Skirt Steak Question

[bowhnter]

Curious, does sous vide do anything for it?

 

[edmonds]

Definitely buy outside skirt if you can.
So I'm visiting Houston and go to Ninfa's, a highly regarded Mexican restaurant. Menu has skirt steak fajitas for $38. Most outside skirts go to restaurants so I order it. Tasty but tough as shoe leather. A few days later I go to a "regular" Mexican restaurant. They have skirt steak on menu for $16 so I give it a try. Man was that good. Tender - musta been outside skirt. It just goes to show.

 

[darita]

Curious, does sous vide do anything for it?

I tried to SV skirt and it turned out kinda mushy and not juicy, but maybe I didn’t do it right.

 

[bowhnter]

I happen to have one thawing, gonna give it a try tomorrow.

 

[food4thot]

Curious, does sous vide do anything for it?

Don't sous vide but think it would be an incredible waste of time on perhaps the finest/fastest piece of grilling meat there is.

 

[darita]

I happen to have one thawing, gonna give it a try tomorrow.

Go for it. SS tastes great as is, if you’ve got good teeth and a strong jaw, even when you cut thinly against the grain. I happen to like my meat cut a little thicker than that, so finding the tenderizing sweet spot would be wonderful. So far, jacarding like crazy seems to work best.

 

[Cat797]

Haven't found outside skirt, but can always find inside skirt steak. It is my go to for fajitas when we do them. I marinate in lime juice, wooster, oil, with onions, jalapenos, and cilantro. Cook super fast over a screaming hot fire to rare/med. rare. It's awesome. A little chewy, but you can't beat the flavor........

 

[LYU370]

So I'm visiting Houston and go to Ninfa's, a highly regarded Mexican restaurant.

Hit Papasito's Cantina. Small regional chain I think. More on the expensive side, awesome fajitas, house made tortillas. Get the quail appetizer, OMG, so good. Just stay away from Papasito's BBQ place, forget the name of it. Horrible, horrible stuff.

 

[bowhnter]

Go for it. SS tastes great as is, if you’ve got good teeth and a strong jaw, even when you cut thinly against the grain. I happen to like my meat cut a little thicker than that, so finding the tenderizing sweet spot would be wonderful. So far, jacarding like crazy seems to work best.

This past fall I bought a skirt steak at Sam’s and froze half.
The first I grilled like folks mentioned above, 2-3 minutes per side, but I used no marinade, no jaccard. It was tough as hell, and no matter the taste was no fun at all.

Today I SV the other half. I had seen anywhere from 90 minutes to 12 to 24 hours so I did 8 hours at 131*.
We were very happy with it, not mushy, and after a 45 second hot sear each side on the Weber it was very tasty and easily bit through.

So now, my wife wants to get more. I will cut a hunk off and see what the jaccard will do, but SV will most likely be the way I cook it going forward.
Tough meat just isn’t worth it to me, no matter how good it might taste.

 

[darita]

This past fall I bought a skirt steak at Sam’s and froze half.
The first I grilled like folks mentioned above, 2-3 minutes per side, but I used no marinade, no jaccard. It was tough as hell, and no matter the taste was no fun at all.

Today I SV the other half. I had seen anywhere from 90 minutes to 12 to 24 hours so I did 8 hours at 131*.
We were very happy with it, not mushy, and after a 45 second hot sear each side on the Weber it was very tasty and easily bit through.

So now, my wife wants to get more. I will cut a hunk off and see what the jaccard will do, but SV will most likely be the way I cook it going forward.
Tough meat just isn’t worth it to me, no matter how good it might taste.

Mike, thanks. I don’t remember how long or at what temp I SV my SS that came out not great. Now I’ll def have to try your recipe. One thing I do remember was that lots of the juice came out in the bag and the meat was not juicy when we ate it. Did yours come out juicy?

 

[bowhnter]

Yes, lots of liquid in the bag, like most SV.
The skirt did not leave a lot on the cutting board, but still tender.
I really didn’t notice an issue when eating it.

I don’t cook skirt steak much. This may have been my 2nd time.
Based on the comments above, I would definitely just cook hot n fast on the grill if I knew for certain it was outside skirt to see how that turned out for comparison.

 

[Itsdone]

Flank and Skirt works well with a quick high heat sear on the grill, then low and slow till it reaches 130F. I have an anova precision oven, but in the past ive used a toaster oven that went down to 130F.

 

[cayenne]

Costco

Not sure what I've found here over the years is inside or outside. All I know is it's one of my favorite cuts to grill. Hot & fast. One flip, no more than 3 minutes a side. Doesn't require marinating. SPOG works fine.

Rarely see it at meat counters anymore. I've theorized butchers take most of it home.

I see skirt steak pretty readily at Costco.

And if they don't have that, I've been playing with the "sirloin flap meat" they always have there that looks, cooks and is VERY close to skirt steak.....

As for tough skirt steak.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe I've had it with a membrane that I had to peel off....similar to the tough membrane on pork ribs.

I found when I had skirt steak with membrane on it, it made a HUGE difference if I took the time to peel that off.

cayenne

 

[darita]

I see skirt steak pretty readily at Costco.

And if they don't have that, I've been playing with the "sirloin flap meat" they always have there that looks, cooks and is VERY close to skirt steak.....

As for tough skirt steak.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe I've had it with a membrane that I had to peel off....similar to the tough membrane on pork ribs.

I found when I had skirt steak with membrane on it, it made a HUGE difference if I took the time to peel that off.

cayenne

Ya…gotta get that and the silver skin off with a fillet knife. Can’t beat that jacarding though.