Once upon a time, decades ago, I learned about fajitas while stationed in Kingsville, TX. There was a family owned Mexican restaurant in town called El Jardin. I went in there for fajitas quite often. Eventually the owner's wife told me how they marinated their skirt steak. I gave it a try and after a few attempts I was able to duplicate the flavor on my grill at home. I remember wooing my wife with my fajitas, but we also went to El Jardin. It was our favorite restaurant in town. Sadly it appears it is now closed.
Skirt steak back in the 70's was considered junk meat. You could buy it just about anytime for 69 cents a lb. Then fajitas were discovered outside Texas and the Japanese developed a fondness for skirt steak. Prices shot up. I have paid as high as $14/lb for skirt steak but get it regularly at Costco for $6.99 to $7.99/lb.
I lost my original recipe to time and was not able to duplicate the flavors I remembered. I stumbled across a simple recipe online, made some simple changes, and bingo, the original flavor is back. The first time I made it using the recipe my wife said "I haven't tasted skirt steak like this since we were in Kingsville!"
My wife always makes fajitas in flour tortillas. I eat it like a steak, adding just a little salt. I typically don't like sugar in my beef recipes, but it really works with this one.
South Texas Marinated Skirt Steak
Ingredients
2-2.5 lbs skirt steak
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp mined garlic (heaping)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbs dark brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar, packed
Directions
1. If the skirt steak still has a membrane attached to one side, be sure to peel it off the meat before marinating.
2. In a blender add all marinade ingredients and blend until pulverized. You don't have to use a blender. You can just chop the onions quite fine and that will work too.
3. In a large heavy duty, zip top bag, put pieces of steak and pour in marinade. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow steak to marinate 24-48 hours.
4. Remove steaks from marinade bag. You can rinse off the marinade or leave it on. Discard the extra. I typically leave it on.
5. You can use any grill for cooking the skirt steak, just make sure it is as hot as possible. If using charcoal add several chunks of stronger woods like mesquite or hickory. You can use oak and pecan too. Cook using direct heat. Cook each side on high temp for 3 minutes, 4 minutes max. You want a char on the outside and a rare to medium rare inside.
6. Remove from heat, cover, and let rest at least ten minutes, longer if prepping other foods.
7. If grilling peppers and/or onions, grill them after the meat while the meat is "resting."
8. Serve like steak or slice thinly across the grain of the meat if serving with tortillas, grilled peppers, grilled onions, sour cream, salsa, etc.
Servings: 6
The pic below isn't the greatest but it is four slabs of skirt steak, just over 6 lbs.