Go to the Recipe: Carne Asada Tacos With Tender Flank Steak
Great stuff!!!!! Keep em coming folks!!!!!
Awesome! Does the meat need to be dried off before searing on the grill?
Wow, looks awesome.
What's the seared white stuff in the tacos? Cheese cooked in a pan?
Kaboom.
That's what I thought. I'm thinking some queso panela, which sounds absolutely awesome. I might have to track some down here in Melbourne, AU.
These look great, but I'd really like to see you guys tackle some Baja-style fried fish tacos.
I have an excessively large piece of brisket in my fridge due to an attack of enthusiasm at the Costco. Could you hazard a guess for times and temp. If it is a really bad idea feel free to say so
And yes I intend to try your pastrami recipe, but did mention it was a BIG piece of brisket....
Love the recipe, hate the pairing with the Coronas.
Do I need to reconstitute dried peppers? (Trying to make this now, so any advice would help ASAP) if so, any tips on how to do so?
nope, just get them toasted and toss them in the blender, you should be good to go.
I'm more of a Modelo Negra myself, but there's no accounting for taste. We all like what we like, no matter how ghastly everyone else finds it.
Thank you!
You're welcome
I used the same kind of dried chilis from the Mexican supermarket as I did with the mole recipe from a while back. My marinade looked much darker and thicker than the one shown in your blender pic above. Also, it tastes near painfully hot. I toasted them as instructed and followed the recipe to a T. Any thoughts?
Do you have a very high threshold for spicy foods? I ask because none of the listed varieties are gratuitously spicy. The hottest pepper here is the chipotle, which it's equivalent to the jalapeno. This spiciness is diminished be two things: the removal of the seeds (the majority of the capsaicin is contained in their placental tissue) and the addition of orange juice. The sugar and acid in the orange will also lessen the bite of the peppers.
The marinade with have a decent bit of spice in it, however, once you've cooked the meat in it (cooking will also reduce the heat) it is discarded (unless you use it for seasoning on your taco/whatever you do with your meat), and the meat is further seared on the grill.
My question for you is how did the meat turn out?
Now I'm a bit confused about your method. You say :
"I used the same kind of dried chilis from the Mexican supermarket as I did with the mole recipe from a while back." then you say "I toasted them as instructed and followed the recipe to a T."
I need some clarification: this recipe only uses 3 varieties of peppers, while the 30 minute mole uses 6, and a bit more mass of peppers than does this recipe.
The only things that makes sense are:
That's all I've got. I hope that helps in some way. Good luck.
Edit:
Although, in the introduction, which I find so many of us don't read, ChefSteps does say "Because the meat comes out tender on its own, the chili-forward, worcestershire-laced marinade has just one job: to lend our beefy hero deep, tongue-searing, wake-you-up flavor."
This was great. We lowered the temp a few degrees to 128 as we used grass-fed flap steak. I might dial back on the amount of cumin next time but otherwise really enjoyed the results!
Yes, things will go much better if you dry it off before the grill. The brown sugar in the marinade is going to help it char up real quick but, from experience, don't let it stay on the grill too long or the meat will dry out fast.
One minor issue, with the intro - marinades do not tenderize meat, guys. That's simple food science... an overnight soak in marinade will penetrate less than a millimeter into the flesh. Sodium can denature proteins and make the meat absorb the flavorful liquid via osmotic action (brining) but even then, the result is flavor and juciness, not tenderization. That said, my complaint has nothing to do with the recipe, so carry on!
"Asada experts rightly tout the importance of allowing steak to sit for hours in an acidic marinade to amp up flavor and tenderize the beef. This recipe is different because we slow cook the meat sous vide before finishing it on the grill, resulting in crazy-tender,flavorful, juicy steak. Because the meat comes out tender on its own, the chili-forward, worcestershire-laced marinade has just one job: to lend our beefy hero deep, tongue-searing, wake-you-up flavor."
They never said that it was their opinion. They said that so-called "experts" insist that it does tenderize the meat. This is a factual statement. Many, many folks, who could be considered experts for the amount of food they have cooks, chefs and what have you, still believe, and propagate prevalent food myths: searing seals in the juices, barbecue stall is caused by collagen conversion, use a lot of water when boiling pasta, boil the water before adding (dry) pasta, you'll lose all the juices if you flip a piece of meat with a fork, etc. Marinades will rarely penetrate any further than 1/8th of an inch (3.2mm), and that is after 18 hours.
However, there are some marinades that do contain ingredients, which will start to break down proteins, tenderizing the meat: papaya, ginger, pineapple, even soy and fish sauce. Mildly acidic marinades, if there is a lot of collagen and other connective tissue near the surface, will start acting upon that, and can result in a chain reaction, but, again, will only penetrate so far. Care should also be taken as too much acid can tighten up the protein and give an odd texture to it. That's also simple food science.
Can't wait to try this. Are you guys ever going to post the perfect tortilla recipe? I can never get my flour tortillas to come out right. Love the thin pliable. Mine are always a little fatter and break when they should bend. Cheers!
Really good! I turned this into a weeknight dinner with a quick 1hr dunk in the sauce-i-nade (a term I just invented because I can't justifiably call an hour enough time to truly marinate), and seared the crap out of it in a blazing hot cast iron skillet. I can't wait to get my Joule to really give this recipe the business. If the fast version was that good I'm sure the slow version blows the doors off the house.
I could see this being the perfect beach/lake house dinner ... setup in the AM, go enjoy the day, grill up fast with fixin's, serve a crowd with cold beer out of the cooler.
Guess it would be ok if my meat stays in the water bath for typ 12 hours. Will cook this on friday and start it up before heading to the office in the morning.
I tried this with the above referenced skirt steak and reduced liquid from the bag. It was excellent -- I only wish that I reserved extra marinade since the cooking process definitely changes the marinade flavor. Blending cooked and uncooked marinade might have been a slight improvement.
You might have some luck here. Good Luck!
Perpetuating incorrect statements without qualifying the real facts behind them is the quickest way to disseminate incorrect information. For a website and business based around teaching, that should go without saying as a bad thing. Also, they said "rightly tout" indicating factual accuracy, which it plainly isn't. Good job with your facts, but please don't encourage poor teaching aspects. Constructive criticism is healthy for improvement, and i was simply providing feedback that i hope the chefsteps crew finds helpful. I like this place because it doesn't just throw out pintrest based pseudoscience plucked from some random other person's website without any actual understanding of the science behind the cooking. And the marinades that tenderize do so by enzymatic action, not acidity. Those marinades are always short term, because their tenderization aspects are actually unpredictable and undesirable.
If you'll note: "However, there are some marinades that do contain ingredients, which will start to break down proteins, tenderizing the meat: papaya, ginger, pineapple, even soy and fish sauce." These are all referring to the enzymatic activity that you are referring to.
However, "Mildly acidic marinades, if there is a lot of collagen and other connective tissue near the surface, will start acting upon that, and can result in a chain reaction, but, again, will only penetrate so far" is also a true statement. The acids work upon the connective tissues and collagen, not the meat itself, note that i said near the surface, and would only penetrate so far. This is backed up by several sources: J. Kenji López-Alt's The Food Lab, Maxime Bilet's and Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine, experimented on and results given at amazingribs.com (I learned of through their collaboration with chefsteps) as well as basic biochemistry and advanced food chemistry text books. I'm not saying all marinades do, however, a blanket statement that "marinades do not tenderize meat" is not true, for the reasons above.
Excellent and easy! I could eat the sauce by the spoonful though corn chips do come in handy. I followed the recipe to the T and could not have been more pleased. The hardest part was simply the wait... so worth it. ~m
If you were to use skirt steak, would you sous vide it for the same time and at the same temp?
(65 g Chipotle chili, seeds removed) are those dried Chipotles or Chipotles in adobo? I made this last Saturday and used dried chilies, it was great but the marinade was much darker and required more liquid to turn over in the blender.
I just tried a teriyaki flank steak with great results the easy recipe is as follows:
Two large flank steaks
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup mirin
3/4 cup sake
3 tablespoons sugar
Combine soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar disolves.
Increase heat and bring to boil. Reduce 2/3 rds volume while stirring occasionally.
Place steaks in bags and split sauce between the two bags. Vacuum seal.
Marinate for 24 hours in refridgerator. Cook sous vide for 8 hours @ 55c when finished reduce bag juices in pan and flash grill over intense charcoal fire. ( recommend fogo natural charcoal available on amazon it produces intense flame) serve with stir fry veggies and or rice. Amazing.
skirt and flank steak are the same no?
This is what I'm wondering. I used dried chilies as well, but it was super thick and brown.
what cut of lamb can i use to make steak tacos ?
Same issue I wonder if it's missing a oil
Very simple and delicious. I decided last minute to cook these on a Saturday night, and I only cooked them for 2 hours but they came out delicious and incredibly tender. The sauce reduction has a nice sweetness, a little bit like a mole colorado, and the steak goes great with a little lime, chopped onion and cilantro. 10/10 would eat again
65g of dried chipotles, is that correct? or does this recipe use chipotles in adobo?
I love lamb shoulder, but lamb loin also works
@Matt Banbury i believe it's dried peppers, that's what I used.
No, two completely different cuts
I've made this a few times, and it is very delicious. I am usually cooking for just myself, so I split a full flank steak into 4 portions, marinaded each portion, and vacuumed sealed 3 of the 4 for later use. The frozen portions worked great too. I do have one question for the group, and that concerns the 8 hour cooking time. There is a flank steak recipe on the joule app (Double R Ranch Flank Steak) and now a new recipe with the fitness gentleman about batch cooking flank steak for the week. The Double R recipe cooks for 45 minutes at the same temp as this recipe with no mention of size of the steak. The fitness/batch cooking recipe calls for a steak half the size here, but suggests 1 hour at the same temp (also suggesting a maximum of 2 hours depending on size). Flank steak is generally the same thickness, so it would seem time and temperature would be the same regardless of the actual weight (especially when cut into portions). So why the long 8 hour cooking time for this recipe? Don't get me wrong, it was delicious; but these other recipes are calling for 45 minutes to an hour at the same temperatures. I would guess that there is textural difference when cooking for 8 hours that might be better for carne asada tacos, but I was just curious if anyone had some insight on the extreme time differences despite the same temps and the same (flank) steak, that is likely to maintain a consistent thickness. Thanks!
This was amazing!!!! I couldn’t find the dried chilis so I used equal weight of canned chipotles. The sauce was delicious. This was also my first time trying flank steak sous vide. I have never been a fan of this cut of meat until now. It came out amazingly tender. I can’t wait to make this again!
bumping to the top. why is this cook 8 hours and other flank steak recipes are 1-2?
