Grilled Steak Fajitas

Grilled Beef Fajitas Recipe. How to grill fajitas in your own backyard, and make them even better than your local Tex-Mex restaurant.

Fajitas. The recipe that helped Mexican restaurants conquer America. Fajitas are actually Tex Mex, a blend of both sides of the Norteno border between Mexico and US, where the cooking doesn't let a little thing like a line on a map stop it.

(Well, actually…America is in love with the holy trinity of Tex-Mex cooking: Fajitas, Margaritas, and tortilla chips with salsa. I'm getting hungry just typing this.)

I learned a fascinating fajita marinade from Robb Walsh in The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook. There are two surprise ingredients that don't sound very Mexican - Pineapple and Soy Sauce, but this marinade is a great recipe. Soy sauce is full of umami, which I've talked about before; it adds extra beefiness to the steak.
Pineapple juice is the really interesting part - it contains an enzyme, bromelain, which is proteolytic (that is, it breaks down protein). I had to double-check that sentence with my wife, the chemistry teacher.

Pineapple juice tenderizes the tough cuts of meat that are used in fajitas; skirt steak, flank steak, chuck steak, flat iron steak, sirloin steak, or whatever cut of beef your local Mexican joint can get cheap from their supplier.

That's right - real fajitas are skirt steak. If I make skirt steak fajitas, I'm being redundant. If I make chicken fajitas, I'm making "chicken beef skirt steaks." But, c'mon…fajitas have taken on a whole new meaning north of the border._
Unlike most marinades, which don't penetrate the meat, this one will really do the job…to the point of turning the meat to mush if marinated for too long. I wouldn't marinate this for more than a couple of hours. This is a marinade that really works. It results in tender beef, sweetened by the pineapple and salted by the soy sauce with a hit of acidic lime. Combine it with grilled peppers and onions, wrap it in a tortilla, and top with some salsa for the best steak fajitas.

Ingredients and substitutions

• The pineapple juice and the soy sauce are the important part of the marinade for this grilled steak fajitas recipe. The pineapple softens the steak, and the soy sauce brines it, seasoning it all the way through.
• The rest of the marinade ingredients are optional. I like the extra flavor from the worchestershire, lime juice, and garlic, but you can skip them.
• Substitute 1 teaspoon of garlic powder for the fresh garlic clove if that's easier for you.
• To reduce the heat, use Jalapeno peppers instead of serrano peppers. Serranos have a lot more heat. If you want more heat, add more serranos.
• To cut the heat entirely, skip the Jalapenos and Serranos. You'll have mild fajitas.
• The accompaniments are what I like build into my fajitas. Anything goes here, so use whatever accompaniments you want. Some other suggestions are chopped cilantro, guacamole, and a bottle of Mexican hot sauce like El Yucateco.

Grilled Steak Fajita process pictures

Equipment

A grill. Bigger is better for this recipe because we're grilling a lot of food at once. (I love my extra-large Weber Summit gas grill; the extra space helps with this recipe)

Variations

Chicken Fajitas

Replace the flank steak with 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The cooking time is the same.

Real fajitas

Fajita means "skirt steak" in Spanish, so to be authentic, use skirt steak instead of flank steak, and only cook for 2 minutes before rotating and flipping (4 minutes a side, 8 minutes total) because skirt steak is thinner than flank steak.

What to serve with grilled beef fajitas

You probably have your own favorite toppings for fajitas, but mine are salsa, sour cream, shredded lettuce, and a squeeze of fresh lime. My kids love generic "shredded Mexican cheese" from the grocery store, and I like crumbled Queso Fresco. Mexican Rice or  Cilantro Lime Rice  and Refried Beans make great side dishes.

Tips and Tricks

Cooking on a smaller grill

For this much cooking, It helps to have a grill with a lot of surface area, like my Weber Summit. With a smaller grill, cook in batches. Start with the beef, then move on to the peppers and onions, and finally, soften the tortillas. Cooking in batches will help if you are cooking on a charcoal grill because the heat will gradually decrease as you cook. You want to cook the beef over a hotter fire than the vegetables and the vegetables over a hotter fire than the tortillas.

Use a meat thermometer

I like my fajitas with a little pink in the middle, so I measure the temperature with a meat thermometer, aiming for 125°F internal temperature. If you want rare fajita meat, cook to 115°F internal temperature; if you want medium-rare, aim for 120°F.

Don't use high heat

I use medium heat for grilling this recipe; high heat will burn the outside of the steak and the vegetables before they are cooked properly, especially with the sweet pineapple in the marinade.

Adapted from: Robb Walsh, The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook

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