Carne Asada Tacos

Sharlene~W's Note:

I love the spicy carne asada tacos at a local eatery and went in search of a recipe I could use to make them myself. I ran across this one in our local paper.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

For carne asada

• 2 lbs flank steaks or 2 lbs round steaks
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons finely ground Mexican oregano (optional)

Quick Salsa

• 4 plum tomatoes, chopped (Roma)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped fine
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, white and green parts,chopped
• 6 -8 sprigs cilantro, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• salt

Garnishes for Tacos

• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 cup lettuce, shredded
• 1 onion, sliced and grilled (optional)
• 4 -6 green onions, chopped
• fresh lime wedge
• 12 corn tortillas or 12 flour tortillas, warmed

Directions:

1. Marinate meat, then prepare garnish ingredients and salsa before grilling meat.
2. Plan to have tortillas warmed as you are ready to serve meat.
3. For Carne asada: Marinate the thin steaks in lime juice in a shallow glass dish.
4. Let set for 1 minutes, then add garlic, crushed red chile, black pepper, and Mexican oregano (if desired).
5. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes, but longer is better.
6. When grill is red hot, grill steaks on each side for 1-2 minutes.
7. Meat is thin and cooks quickly.
8. Sprinkle meat with coarse salt as it cooks.
9. Let meat cool a couple of minutes, then cut into thin strips against the grain.
10. Serve immediately with warmed tortillas, salsa and garnishes.
11. Salsa: combine all ingredients and season to taste.
12. You should have about 1 1/4 cups.

Reviews

[TJW]

One of my favorites, and pretty close to the original Mexican recipe. I recommend 2 cloves of fresh garlic instead of the powder, and whatever you do, DON'T marinade this for more than 45 minutes. The Lime juice breaks down the fibers in the meat after that and you end up with a mushy steak. The steak will be 'cooked' by the lime juice and you cannot have your medium rare steak anymore. 20 minutes to 40 minutes is perfect. Thanks for keeping it real!

[Lucky in Bayview]

We loved this recipe. We used 5 cloves of fresh garlic and marinated for about 5 hours. Also added some fresh squeezed oj and a couple of sliced jalepenos. Loved it! Thanks for posting.

[mizjmassie]

My Mexican friend told me to leave out the red chili flakes because they don't use them and add orange juice and sliced onion along with fresh garlic and not powder. I did that and the carne asada tasted just like the taco trucks and restaurants in L.A.