All About Skirt Steak - Recipes, uses, etc.

[snowangel]

Skirt steak was on sale at the market, and I have a nice one (a generous 1.5 pounds).

Tell me what you'd do with it, please.

[docsconz]

On page 111 of the First Edition of Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday is a great recipe for "Skirt Steak Salad with 'Wilted' Greens, Tomato, Avocado and Lime.

[rooftop1000]

Worchestershire, lime, garlic marinade - grill it on a super hot grill

then I load the dining table with refried beans, salsa, lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, tortillas and the thin sliced meat and stand back

tracey

[John S.]

Skirt steak was on sale at the market, and I have a nice one (a generous 1.5 pounds).

Tell me what you'd do with it, please.

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The Bayless recipe is good. But whenever I hear "skirt steak" I think of fajitas. It's simple: marinate the meat in lime juice 1/3 C, garlic 2 cloves minced, soy sauce 1/3 C, a little canola oil (2T), 1/3 C red wine and as many chiles that you can stand. That's for 2 pounds of meat. Grill some onions, get out the pico de gallo, sour cream and cheese, and go for it.

John S.

PS: tortillas, too!

Edited May 24, 2007 by John S. (log)

[JAZ]

I do like skirt steak in tacos and fajitas, but I also like it grilled and sliced over all kinds of salads -- marinate it with Thai seasonings and serve it over a Thai salad, or with cumin, chipotle, garlic and orange juice and serve it over a salad of jicama, red pepper, red onion, avocado and orange slices.

[markk]

I think you lose out on a lot of the delicious flavor of that cut when you do all those things to it. I just treat it like a (great) steak and broil or grill it. If the cut is ungainly for you to cook, one of the things you can do is roll it up fairly tightly, then cut it into half-inch slices - but put wooden skewers through the roll before you cut it. In the old days, these were called "pinwheels" and were very popular. They come out with uniform thickness that way and are easier to grill. They're great charred on the outside and to my taste, nice and rare inside. A little salt, and you have a very delicious steak with a meaty flavor all its own.

[chefdg]

my favorite is au poivre. just crack whole black peppercorns and coat the steak heavily. cooked over a wood grill in my opinion is the best steak you can eat. if you pound out the steak slightly it will fall apart like butter when cooked (medium).

[markk]

Wood grilled with black peppercorns also sounds good to me. But I'm not so sure about the pounding. I say this because when I was a kid (wayyyy back in the 1950's) skirt steak was a big thing, and many people opted to have it run through a "tenderizer" which is like a hole-punch that perforates the meat - it's used for tough cuts. But skirt steak is not really "tough", it's just dense, and chewy, which many people (me included) think is part of the appeal.

[Always_a_3rd]

I'm opting for the SLOOOWW food, braised it is great, after braising, serve it as a steak sandwich, with some caramelized onions and mushrooms, bleu cheese......yep, i'm in heaven.

[Restorer]

I have a small wimpy propane grill, 12,000 BTU/hr over 280 square inches. Any ideas on what I can do to maximize the amount of heat in it to properly grill skirt steak?

[smangold]

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown's recipe for skirt steak http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...tml?rsrc=search. I do not place the steak directly on the coals though. I can't imagine a blow drier can get rid of all the ash.

[Live It Up]

I have a small wimpy propane grill, 12,000 BTU/hr over 280 square inches. Any ideas on what I can do to maximize the amount of heat in it to properly grill skirt steak?

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I'm a big fan of Alton Brown's recipe for skirt steak http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...tml?rsrc=search.  I do not place the steak directly on the coals though.  I can't imagine a blow drier can get rid of all the ash.

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speaking of alton brown...he has another show where he grills tuna on a grate directly over his charcoal chimney starter. So, if you have one of those, that would probably work.

[Smithy]

Are skirt steak and flank steak enough the same cut? If so, I recommend the West Coast Broiled Flank Steak with a marinade of lemon juice and zest, sugar, soy sauce, oregano, pepper. Sliced onions are layered with the meat in the marinade, and the onions will be cooked down as a topping. It's an old family favorite, and thanks to Google I see I'm not the only person to have saved it. The link above is one of many, and apparently it was republished in Ceil Dyer's The Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars.

My flank steak is in the marinade as I type this. If the rain lets up I may try grilling it instead of broiling.

[Amy Eber]

Grill it, let it sit a few miniutes then thinly slice it. Toss warm pieces with a dash of olive oil, good quality balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Mound onto ciabatta rolls and top with arugula and crumbled blue cheese.

Skirt steak was on sale at the market, and I have a nice one (a generous 1.5 pounds).

Tell me what you'd do with it, please.

←

[genarog]

Skirt Steak: The best cut of meat

With prime rib-eye at less than $9 a lb at Costco, why would I pay $9 a lb for skirt steak? Because it tastes like nothing else. And taking into account that about 30% of the time the skirt steak I get is inedible, I may be paying more like $13 a lb. Still worth every penny.

I think the flavor of skirt stake comes out best when searing it. Grilled - I mean barbequed - is still quite good, but still not as good as seared. If I were to grill it, I would buy it with the skin on and then take the skin off after cooking. For searing it, I want it with the skin off. I usually have my butcher take care of this, but it's very easy to do at home as well.

I pat the meat dry and throw it on a hot cast-iron grill. I use a double-burner grill by Lodge. I like skirt steak between rare and medium-rare. While cooking time depends on the thickness of each piece, it’s usually between 1 and 3 minutes on one side and between 30 seconds and 1 minute on the other.

I only condiment the meat with salt. I wait until each side is seared before salting that side of the meat.

I read a lot about resting meat before eating it, but my taste buds tell me otherwise. I like how the juices redistribute in my mouth and I'm willing to sacrifice some of the juices on the cutting board or on my plate. So I go at it right away.

My two favorite foods are meat and bread, and they are even better when combined.

Too bad tomatoes are not in season right now. That's what I usually eat when I'm done with the meat. They just need olive oil and salt. Unless I have any bread left I drink the leftover juices right off the bowl. No photos of that, sorry.

My only problem with skirt steak - other than what my doctor would tell me about the amount of fat in it - is the inconsistence of its quality. I have no idea why. I don't know whether it’s a fresh versus frozen thing or whether it depends on the breed. All I know is that I've tried skirt steak from many butchers and supermarkets, and I can go one day and get a great piece and go next day to the same place and get one that's inedible. Color doesn't mean much. Sometimes smell doesn’t mean much either.

I recall 4 or 5 years ago the skirt steak at Western Beef was consistently great for about a year, and it only cost $2.49 a lb. Oh well, prices went up and quality down.

What do I mean with inedible? Well I think there are 3 grades of skirt steak:

A) Buttery

It melts in your mouth. It's the best meat in the world.

B) Chewy

I call it inedible. Usually my dog takes care of it. Too bad I paid $9 a lb for it.

If this happens to you in your first try, do give it another chance.

C) Everything in the middle

Most of the time is closer to A) fortunatelly

As I haven't been able to estimate quality before eating, it's all about luck for me. If someone has this figured out, let me know.

Edited April 16, 2009 by genarog (log)

[Chris Amirault]

I can't quite tell, but are you cutting the steak with, instead of against, the grain? With tougher grilled cuts like skirt and flank steaks, I think it's essential to slice it that way.

[Jaymes]

Are skirt steak and flank steak enough the same cut?  If so, I recommend the West Coast Broiled Flank Steak with a marinade of lemon juice and zest, sugar, soy sauce, oregano, pepper.  Sliced onions are layered with the meat in the marinade, and the onions will be cooked down as a topping.  It's an old family favorite, and thanks to Google I see I'm not the only person to have saved it.  The link above is one of many, and apparently it was republished in Ceil Dyer's The Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars.

My flank steak is in the marinade as I type this.  If the rain lets up I may try grilling it instead of broiling.

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Skirt steak and flank steak are different.

[weinoo]

I can't quite tell, but are you cutting the steak with, instead of against, the grain? With tougher grilled cuts like skirt and flank steaks, I think it's essential to slice it that way.

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As Chris says, there is only ONE way to slice skirt, flank and onglet for that matter. Against the grain - but from the grill marks, I think that's the way it is being sliced.

The only other way to make it tender would be to put it through a meat grinder and use it as a percentage of the total meat for hamburger, which is probably part of the secret formula so many of the hot new hamburger joints are using.

[Qwerty]

I think a quick/hot cooking method is the way to go. Also make sure you slice it against the grain as Chris said. Otherwise it will be tasty but pretty damn chewy.

I like it with a simply chimichuri style sauce. Just pick some cilantro and parsley, oregano if you want, a clove or two of garlic, and pulse it in a food pro until coarsely chopped. Add some nice olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and even some chili flakes if you want. Let sit for about an hour (or more) before serving.

Spoon some of this sauce over the steak right before serving. Really good and simple.

[genarog]

As Mark mentioned up in the thread skirt steak - I can confirm this at least with the type I get 7 out of 10 times - is not tough, does not need tenderizing, and is so buttery that to me is much closer to prime rib than it is to flank steak.

If you do the classic resting and slicing, and if the meat is tougher, then cutting against the grain is required. However, the way I eat - which is right off the grill pan - my priority is to eat it while the meat is juicy and worm and for that I have a very short window of time.

So I don't want to expose the long side of the steak. I would cut on the short side of the steak even if I was doing it with the grain. I usually eat one steak while the next one is cooking, which is about 3 minutes.

Edited April 16, 2009 by genarog (log)

[Jaymes]

As Mark mentioned up in the thread skirt steak - I can confirm this at least with the type I get 7 out of 10 times -  is not tough, does not need tenderizing, and is so buttery that to me is much closer to prime rib than it is to flank steak.

Yes, which is why it's the cut of choice to prepare what we call fajitas. Although the term fajitas, in the US anyway, has changed from its original Spanish meaning and now refers to any sort of grilled meat strips, in actuality, 'fajitas' means 'little belts, or sashes' and refers specifically to those long beef skirt steaks because of the way they look. They are tender enough that you can cook them quickly and eat them that way with no further tenderizing needed. You'd be hard pressed to do that with flank steak.

And btw, if you tried to order "chicken fajitas" anywhere in Mexico except along the border or in tourist areas, they'd have no idea what you're talking about. It would be like ordering "chicken skirt steak" here.

The response would be, "What?"

Edited April 16, 2009 by Jaymes (log)

[Chris Hennes]

I think skirt steak makes a great beef for many types of stir-fried dishes, and I also love it as the meat in a cheesesteak. I'm not aware of anyplace in Philly that actually uses it, but here in OK where there is no one to make fun of me for my unorthodox ways it makes an appearance from time to time.

[Hank Kingsley]

I personally enjoy burgers that are made of skirt and oxtail and cooked medium rare animal style in a hot pan.

[Chris Hennes]

I made a really nice steak tartare out of skirt steak last week: it gets tenderized sous vide at 122°F for three hours first, and had a really great flavor and texture.

[Anna N]

I made a really nice steak tartare out of skirt steak last week: it gets tenderized sous vide at 122°F for three hours first, and had a really great flavor and texture.

Can a tartare really be made from cooked meat? I always thought tartare was by definition raw meat. Just wondering.