These Steak Fajitas Were Devoured In Seconds

One of my favorite parts about going to a Mexican restaurant as a kid was watching the server bring out fajitas on that smoking hot cast iron plate and hearing that sizzle. Everyone just stops and turns and watches it and it makes you feel like you're the most important person in that restaurant. As a kid it was amazing. Well I'm going to show you how I do it using a few techniques to get show-stopping fajitas that your friends and family are absolutely going to love. We're first going to start off with that beef marinade. Sound good? Let's cook. For the seasoning portion of this recipe I'm going to be using my homemade Mexican spice blend. It's delicious, easy to make at home and I bet you already have a lot of these ingredients in your cabinets. Beginning with two tablespoons of coarse salt. Next one tablespoon of chili powder or chipotle powder. Now one tablespoon of ground cumin. One tablespoon of garlic granules or garlic powder. Then one tablespoon of onion granules or onion powder. And finally one tablespoon of dry oregano and one and a half teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes. Now using a spoon or a whisk mix all of the ingredients until combined and what I like to do is give it a quick taste to make sure all the flavors are balanced. If you like more spice add more spice. If it needs more salt add more salt. Now we're going to briefly set this to the side and make our marinade. I'm going to zest in one medium-sized lemon right into a medium-sized bowl. Next just slice that in half and then using a juicer. Dang it I can only find my orange juice juicer. I don't know where my lemon one is. Squeeze all that goodness in there. We're going to do the exact same thing with one lime using the zest and the juice. And then I'm going to add in one quarter cup of olive oil and four to five tablespoons of that Mexican spice blend. I'm going to whisk it together and give it a quick taste to see if it needs more spice or if it's too spicy and I need to dilute it with a little bit more of lemon juice or lime juice or even olive oil. And absolutely have fun with this. I've seen 20 different recipes for this marinade so there's no perfect standard for this. If you love heat maybe throw in a few sliced jalapenos. If you want to try using fresh onion and garlic as opposed to the granules oh my gosh do it. You're only limited by your own creativity. Let's bring out the meat. I'm going to be using a one and a half pound piece of flank steak. This comes from the abdominal area of the cow known as the flank and this is actually the original London broil cut. You can also use skirt steak in this recipe which comes from the plate area of the cow in between the chest also known as the brisket and the abdomen known as the flank. Now what I'm looking for when buying fresh is a deep red color with no holes or discoloration and maybe a little bit of intermuscular fat. It's best if you can get this equal thickness throughout the cut of it. To marinate it what I like to do is take it and put it in one of these plastic zip bags. You could also use that bowl no problem and then add in the marinade and mix it around as best I can. That's why I love these bags. Now you may have noticed that the steak is whole. I did not slice it into thin strips yet. I don't like well done steak and I don't want this to be well done. The only time I like that is if I'm slow cooking something or braising it. I want my steak to be medium rare so we'll cook it first and then we'll thinly slice it then serve it up. But the best way to get the most amount of flavor for this is you got to put it in the refrigerator overnight but that'll give us some more time to prep some stuff up. And I can't say it enough as little as 12 hours marinate or even up to 48 hours for maximum flavor. And now for the rest of the goodness that goes in these fajitas. I'm starting with two medium-sized red bell peppers which I'm going to seed by cutting around the outside and bottom and utilizing these pieces which I'm next going to julienne. We're going to do the exact same thing with yellow peppers. And I know classically a green bell pepper would be used for color but I think a poblano pepper adds way more flavor. I'm going to slice off the end then I want to carve out the pith in the inside using my knife and being careful remove that along with the seeds slice in half and then thinly julienne it just like with the yellow and red bell peppers to keep this uniform. Now for the seeds if you want to get creative here you can actually dry these out and use them in your garden next year and boom you can have homegrown bell peppers. Total win. And now for the onion I've got a large yellow or Spanish onion which I'm going to remove the ends take off that rough outside peel then I'm also going to julienne it to keep everything uniform. Everything is going into a bowl. And now let's cook this marinated steak. I've got a large 12-inch cast iron skillet. Cast iron is going to be best here to get a great sear. I'm going to add in three tablespoons of olive oil then I'm turning the heat to medium high. As soon as you turn it on, new procedure here, add in the steak to the cold pan and oil. We're going to heat it all up together. You'll even start to notice that little sizzle on there just like if you're searing a steak with a hot pan and hot oil. Now we're going to cook it here for three minutes total then at this stage we're going to turn the heat down to medium low and just like in my reverse sear steak video we're going to move this flank steak all around the pan for one minute. This is just going to help brown up those areas that tend to stay gray in the center giving it that maillard reaction or browning effect which helps intensify the flavor. After that amount of time we're next going to flip it and cook it for an additional four minutes. So eight minutes total, three minutes still, one minute moving around, flipping it over and letting it cook for four more minutes. At this stage I'm going to remove it from the pan. Looks gorgeous. Now what I'm going to do for a little bit more flavor is squeeze on the juice of one half lime. Let all those delicious lime flavors soak into there as it rests. Now as far as the pan is concerned you can use this oil if you want because don't forget we need to cook the peppers and onions or you can discard it. That's what I'm going to do. Start fresh here. I'm going to add two more tablespoons of olive oil to that pan. I'm cranking the heat up to high this time. Then once the oil begins to lightly smoke we're going to add in our peppers and onions and saute this for only two to three minutes. We want to get a little bit of brown on them while ensuring they are still crisp. So sauteing means high heat while moving everything around in the pan frequently by shaking it or using tongs or a spoon to get everything moved. Now here's what I'm looking for when they're done. A little bit of dark brown colorization on only some of the vegetables. To finish these off I'm going to season them with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper. You could also use a little bit more of that Mexican spice blend if you want. Then I'm going to add in the remaining juice of that one half lime, the other one that's from the steak. Give it a quick mix. Then I'm going to remove it, set them to the side, and let's get over to our flank steak. Now when you cut this you want to cut it against the grain. You see all the grains are going this way. What we want to do is slice it the other way, but because this is so long first I'm going to quickly slice it in half. Now that is the beautiful medium rare I'm looking for. You can achieve it if you follow those cooking procedures. Then for slicing it I slice it as thin as I can and on a bias so that's a slight angle. It makes the meat wider but also while it's thinly sliced it ensures that it's tender and not chewy when I eat it. Classical cooking techniques just makes the best food for sharing with friends and family so that you can make lasting memories. This is what it's all about to see people smile and to connect and remember it's never too late to reconnect with someone over a great meal. Here is how I plate this up. Of course just serve the steak right in the pan with the fajitas or let's go back to that Mexican restaurant. I happen to have one of those cast iron plates. Steak on one side peppers and onions on the other side and a little bit fresh cilantro for some nice greenery in there. Let's not forget about the homemade flour tortillas. Also got an awesome recipe on my website. Now let's just make a fajita. Warm flour tortilla, slices of steak, roasted peppers and onions. I'm going to go a little bit further. Why not add a little bit of guacamole or pico de gallo and then I'm going to finish off with some crumbled cotija cheese. Oh so so good. Now if you can get buttoned up the day before with the marinade you're talking about less than 30 minutes with prep and cook time for the fajitas. The best food makes the best memories guaranteed. Now if you like this you will love my chicken tinga. The sauce that it is cooked in is game-changing. I've got an awesome recipe video. See you on there.