Marinated Skirt Steak Tacos (Tacos de Arrachera)

About this recipe

Skirt steak tacos are the pride of northern Mexican cooking: beef skirt marinated in beer, lime, garlic and spices - sometimes with soy sauce for an umami edge - grilled at very high heat on embers or a cast-iron plancha until perfectly seared with char marks. Sliced diagonally against the grain and served in flour or corn tortillas with guacamole, pico de gallo, pot-cooked beans and scorched chillies. The favourite cut of Monterrey, Chihuahua and Coahuila.

1. 1

   Marinate the skirt steak: in a zip bag or dish, combine beer, lime juice, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Submerge the meat and marinate for 2-12 hours in the fridge.

   💡 Beer tenderises the fibres of the skirt steak - the longer the marinade, the more tender the result.

2. 2

   Remove the meat from the marinade and pat thoroughly dry with kitchen paper. Heat a grill or cast-iron frying pan to maximum heat until smoking. Cook the steak 3-4 minutes per side for medium.

   💡 Skirt steak must be cooked quickly over very high heat - low heat steams rather than sears and you lose the juiciness.

3. 3

   Rest the meat for 5 minutes on a board. Slice diagonally against the grain into 1 cm strips. The grain of skirt steak is long - cutting perpendicular is key to tenderness.

   💡 Always against the grain - cutting with it will give you tough, stringy pieces.

4. 4

   Warm flour tortillas on a dry griddle. Build the tacos: strips of skirt steak, guacamole, pico de gallo of tomato, onion and coriander. Serve with pot-cooked beans and scorched chillies.

   💡 Flour tortillas hold the juices of the skirt steak better than corn tortillas.