Always on the hunt for ways to save money on meat for our crew I was so happy to find packages of skirt steak on mark down for $1.97 a lb. Any time I can score a good deal on meat I snatch it up, package it for the freezer and freeze it for a recipe. But this time around I decided to go ahead and grab a few bell peppers, a bunch of cilantro, a couple of limes and a package of tortillas while I was at the store and make up some yummy fajitas. I already had the rest of the ingredients at home!
This is a basic recipe that anyone can do. I promise and the results are delicious. Perfect for a family dinner but you know what? It is also a crowd pleaser too and a recipe I make often in the summer months when we have company over.
To begin you will want to cut up your veggies and meat and have everything ready. Meal prep is so much quicker when you do all your chopping, cutting and mincing before you start to cook. Professional chefs call this Mise en place, and it simply means everything in place.
Cut up your skirt steak into 1/2 inch wide strips and place in a large bowl.
Add your minced garlic to your beef. You can use fresh garlic that you mince yourself or if you have it on hand pre-minced garlic from a jar is fine too. I used the jarred garlic simply because I had it on hand and forgot to buy fresh garlic when I was at the store.
To your bowl add your fresh chopped cilantro. Cilantro may be an acquired taste for some people but to me, it is essential for that authentic taste! If you really don’t like it you can either omit it or substitute fresh flat leafed parsley.
Lime juice is going to add just the right touch of tartness and flavor, add it to your beef mixture and prepare for some yum!
Next up, the lime zest. While the lime juice is going to give this a zip the zest is going to make it taste lime-y (is that a word?) Either way, trust me, this makes it yum!
Lastly you are going to add your fajita seasoning mix.
Mix it all up in the bowls and cover with a little plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 2-3 hours to let the flavors meld together!
Once your meat has marinated for a few hours get out a big ol’ frying pan. I prefer a nice cast iron pan as I think it gets hotter and allows for better caramelization of the meat, onions and veggies. But you can use any pan you want, in fact an electric skillet works too!
Heat up your pan nice and hot, until a drop of water “dances” across the bottom. Add a little veggie oil to your pan and put half of the meat mixture in the pan and cook it.
Cook the meat until it starts to caramelize nicely in the pan. Put the cooked meat in a bowl or on a plate and set aside and cook the other half of the meat until it is nice and caramelized too. By now, your kitchen is going to smell pretty darn good!
Set that meat aside with the other meat and start in on your veggies.
To the same pan you cooked your meat in add just a tad bit more veggie oil and dump in your cut up onions and bell peppers and stir-fry them until the onions and nice and soft and caramelized. About 15 minutes.
Add the meat back to the pan and stir everything together. By this time things were getting pretty intense in my kitchen. With all that caramelization going on it was a fast minute to take a photo before that turned to burned! So no photo of the meat getting added to the pan. But you get the drift right?
And there you have it, beef fajitas. I like to serve mine with some salsa, sour cream, maybe a little cheese, some warmed tortillas and…a margarita!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. skirt steak
- 2 bell peppers (I used 1 red and 1 orange but you can use whatever color you wish)
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1/2 chopped cilantro
- 3 cloves garlic (or 3 teaspoons minced garlic from a jar)
- 2 limes
- 1/3 recipe Fajita Seasoning Mix
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup tequila (optional)
Instructions
- Cut skirt steak into 1/2 inch wide strips and place in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Slice onions and bell peppers into strips and also set aside.
- Mince garlic, and set aside.
- Roughly chop cilantro and measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.
- To the mixing bowl with the beef add garlic, cilantro, the juice of 2 limes, the zest of 1 lime and fajita seasoning mix.
- Mix to combine, cover bowl and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
- Once meat has marinated, heat a large skillet until very hot.
- Add 1/3 of the vegetable oil to the hot pan and add half of your meat mixture.
- Stir-fry the meat until cooked through and the meat starts to caramelize.
- Set cooked meat aside.
- Add a little more oil to your pan and cook the remainder of the meat until it too is cooked and caramelized.
- Set cooked meat aside with the other batch of meat.
- Add the rest of your vegetable oil to pan and add bell peppers and onions and stir-fry cook until the onions are soft and starting to caramelize.
- Add the meat back to frying pan and mix everything together and cook until everything is nice and hot.
- As an additional step add 1/4 cup tequila and deglaze the pan and cook for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. You may skip this step if you want or deglaze your pan with a little beef broth or water if you like instead.
- Remove from heat and serve with warmed flour tortillas, sour cream, salsa, and cheese if you like.
- Enjoy!
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