Joe Tapia's Fajitas

[bigwheel]

Fajita, or skirt steak, is the diaphragm muscle, just like the flap on pork
spare ribs that we cut off when we trim them to make St. Louis style. The
only true fajitas are made with beef skirt although the term is frequently
misused today to refer to almost any kind of grilled meat rolled in a flour
tort. Fajitas have a similar history to brisket, the south texas poor folk
could only afford the tough left over cuts. Here is a seasoning blend for
fajitas:
1 Tbl. pure chile powder, not the blended stuff
1 Tbl. white pepper
1 Tbl. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Combine all, store in covered jar, makes about 1/4 cup.
The secret to good fajitas is:
buy them tenderized if you can, or do this at home. trim off all the fat and
silver skin as best as you can. sprinkle one side with fajita seasoning,
roll up like a jelly roll and stick them in a plastic bag, add a mixture of
water and soy sauce (1:1 proportion), wet the meat thoroughly, stick them in the refrigerator overnight. do the same with sliced onion and bell pepper. Next day have a hot grill (kingsford mesquite) ready to go, grill your fajitas hot and fast, when done, about 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how thick, put them on a cutting board and slice into 1/2 inch wide strips, serve with warm flour tortillas, pico de gallo, the grilled vegetables, grated cheese, sour cream, whatever. this is the way i do it after years of experimenting with various mixtures and techniques. Everyone always likes them, hope your frieds and family do too.

[JamesB]

I can vouch for this one. Been using this recipe for several years... Great fajitas!

[Gator]

Thanks BW, gonna try dis 1.

I have a question for you BW - What does the Paprika provide in this recipe? I know folks usually use it for color, but why wouldnt a person just add a lil mo chile powder?

[ruger686]

Copied and saved. Gonna give this one a try this weekend. Thanks again, BW.

[JamesB]

Thanks BW, gonna try dis 1.

I have a question for you BW - What does the Paprika provide in this recipe? I know folks usually use it for color, but why wouldnt a person just add a lil mo chile powder?

You can commonly get two kinds of paprika. The Spanish is mainly used for color. The Hungarian Hot adds just a bit of heat. I usually use the Hungarian. I think you could get away with using a bit more chile powder, but not too much... Heck, give it a try and let us know...

I do gotta admit that don't marinade the veggies in this as I found it to be a bit overpowering for veg... For me, the real key to this recipe is the soy sauce. At first, I couldn't believe that it would produce a flavor profile on the meat that I would like, but it sure did.

[bigwheel]

Well I marinate the veggies in it too..but I cook em in the skillet..dont try to grill em. I thought they was purty good. Sure you could skip the paprika. Prob just there to give it a little color maybe. Might be a slight amount of added flavor if you used the Hungarian version but it too subtle for me to detect in most dishes. Know the chili cooks use it just for color and they pay through the nose for it cuz the brighter red it is the mo expunsive. They do not like to have the judging tables set up in a nice dark beer joint:)

bigwheel

[Gator]

Well I marinate the veggies in it too..but I cook em in the skillet..dont try to grill em. I thought they was purty good. Sure you could skip the paprika. Prob just there to give it a little color maybe. Might be a slight amount of added flavor if you used the Hungarian version but it too subtle for me to detect in most dishes. Know the chili cooks use it just for color and they pay through the nose for it cuz the brighter red it is the mo expunsive. They do not like to have the judging tables set up in a nice dark beer joint:)

bigwheel

I always use my big cast iron skillet on the grill for my veggies and seems to work pretty good.

[DJ]

Have never made fajitas, but with this recipe, rest assured I will.
Mucho Gratias.
dj

[bigwheel]

Well hope yall like it. Know the last time I was set to make some fajitas started pricing skirt steak and about made caca in da pantoloomes it was so high. Decided to whip by the Mejican market only to find the skirt steak cleaned up....triple tenderized and marinated..and stacked to the ceiling for about 2 or 3 bucks a pound less than whut the regular store was wanting for the un messed with skirt steak. Wasn't too shabby. They had used a little too much meat tenderizer for my taste buds..which it dont take much to overdose me. Just give it a funny mouth feel..sorta mushy. It was Ok but not near as good as Joe's recipe.

bigwheel

[JamesB]

the last time I made 'em sirloin steaks were cheaper than skirts,,, used sirloin instead and they turned out great!!!

[Papa Tom]

Yeah we generally use sirloin too. Skirt is better I think just because it is authentic but sirloin works good.

[bigwheel]

We had a little mexican joint up here which used tenderized beef cutlets as a person would buy from Kroger for making CFS. Wasn't too shabby. They had the best chicken Fajitas I ever ate. Never did quite figger out the game plan on those. Cheese and onyawn Enchiladas not much to brag on. They used that old hard stringy cheddar in the middle. Shoulda throwed a little velvetter in there with it. A 50/50 mix is hard to beat. Never did get a tummy ache from the place and musta ate there a million times. Now Mamacita made tamales twice a month. Those were killers.

bigwheel

[Gator]

I made this recipe tonight using chicken, very nice flavor profile, strong peppery-chile taste as you may expect. I would make it again...the one thing I might add next time is a little olive oil.

Another variation I want to try is use teriyaki sauce instead of soy sauce since I like it sweet.

Thanks BigWheel, this is a good 'un. I would highly recommend.

[bigwheel]

Well glad to hear you liked it. Terriyaki is some good stuff. Used to use it as part of a rib glaze which usually turned out purty good.

bigwheel