I grilled up four pounds of pre-marinaded fajitas from the highly recommended La Michoacana Meat Market in my neighborhood. They ended up having good flavor but were a little too chewy for the amount of praise they have gotten. My favorite fajitas are from La Hacienda Ranch in the DFW Area. Pappasitos are usually spot on as well but I have had a few chewy plates their as well.

What should I do next time? Give La Michoacana another shot with the assumption this batch just wasn't up to par? Try a different Carniceria? Whip up my own batch?

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I don't know what I'm talking about.

How did you cut them?

Curring them against the grain will render a more tender bite that with the grain.

toughness comes from the cut and the quality of the meat - buy better quality and some of this will be reduced.

Treehugger is correct cutting against the grain will help.

Fajitas are always a bit chewy if you are using skirt or flank (though a touch less)

If you want 0 chewiness your gonna have to use a premium cut, in which we all will ridicule you for using it

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Bacon: the candy bar of meat.

They probably didn't peel all the connective tissue off the skirt steaks. This will cause them to still be chewy, no matter how you cut them.

That's the problem with buying pre-marinated fajitas. If they don't get all the connective tissue, you certainly don't want to try to do it after they've been marinated, as it is an utter mess to attempt.

Go to a butcher and order outside skirt steak or better yet loin flap.

Honestly, you could just salt and pepper that then give it a squeeze of lime as it finishes off the grill and you would have bettet fajitas than anything pre-marinated

For my marinade i use a small can of pineapple juice, about 1/2 cup lime juice, good size splash of soy, 3/4 cup of Claude's fajita marinade, a bunch of smashed garlic cloves, and some chipolte puree or diced fresh jalapeno. Marinate 3-4 hours. NEVER marinate anything overnight.

Consider this reply from the land of Fajitas/Arracheras.

First, get true Fajitas either inside or outside, I prefer inside. Buy them before they have been cut on, altered or anything of the like. Then have the butcher, hopefully you are buying them at a carniceria, trim all the sliver skin and connective tissue from them, as well as some of the large/long patches of fat.

After this is done have the slab of fajita cut in two pieces at a mid point where ir goes from thick to thinner. Then ask said butcher to butterfly the thicker part so it ios about even with the remain unbutterflyed piece.

Marinate with whatever you like. Locally we tend to go simple, italian dressing+some lime+seasoned salt+maybe some beer+maybe some woreshesrtire sauce (I like salsa Maggi, but have not seen it in the US but large stores like Fiesta in Hou probably have it).

Now onto the cooking of them. I like to sear each side over a hot fire for a brief time and then remove from that intense heat and let them cook slow until they are medium well. Always cut cross grain and I would not cut until immediately before serving. Many times we do not cut at all, we serve as God intended as a small slab.

Many of the fajitas you get in the good eating places have been run through a tenderizer a couple oif times and or are not real fajitas.

If you go to a Mexican carniceria ask for a couple of these cuts and try them out: "agujas nortenas" "costillas cargadas" "flecha de costilla". Thank me later, especially on the agujas.

to add to RGV

Maggi is at HEB its a red and yellow bottle either near the other maggi stuff(boullion) or its in the Asian section. Its basically liquid MSG and good stuff

I feel that you can make a better marinade than Itlaian dressing, but I make Southwest style.

My base - though I get creative with different chili powders/ground chilis.

Oil
Chili Powder
Lime Juice
Onion minced
Garlic minced
soy(here you can add/sub the Maggi)
Cilantro
Peppers

Thanks for the tip Bonfire, I appreciate it as I love Maggi, but u broke my heart with the MSG disclosure, haha.

Your marinade sounds really good. We rarely get very elaborate down here as we were cooking up fajitas when they were $0.89 a pound at the Valley Mart and HEB didn't even carry them. We were just kids eating cheap while hunting and fishing and figuring out how to do it.

I would have to agree that an elaborate well pepared marinade does make a difference. I should have also noted that mesquite wood also helps the taste greatly. I usually do not like to buy the marinated type from places like La Michoacana as they tend to not butcher the Fajitas real well. Plus, and I can promise you this, the marinade you get probably varies greatly from location to location.

Good info Bonfire

I have always done well with Michoacana b/c the meat is so thin it makes it tender and easy to chew.

There is a restaurant supply place in Bryan I believe called Skimardos market or something like that. Their marinated fajita meat is amazing!

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll exhaust all of the pre-marinade options by trying all of the different carnicerias around me first...which may take a while. If none of them turn out to be tender I'll go the route of whipping up my own.

If I did want to upgrade to a more tender "non-fajita" cut what would I ask for. Are those mentioned in RGV non-english list? What are their English equivalents in case I want to grab something from Sams.

Angel:

The only one I know to translate somewhat accurately is "Costillas cargadas", some places in the US have those as English Ribs or something like that. They are basically cross cut ribs.

The others I know how to buy in Spanish and eat, but don't know how to ask for in English. Sorry.

Just get the loin flap or outside skirt bro.

Rule of thumb.......if I dispense advice on a food thread it means it's the best advice you're going to get

quote:

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Sams

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You just cut off your own feet....We said quality beef = more tender. There is no quality beef at walmart/sams. You get what you pay for.



Go suck on you BGE fido

"You just cut off your own feet....We said quality beef = more tender. There is no quality beef at walmart/sams. You get what you pay for."

Actually Walmart just started a program in late 2011 that upgraded their meat selections significantly. If I remember correctly they now offer one of the top grades of USDA Choice beef.

I never bought meat at walmart in the past but I am going to give it a try. Google it ......you might be surprised at the quality/value they are offering.

I much rather support my local butcher, know where my food comes from, and not trust a company that buys in the quantities of walmart.

Now they have a great business model for toilet paper, blenders, low quality clothes, etc. But when it come to fresh food, HELL NO!!!!



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Bacon: the candy bar of meat.

Here is the info on Walmart beef.......


Walmart speaks; You listening?

Like it or not, the chain carries clout. Walmart accounts for 10 to 15% of all U.S. retail beef. In November, a quiet but highly significant change occurred in Walmart policy. Instead of offering primarily Select grade, the retailer started featuring Choice beef at all 3,800 stores nationwide.

Walmart’s move was in direct response to shopper’s demands for a higher quality product. It was a very successful move. It’s no coincidence that shortly thereafter the Choice/Select price spread widened dramatically from $3 to $5 to $17 to $19!

If you’re selling fed cattle, you can’t ignore the “Walmart effect” on your paychecks. Assuming an $18 per hundredweight price spread on the carcass of a 1,300-pound steer dressing 63%, you’ll gross about $147 more per head for that Choice animal.

Now you are free to make whatever choice you want. And that is part of what make this country great. I understand why you would make that choice too. I support that.

But, not me! I want to know where my food comes from......

If you review my post, I did not say I bought my beef at Walmart. In fact I never have (yet).

However, you made the statement that they do not offer quality beef and I just wanted to point out that that is not a true statement. If you are in the middle of nowhere and want a good steak to grill, it is nice to know you can go to the local Walmart and purchase USDA choice beef.

Cheers!

But what happens to the thousands of small restaurants that can no longer afford choice?

Now I am looking at it from ONLY MY perspective.


Ill keep supporting my local guy/rancher that I KNOW raises he animals well, treats them well, and is committed to quality. Not some org that decided one day, last year, to grab a bigger piece of the pie.

Yes they have clout, they are one of the most successful companies of all time. BUT HELL NO im not listening, they lost me a LONG time ago and have for life.

IMO they did not do it the right way. Maybe im an idealist, looking at the world through rose colored glasses.

But i got a choice where i spend my money, and it aint there.

True! That was "Late 2011" I had not heard that.

Yes if you can get Choice - then you have decent quality. That is a new development though....

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Bacon: the candy bar of meat.

Even if they upgrade to choice they still put it in those funked up nitrogen packages that give the meat a bizarre texture. I don't and won't buy meat at Wal-Mart and nothing will ever change that.

Sams has only had choice as long as I've bought there, but I'm not any kind of meat expert so that's the end of the discussion for me.

Had some steaks from Sam's a couple of times, not bad, but nothing terribly outstanding. I would not buy fajitas from there.

Back on topic, for those gringos who looking as out of place in carnicerias as I do, this article was pretty insightful:

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2398-choice-cut-or-mystery-meat-a-guide-to-mexican-butcher-shops-part-i-beef

Angel:

Wow,that was a very complete and informative article. Interesting to say the least. I had to grin though, as I saw words/terms in there I had not heard since I was a kid in Mexico City.

One note, Mexican food and Mexican cuts of meat are very regional. Typically, what I have found anyway, is that at meat markets like "La Michoacana" are geared to Northern Mexicans and "Tex-Mex's" even though the name is "La Michoacana", which is really a generic name commonly used in Mexico for meat and vegetable stores that have fresh stuff. Thus, you need to be geared to ask what they will know. I would be really surprised if you could go into a La Michoacana and ask for aguayón or solomillo and they knew what it was.

For instance that article does not mention "Chuleton", which is a lower cut bone in ribsteak, or part of the ribeye. It is a very popular and favorite cut in Mexico, one I get often and it is good I recommend it. That article also mentions "panza" or "panzita", which is what I grew up knowing as what the Northern Mexicans and Tex-Mex's call "Menudo".

It also does not address "Fajita" a cut of meat, which it most certainly is. "Arracheras" are not "Fajitas". Fajita is a cut of meat, not a style. If you want there is a big thread from earlier this year on AO that dealt with this. I digress. Anyway, I like arracheras a lot but my wife, a Tex-Mex in skin color only, thinks they are tough. So does my halfbreed daughter. So when I do fajitas I get true fajitas as I have found them to be more tender, but with less flavor than arracheras.

Agujas, and Agjas Nortenas are also different, as are costillas and flecha de costillas. I would highly recommend that you get some fajitas and have them do what I mentioned above, and get a couple of agujas nortenas as well as 4-6 costillas cargadas and cook them all the same way and marinate the same. It should come out very well. I will be eating/making the above combo this saturday at a get together as well.

My preferred marinade for fajitas:

a little oil
minced garlic
minced onion
a little beer
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, seeded and diced
juice of 2 or 3 small limes
chili powder
cumin

Marinate for at least 2 hours if not over night.

All fajitas are delicious and all the suggestions in this thread will make awesome fajitas.

Seriously, I've made great fajitas and I've made good fajitas (I think with me it's random because I can never duplicate it) but I've never made fajitas that I didn't love. It's a magical food...

quote:

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Fajita is a cut of meat, not a style.

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Since fajitas developed in Northern Mexico and leaked into the U.S via the Valley (maybe "The Roundup" in Pharr, maybe not) I suggest y'all listen to RGV-AG.

I also sear and then cook indirect. When I'm doing a bunch, like for a party I us my five burner gas grill with the right most burner on high the next medium, the next very low and the last two off. I then start each fajita on the right side and then flip it one width to the left after about 20 seconds. By the time they reach the end of the grill (by "walking" each fajita flip by flip down the length of the grill) they are done. By the time the grill is full you just continually walk one to the next position down, and by the time one works it's way down, it's done.

I marinate in Worstershire (lots of it) cheap red wine and some Kraft plain BBQ sauce plus lots of ground black pepper.

Interesting technique Cecil. What kind of meat do you use and where do you get it? How chewy are they?

If tenderness is what you seek, add a can of Shiner beer to whichever marinade you choose to use and thank me later.

Oh yeah, thx! I do add a bottle of beer to the marinade. Usually Shiner.

I just get the fajitas (skirt) at H.E.B. I do trim them pretty thoroughly, but not obsessively.

The key, I think is the slow cooking after the initial sear. It's a greasy meat with plenty of connective tissue, and you gotta give it some time. I also marinate overnight, but I don't know that that makes any difference.

And as has been mentioned, cutting "on the bias" makes all the difference in the world. However, as RGV mentioned, I'll also just take a slab and gnaw on it, and it's not at all tough.

[This message has been edited by cecil77 (edited 1/16/2012 8:37a).]

Don Cecilio knows his stuff about this deal, he was cooking fajitas when J.C. was a corporal.

One note, I was in the Houston airport today and got some grup at Papasitos, I think they have good food and their burritos are very good, and I can say that they start their fajitas with true, original fajita cuts of meat. I seenctit with my own two eyes as they went on the grill, they also cut cross grain in thin slices and it looks like they migrate them from the hottest to the less hottest part of the grill.

I concur with Don Cecilio, if you can cook fajitas a while they are very good, but you have to watch the heat to avoid drying them out. His method of migrating sounds really good, I had not really ever thought of something like that. I would just take them off and wrap the *****out of them in tinfoil so they did not cook too much as I went along.

lol at the above post

Let's review

Cut
fido - Outside skirt steak or loin flap
Pappasitos - Outside skirt steak
cecil - regular (inside) skirt steak

Marinade
fido - see my recipe above. 4 hour marinade
Pappasitos - Propriatary, however, believed to be similar to mine sans Claude's. Vacuum marinated for a couple of hours
cecil - Red wine, barbecue sauce, black pepper, and beer. Overnight

Heat source
fido - Natural lump mesquite hardwood charcoal
Pappasitos - Mesquite wood burned down to embers
cecil - Propane gas

Technique
fido - High heat cooked to medium. Vertically cut into strips against the grain
Pappasitos - High heat cooked to medium. Vertically cut into strips (Not bias cut). Against the grain
cecil - Cooked well done but not long enough to break down connective tissue. Cut on the bias

2/3 of these methods yield flavorful, tender fajitas that maintain the integrity of the beef flavor. I'll let you decide which ones I'm talking about.

Some corrections to my method.

* Results in medium to medium rare, pink to red on the inside

* Be careful grilling with mesquite, it can impart a "medicinal" flavor to the meat. Never smoke with mesquite.

* the sear + low and slow allows the meat to cook for a long enough time to break down the connective tissue and slowly cook off the fat, which makes them "self basting" of a sort. The result is both juicy and tender.

* my fajitas are always tender. I don't even have to slice them, however they fit better in a taco when I do.

* Maybe I'm using the words wrong, but "on the bias" and "against the grain" mean pretty much the same thing to me. To be clearer, I slice against the grain and on a bevel. I think that Alton Brown recommends cutting on a bevel, but my experience is that if you're eating them right off the grill they present better that way.

* works best with thicker fajitas


And I'd like to add that if you're gonna insult the fajitas of a Tex/Mex border native, you'd be better off telling him that his wife is ugly with a big butt - he'd take it better!



[This message has been edited by cecil77 (edited 1/17/2012 3:20p).]