa (it should taste saltier than you would want to eat in order to impart flavor to the meat) and put into a sealable container or ziploc bag. Add the meat and make sure the marinade covers the meat well. Put in the fridge and marinate for 3-5 hours.
When ready to cook, remove the meat from the fridge about 15 minutes beforehand and wipe off the excess marinade. We heated our pellet grill to 220F, and smoked the meat until it came to 120 F (about 20-25 minutes). We then moved the meat to a propane grill over medium-high heat (about 450 F) and cooked for 2 minutes per side to get a good char and bring the meat to 135F. We let the meat rest for 10 minutes, cut it into thin strips against the grain, and then into small dice. You can do this over a single fire, on medium high heat, for about 6 minutes a side or until it gets to 135F.
While the meat cooks, warm the tortillas in a dry skillet and put in foil to keep warm. Put the cut meat in a bowl and put on the table along with the chopped onions, cilantro leaves and the salsa you put in the fridge earlier. Allow everyone to make their own tacos. You may want to serve Mexican rice, refried beans and/or salad alongside.