Why You Should Be Grilling Skirt Steak

If you’re not grilling skir t steak, you should be: It’s a great cut for marinating, it cooks in minutes, and it’s especially beefy, tender, and juicy—as long as you buy the right kind.

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Back when I was a line cook at Craigie Street Bistrot in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we had a nightly routine involving skirt steak. The end pieces were never plated because they were too small to show off the beautifully cooked beef, so the chef habitually tossed them into a “meat bucket.” At the end of the night, the tidbits were heated up under the broiler for a postshift snack. Trust me when I tell you (after many, many bites) that this fatty cut is intensely beefy, tender, and juicy—a true cook’s treat. Taking It Outside

Finding My Mojo

Skirt steak is long, narrow, and only ½ to 1 inch thick. Because it’s so thin, you need to cook it over high heat to ensure that the outside is well browned by the time the interior is tender and juicy. That makes a grill, which is easy to get blisteringly hot, the best tool for the job. As a bonus, a large grill grate can accommodate all the ribbon-like steaks at the same time instead of in batches.

Skirt steak is also a great candidate for a marinade. In the test kitchen, we often shy away from marinating meat because the flavorings don’t penetrate much beyond the surface of a thick, smooth cut. But because skirt steak is so thin, with loose, open fibers and lots of nooks and crannies, a marinade can have a big effect (see “A Steak Tailor-Made for Marinating”).

I knew exactly what I wanted to bathe my steaks in: a garlicky, citrusy, Cuban-style mojo that would really stand up to the rich, buttery beef. Once I’d perfected the marinade and the steak cookery, I planned on whipping up a complementary sauce to drizzle onto the meat. Raising the Steaks Skirt steaks are often rolled up for packaging because when they are unrolled, they can be nearly 2 feet long. I divided 2 pounds of steak (enough to serve four to six people) into 6- to 8-inch lengths.

Then came the marinade: I stirred together ½ cup of orange juice and 2 tablespoons of lime juice (my substitute for the difficult-to-find sour orange juice traditionally used in mojo) and added the usual seasonings: ground cumin, dried oregano, plenty of minced garlic, and a few red pepper flakes. I also made sure to add a good amount of salt—1½ teaspoons for the 2 pounds of meat. The salt would not only season the meat —it would also dissolve some proteins and loosen the bundles of muscle fibers, making the steak more tender, and hold in water to keep the meat moist.

I pulled out a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, which would be a good vessel for soaking the steaks with minimal overlapping. I refrigerated the steaks for an hour, flipping them at the 30-minute mark to make sure both sides got coated with marinade.

When I removed the steaks from the marinade, I thoroughly patted them dry with paper towels since any excess moisture would inhibit browning; I then rubbed them with a light coating of oil. Over a hot fire (created by distributing 6 quarts of lit coals

evenly over half the grill) the steaks cooked to medium (130 degrees) in 6 to 8 minutes. Although we bring most steaks to medium-rare (125 degrees), we have found that the tougher muscle fibers of skirt steak need to hit 130 degrees before they shrink and loosen enough to turn perfectly tender. I gathered my colleagues grillside to have a taste, and the feedback rolled in: The mojo flavor was coming through beautifully, but the steaks could taste even beefier. Also, the browning was good but not great. I had ideas about how to address both problems, so I reached for the two skirt steaks that had arrived in that morning’s delivery. I was surprised to see that one was almost twice as wide as the other. But they looked similar otherwise, so I carried on. This time I added a little soy sauce to the mojo marinade (to compensate, I halved the amount of salt). Soy sauce can be a secret weapon in marinades: Its salt seasons, and its glutamates enhance savory flavor. Once the steaks were out of the mariSkirt steak’s long, narrow shape makes it unwieldy on the plate, so it is nade and patted dry, I incorporated an typically sliced before serving. ingredient for better browning: baking soda. Added to the oil I had been rubbing onto the steaks, baking soda would help create more substantial browning by raising the meat’s pH. The higher its pH, the better meat is able to hold on to water, so it browns instead of releasing the moisture onto the grill grates and creating steam. A higher pH also speeds up the Maillard reaction, making the treated meat brown even better and more quickly. I was pleased to see the steaks rapidly develop a deep sear on the grill. This was a signal that they were likely done cooking, so I slid them to the cooler side of the grill to take their temperature (their thinness made temping them on the hotter side risky because they could easily overcook). Sure enough, they registered 130 degrees, so I gave them a 10-minute rest to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. As I sampled a few slices, I was happy to find that the meat was not just deeply seasoned but also had an even beefier flavor than

Look: Lan Finds Her Mojo before, thanks to the umami-rich soy sauce. A step-by-step video is available However, the steaks’ texture was a different story: at CooksIllustrated.com/jun18 Even though I’d soaked both the narrow and the wide steaks in the same marinade and cooked them

Skirt (Steak) Shopping

There are two types of skirt steak: inside and outside. The inside skirt comes from the transverse abdominal muscle and is rather tough; the more desirable outside skirt comes from the diaphragm and is quite tender.

W H Y S K I RT S T E A K I S H A R D TO F I N D If you have trouble inding skirt steak, that’s because it’s a hot commodity: There are only four skirt steaks (two outside, two inside) on each cow.

B U Y T H E O U T S I D E S K I RT 3 to 4 inches wide, 1/2 to 1 inch thick, quite tender O N LY F O U R P E R A N I M A L

T WO O U T S I D E

S K I RT S T WO I N S I D E S K I RT S

AVO I D T H E I N S I D E SK I RT 5 to 7 inches wide, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, very chewy

on the same grill to precisely 130 degrees, the narrow steak was much more tender than the wide one. It was only after speaking to several butchers that I understood why: It turns out that there are two types of skirt steak—the inside skirt and the outside skirt—that come from separate parts of the cow and therefore have markedly different textures (for more information, see “Skirt (Steak) Shopping”).

Recycle, Reuse

I prepared one more batch, making sure to use outside skirt steaks. While the meat marinated, I started gathering citrus, garlic, and spices for the mojo sauce I’d been planning. But wait: All the ingredients I needed were already in the leftover marinade. Why not reuse it? I poured it from the baking pan into a saucepan, brought it to a boil to make it food-safe, and took a taste. It needed richness and a little extra acidity to become a sauce, so I stirred in a little lime juice and extra-virgin olive oil. I also tossed in orange and lime zests to give the sauce more of the bright, tropical flavor typical of sour oranges.

Once the steaks were off the grill and had rested, I carefully sliced them against the grain and at an angle (see “How to Slice Tough, Thin Steaks” on page 31) before drizzling on the mojo sauce. My favorite steak had now realized its full potential: The beautifully seared meat was rich, well seasoned, juicy, and tender, and the vibrant sauce played off of it beautifully.

G R I L L E D M O J O - M A R I N AT E D S K I RT S T E A K

SERVES 4 TO 6

Skirt steaks come from two different muscles and are sometimes labeled as inside skirt steak or outside skirt steak. The more desirable outside skirt steak measures 3 to 4 inches wide and ½ to 1 inch thick. Avoid the inside skirt steak, which typically measures 5 to 7 inches wide and ¼ to ½ inch thick, as it is very chewy. Skirt steak is most tender when cooked to medium (130 to 135 degrees). Thin steaks cook very quickly, so we recommend using an instant-read thermometer for a quick and accurate measurement. See page 31 for slicing instructions.

6 garlic cloves, minced 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon grated lime zest plus ¼ cup juice (2 limes) 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried oregano Salt ½ teaspoon grated orange zest plus ½ cup juice ¼ teaspoon red pepper f lakes 2 pounds skirt steak, trimmed and cut with grain into 6- to 8-inch-long steaks 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon baking soda

S C I E N C E A Steak Tailor-Made f or Marinating

We don’t typically marinate steak since we have found that marinades don’t penetrate more than a few millimeters beyond its surface. For a thick-cut steak, that means minimal lavor impact. But skirt steak is diferent: It has much more surface area than other cuts. And because it’s so thin, the ratio of surface area to volume is quite large. That means there is a lot of exterior space for a marinade to lavor. If you look carefully, the grain of a skirt steak forms peaks and valleys like, well, a pleated skirt: The amount of fabric required to make a pleated skirt is much greater than the amount required to make a straight skirt. To illustrate this, we placed a measuring tape on a skirt steak and carefully pressed it into the valleys. When we removed the measuring tape, we found that the surface area for a skirt steak was three times that of a strip steak of the same weight.

S K I RT M O D E L Much like a pleated skirt, the surface of a skirt steak has lots of nooks and crannies. That means it has a large surface area for a marinade to flavor.

1. Combine garlic, soy sauce, 2 tablespoons lime juice, cumin, oregano, ¾ teaspoon salt, orange juice, and pepper flakes in 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Place steaks in dish. Flip steaks to coat both sides with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, flipping steaks halfway through refrigerating. 2. Remove steaks from marinade and transfer marinade to small saucepan. Pat steaks dry with paper towels. Combine 1 tablespoon oil and baking soda in small bowl. Rub oil mixture evenly onto both sides of each steak. 3. Bring marinade to boil over high heat and boil for 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl and stir in lime zest, orange zest, remaining 2 tablespoons lime juice, and remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Set aside sauce. 4A. FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL: About 25 minutes before grilling, open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over half of grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes. 4B. FOR A GAS GRILL: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Turn off 1 burner (if using grill with more than 2 burners, turn off burner farthest from primary burner) and leave other burner(s) on high. 5. Clean and oil cooking grate. Cook steaks on hotter side of grill until well browned and meat registers 130 to 135 degrees (for medium), 2 to 4 minutes per side. (Move steaks to cooler side of grill before taking temperature to prevent them from overcooking.) Transfer steaks to cutting board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut steaks on bias against grain into ½-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices on serving platter, drizzle with 2 tablespoons sauce, and serve, passing extra sauce separately.