Steak Fajitas

Steak Fajitas
Rikki Snyder for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour, plus 4 hours' marinating
Rating
5(1,974)
Notes
Read community notes

Skirt steak is the traditional cut used for fajitas. It used to be inexpensive, but now it's not so cheap; oftentimes flank steak costs less. Either will be a good choice.

Featured in: Give Fajitas, a Tex-Mex Classic, the Treatment They Deserve

Learn: How to Make Steak

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 1tablespoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground
  • 1teaspoon chipotle or ancho chile powder
  • 1teaspoon salt, more to taste
  • pounds flank or skirt steak
  • Zest of 1 lime (2 teaspoons)
  • ¼cup fresh lime juice
  • ¼cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 4large garlic cloves, minced
  • 1large red or yellow onion, halved and sliced
  • 2red bell peppers (or 1 red and 1 orange or yellow), seeded and sliced ¼ inch thick
  • 1green bell pepper, seeded and sliced ¼ inch thick
  • 1jalapeño or 2 serrano chiles, minced
  • ¼cup chopped cilantro
  • 4large flour or 8 corn tortillas
  • 1teaspoon grapeseed or canola oil
  • 1romaine heart, cut crosswise into 1-inch wide pieces
  • Salsa fresca, for serving (see recipe)
  • Queso fresco, for sprinkling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

595 calories; 41 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 24 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 28 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 33 grams protein; 1005 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Combine 2 teaspoons ground cumin, the chile powder and 1 teaspoon salt. With a sharp knife, cut shallow crosshatched incisions across top and bottom surfaces of steak. Rub spice mix all over surface of steak. (It's best to wear gloves as the chile powder is hot.) Place steak in a resealable freezer bag.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and zest, ¼ cup olive oil, the Worcestershire sauce and half the garlic. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the marinade and pour the rest into the bag with steak. Seal and move steak around in bag to coat thoroughly. Place on a sheet pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. Massage bag periodically to redistribute marinade. Refrigerate reserved marinade if cooking the next day.

  3. Step 3

    Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until they soften and begin to color, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in bell peppers and chile. Cook, stirring, until peppers begin to soften, about 3 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Lower heat to medium, add remaining garlic and cumin, and salt to taste. Cook, stirring often, until peppers are nicely seared, softened and beginning to caramelize, 5 to 8 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Pour in reserved 2 tablespoons marinade and scrape bottom of pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze. Stir in half the cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat but keep warm.

  6. Step 6

    Wrap tortillas in foil and warm in a low oven, or wrap in a towel and warm in a steamer or in the microwave.

  7. Step 7

    Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, or prepare a medium-hot grill. Remove meat from marinade and discard marinade. Pat meat dry with paper towels. If using a skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in skillet. (If your skillet is not large enough for the steak, cut it in half and cook in batches.) Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side. Meat should be medium rare. Remove to a cutting board, cover with foil and let sit for 10 minutes. Cut across the grain into ½- to ¾-inch wide strips.

  8. Step 8

    Arrange lettuce on a platter, then place steak next to lettuce. Tip juices from cutting board over meat and sprinkle with remaining cilantro. Serve vegetables on the same platter or separately, along with warm tortillas, salsa and crumbled queso fresco.

Ratings

5 out of 5
1,974 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I would not cook the onions and peppers before cooking the meat. That seems very strange to me; you want them piping hot. Cook them while the steak is resting.

Easier - char poblano peppers, bag, peel, seed & slice. Seed & julienne an equal amount of sweet mini red & orange peppers. Slice red onion. Saute together in avocado oil and season with Penzey's fajita seasoning. When tender, add thinly sliced left-over grilled rib eye steak just to warm. Serve on warmed tortilla & top with 5/4/2016 NYTimes Cooking's excellent arugula, avocado, cilantro salad with garlic, lime & olive oil vinaigrette (sans rotisserie chicken).

My dad owned a restaurant in the Valley in the 70's - we served fajitas as Tacos la Carbon - I substituted a tablespoon of pineapple juice to the marinade instead of the Worcestershire sauce (the citrus really brightens the flavor), and I also withheld the cilantro as a garnish. In my experience, cooking cilantro will make it a little bitter.

Instead of cooking the onions and peppers first in a separate pan, I seared the steak first in a cast iron, put it on a cutting board to rest, then cooked the pepper and onion mix in that same cast iron. The vegetables absorbed all of the flavor from the meat and marinade and it ended up being a one-pan meal. Really tasty!

Great recipe. Highly recommend lightly toasting the cumin and the ancho/chipotle chiles. Then grinding them using a molcajete or a mortar.

Also, mix up the chiles. Go all ancho or all chipotle or mix them up. Every variation is awesome.

Being from Texas, I'm pretty picky about my fajitas, and these passed the test! I love that I didn't have to use a grill. The only change I made to save time is that I used cumin powder and chili powder from my cabinet for the first two ingredients. It still tasted wonderful!

Lettuce is not a ingredient in fajitas! Maybe tacos, but not fajitas! And you must have pico de gallo, guacamole, and crema as sides.

Not a bad foundation, but way too bland. Needs more garlic, more salt, more cumin, maybe some black pepper. And lime wedges for garnish.

Substituted New York strip steak for the flank/skirt steak (little less expensive), and sheep's milk feta in place of the queso fresco (most likely made from cow's milk). Allowed the meat to marinate for 24 hours, which increased its flavor and tenderness. Cooked the meat in a large cast iron skillet, and finished it off under the broiler. Wonderful meal! Will make this again.

This is quite good. Made it just about as is. Works with chicken as well!

These fajitas were amazing! I found that the times given to cook onions and peppers for my family's preference were a bit low. As fresh corn is plentiful at the moment I added kernels cut from two ears to the vegetables. And though we have never had corn on fajitas before everyone decided it was a delicious addition. I made homemade tortillas for the first time and these fajitas were definitely worthy of that extra effort!

I followed most of the recipe, but changed the rub ratio to 2 parts cumin, 2 parts chipotle, 1 part ancho, 1 part salt. Made some extra rub for seasoning the vegetables, instead of using just cumin and salt. Cooked the steak first then the veg, in the same pan, while the steak rested. Served it with last summer's roasted tomato and chile salsa and with Sam Sifton's Burned Scallion Crema. Pretty delicious. The meat was incredibly tender and juicy. We'll definitely be having these again.

Really great recipe packed with flavor. I only Marinated for about an hour and it was still amazing. I grilled the steak with charcoal and it really came out nicely. Excellent recipe

Delicious! And great even if you only have a short marinade window.

Lots of steps, but worth the effort. The best rub/marinade I've ever used on flank steak.

Made this on our Blackstone, turned out great. I marinated the meat over night and added sliced mushrooms to the vegetables.

Changed the marinade with 1tsp of cumin and 1tsp of chili pepper. After tasting the marinade I Added 1 tbs of brown sugar. Turned out delicious.

These are SO GOOD. We sadly couldn’t find our cumin seeds so we used powdered just 1to1. Best fajitas I’ve ever made.

SUCH a great recipe!!! Easy and delicious. Agree with the comment about making the effort to toast and grind cumin seeds instead of using powdered. What a flavor explosion! We left the cilantro out completely (we hate it) and it was nevertheless complex in flavor and utterly delectable. Thank you for this wonderful marinade and recipe.

Used the marinade recipe to marinate steak tips for about an hour. Grilled for 10-15 mins. Served over rice.

A Texan approves of this recipe!! Tremendous flavor, I will have my butcher tenderize the meat and it always turns out fabulous. Highly recommend.

Best fajitas u ever made. Better than restaurant quality.

I did not have every ingredient on this list but it was delish anyway. I followed others instructions to cook the meat first and and then do the veggie. Also - my little hint... My flank steak was still partially frozen so i cut it in to strips first, finished thawing and then followed the recipe. Meat slices much easier that way.

Very nice. Served with all the trimmings.

This is a great recipe. I use La Masienda masa and made the tortillas. My main deviation was to use Penzey’s fajita mix.

Made it with regular chili powder and omitted jaleps for estes

This was wonderful. I used a flat iron steak because that was I could get this week. No need to change a thing. Everyone enjoyed them.

This is a showstopper. Brought this camping and everyone said the fajitas were the best they’ve had.

These are INCREDIBLE! I have made several times and follow the recipe to the T. Just delicious. I have only made with outside skirt steak. Once, I ran out of Worcestershire sauce and used low sodium soy sauce. Also delicious. This is a go-to in our house when making fajitas or a juicy skirt steak with fries!

I pretty much followed the recipe except i sliced the meat before marinading the meat. It came out great. I also made the tortilllas using Mark Bitman’s Almost-From-Scratch Corn Tortillas which is the best recipe I have every used as it uses 2 tbs lard to the batch and the tortilla is perusable and rollable after cooking.

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