Carne asada is an undisputedly delicious, classic Mexican preparation for steak. The most common cuts used for carne asada are skirt steak or flank steak, which both have intense beefy flavor. If you can’t find skirt or flank steak, you can also make a delicious carne asada with hanger or flat iron steak. This recipe calls for skirt steak, which is a particularly forgiving cut of meat that will stay tender even when cooked past medium rare.
For this preparation, the marinade is as important as the meat. There are as many marinades for carne asada as there are taquerias that make carne asada. This recipe employs the must-haves of garlic, cilantro, citrus, and chipotle pepper in adobo. For the citrus, we used a lime and navel orange to mimic the taste of the harder-to-find sour orange, also known as a Seville orange. Seville oranges are the traditional choice, but they can be tough to find, especially out of season.
The “asada” in carne asada literally means grilled meat, so a grill is essential to achieving the desired results. Typically, those beautiful diamond-patterned grill marks are reserved for cuts that you plan to serve whole and unsliced for a mouth-watering presentation. Although we’re slicing the meat, we’re still keeping those traditional grill marks. In addition to creating a fun pattern, rotating the meat also distributes the char from the grill across the surface of the meat, instead of allowing it to concentrate in one place. That means more surface area is kissed by the grill, adding a bit of complexity to each bite. If you don’t have a grill or grill pan, a large cast-iron pan will work.
Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in an airtight container. Use them for piling into tortillas with your favorite salsa, serving with black beans and rice, or layering into a carne asada torta.
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