| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 5 hr 20 min |
| Active: | 1 hr |
| Yield: | 6 burritos |
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 5 hr 20 min |
| Active: | 1 hr |
| Yield: | 6 burritos |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil, plus more for grilling
- Juice from 2 limes
- Zest from 1 orange
- Juice from 2 oranges
- 4 cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 pounds skirt steak (1 large steak, cut in half)
- Six 10-inch flour tortillas, heated
- Cilantro Pesto, recipe follows
- 4 small or 2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and inner flesh removed, julienned
- Charred Salsa, for dipping, recipe follows
- 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
- 4 cups fresh cilantro, leaves and tender stems
- 1 cup fresh parsley leaves
- Juice from 2 limes
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 12 ounces large tomatillos (about 3), husks removed and cleaned
- 3 cloves garlic, skin intact
- 2 plum tomatoes
- 1 small yellow onion, skin and root intact, quartered
- 1 dried ancho chile
- 1 poblano chile
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 teaspoon agave nectar
- Juice of 1 lime
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- For the marinade: Mix the oil, lime juice, orange zest and juice, garlic, onions, chili powder, cumin and salt in a bowl until combined. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Transfer the marinade into a large freezer bag. Add the steak and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours or maximum overnight.
- Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat and lightly coat with canola oil. Pull the steak out of the marinate and grill until charred and nice and crusty, 5 to 7 minutes a side. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Slice the meat thinly against the grain.
- For the sandwich build: Place the tortilla flat and smear on even layer of Cilantro Pesto. Sprinkle with tomatoes and pile on the steak. Wrap it up tight and eat whole, or slice in half on the bias — just don’t forget to dunk it in plenty of Charred Salsa.
- Place the pumpkin seeds into a dry skillet and toast on medium heat until lightly golden and fragrant, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the cilantro, parsley, olive oil, lime juice and jalapenos into a food processor, and then pulse until smooth but still slightly chunky. Adjust seasoning as you see fit.
- Heat a large grill pan to medium-high heat. Add the tomatillos, garlic, tomatoes, onion, ancho and poblano chiles. Char on all sides until blackened in parts, removing the charred vegetables and chiles to a cutting board once blackened. Depending on their size, each vegetable will char at a different rate.
- Place the charred ancho chile into a small bowl and pour enough hot water to cover it. Allow to sit until the chili is softened, 8 to 10 minutes. When softened, remove the stem and seeds.
- Remove the stem and seeds from the charred poblano as well as the stem and skins from the charred garlic cloves and onion quarters.
- Put the soaked ancho and poblano chiles, tomatillos, garlic, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, agave and lime juice into the bowl of a food processor and blend until mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper to your heart’s content.
Reviews
Not good, no real authentic flavors. This guy needs to stick to making sandwiches.
Very easy to make(especially if you buy the salsa) It’s really delicious and the acid is perfect
I consider myself an expert on Mexican food, but this was the best I ever made. I couldn’t stop eating.
Sounds so delicious: especially the charred salsa.
Best Marinade for Carne Asada, Loved It!
This is very good, I like the variable spices, and the difference between this and the regular recipes for the same. Thank you.
Excellent easy
I actually made this. The marinade I took the zest of a lime instead of orange. I also added a lemon. For the cilantro pesto, I didn’t toast my pumpkin seeds, I didn’t add parsley and I added 4 serrano peppers to it as well. As far as the charred salsa which was absolutely wonderful I added a chilaca chile.
Yes, bring his show back!!!
I haven’t read all the comments, just a few. It seems like people are miffed about it not being true Carne Asada, which I would grant. I’m not sure if these same people actually went ahead and made the dish. I did. Here are my thoughts.
The “cilantro pesto”: this is a clever take on pesto and has more of a chimichurri flavor than traditional pesto due to the cilantro. Is it yummy? Heck yeah! My wife and I both loved it and thought its flavor dominated more than the salsa, which was also very good on it’s own and better with chips than with the burrito (but still worth using for the burrito). We have a lot of extra of both, so we’re trying to figure out what to do with them. The “pesto” is brilliant and I can really see using this in a lot of dishes with grilled meat. Same with the marinade.
The marinade for the meat was good, really closer to my wife’s Chicken Schwarma recipe which I think is Indian or Middle Eastern, but I really have a hard time with skirt steak. Possibly I need to go to a reputable butcher, but even then, this is a cheap but traditional cut of beef. Sadly, I’ve always had the issue with it being chewy and offputting, even when properly prepared. I’d like to try this swapping out the skirt steak for tenderloin, a much better cut with similar long muscle tissues. Or possibly, preparing the skirt steak diced or more finely chopped would help. And chicken or pork would be a winner, too.
Fortunately, the chewiness of the meat was my only issue, the flavors of everything else were pretty spot on. The salsa can be eaten separately with chips, and there was plenty of that plus the pesto. The prep was pretty time consuming, as an amateur, but on par with most recipes of this magnitude. Overall, a really well-conceived dish that like anything could benefit with a few personal touches.