Skirt Steak Fajitas

From Slow Fire: The Beginner’s Guide to Lip-Smacking Barbecue

I like fajitas. When I was a kid we use to go to this restaurant called “Chi-chi’s” and I always ordered the fajitas. The meat came sizzling on a cast-iron skillet with the fixings on another plate. I liked building each fajita, and they tasted great. This recipe caught my attention, because it had been awhile since I had fajitas (I think Chi-chi’s is closed now).

Serves 10

EGGcessories Needed

• ConvEGGtor

Ingredients

• 2 pounds skirt steak
• 2 limes, divided
• Dr. BBQ’s Fired-Up Fajita Rub
• 1 large red onion, halved and sliced
• 1 green and 1 red bell pepper, halved and sliced
• 1 jalapeño, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 10 8-inch flour tortillas
• Sour cream, salsa, garnish

Directions

Cut the steak into 6 pieces.

I’m not 100% sure why it needed to be cut into 6 pieces except to make sure that it fit on the Egg with the pan of peppers and onions (soon to come!). Next time I think I’ll leave them whole, and see if there is any difference taste-wise.

With a heavy meat mallet, pound the steak well to tenderize it.

So much fun!

Squeeze the juice of 1 lime over 1 side of the meat.

I cut a cross into the lime for maximum juicing, but I’m thinking of buying one of those manual juicers with the pointed dome in the middle for future juicing (Future Juicing is also going to be the name of my band 🙂 ).

Season with fajita rub — heavily for rich, spicy meat, or lightly for milder meat. I went somewhere in the middle with this. The meat was very tasty, and not too spicy. Let rest 5 minutes.

Flip the steaks and repeat with the second lime and the rub. Place steaks on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and chill up to 2 hours.

Prepare your cooker to cook indirectly at 235 degrees, using medium oak wood for smoke flavor.

In a medium aluminum foil pan, combine onion, bell peppers and jalapeño.

I read this part waaaay too literally. I actually made a pan out of aluminum foil. When I pointed out to my wife that there was no way all those peppers and onion were going to stay in my makeshift pan she pointed out that the recipe meant an aluminum foil pan like you see in the picture above. Duh, sometime I can be a bit of a himbo.

Drizzle with olive oil. Toss with salt and 1 tablespoon fajita rub. Put the pan in the cooker and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.

I have to say, this pepper and onion mix was fantastic. Juicy without being soggy, and a great flavor.

Wrap the tortillas tightly in foil and set aside.

Toss onions and peppers with tongs. Add the steak to the cooker in one layer.

See how tight everything is on the Egg? It’s a large Egg too. Maybe I need an extra large 😉 . I think that’s why the recipe calls for cutting the meat into smaller pieces.

Cook 20 minutes more.

The original recipe called for 30 minutes (for both sides), but my wife and I thought the meat was ever so slightly overcooked (I added the time to the peppers and onions above since that came out great). Taste-wise the meat was great (the lime added a lot of flavor, and that fajita rub is to die for), but it was hard to pull the meat apart. We ended up cutting the meat into little chunks before adding them to the tortillas.

Toss the onion-pepper mixture again and flip the steaks. Put the tortilla package in the cooker. Cook for 20 minutes more.

Remove everything from the cooker. Tent steaks loosely with foil and let rest 5 minutes. Slice steaks thinly, against the grain, and add to the onion-pepper mixture.

We kept the meat separate from the peppers and onion, sort of a “build your own fajita” like when I was a kid.

Toss well and serve with the warm tortillas, sour cream and salsa.

Next time I’m making guacamole too. I forgot all about the guacamole. Shame on me.