The Ultimate Guide To Buying Slicing And Cooking Skirt Steak
Ever wondered about cooking skirt steak or about the difference between a skirt steak and other long, thin, and flat steaks? Well, wonder no more! Heres your easy guide to finding, slicing, and cooking skirt steak.
Where its from: the skirt steak is from the plate part of the cow as seen in the graphic below:
Pros and cons: good, nice strong beefy flavor, excellent in fajitas or beef rolls. It does contain more muscle than other flat steaks, so its important that not to overcook when cooking skirt steakthey should always be served medium rare to rare for ultimate tenderness and flavor.
Similar steaks: the flatiron, the flank, and the blade/flap. The skirt steak isnt quite as tender as some of these other ones , but it does have some great flavor!
Where to buy: You can order organic grass fed skirt steaks online on our website via the button below!
Cooking skirt steak: skirt steaks are good , though since they are a bit cumbersome they dont fit as well in a pan. You can skip the marinade and still make a delicious steak, though skirt steaks are not quite as tender as, say, flatirons. You can also use skirt steaks in beef rolls, but be sure to pound the meat to tenderize it first and break down the muscles in it ! And of course skirt steaks are great in fajitas. Just be sure you dont overcook! Another delicious way to make skirt steaks is this tasty slow cooker method !
1. Slice up the raw steak.
Grilling Carne Asada Skirt Steak
Skirt steak of any variety is going to be relatively thin. And, as its best-served medium-rare, you will want to cook it on a very hot grill. The total cooking time was less than 8 minutes. Use an instant-read thermometer and pull the steak when its at 120 degrees. With a four to five minute rest, youll be right at medium rare when you slice it. Speaking of slicing skirt steak youll want to cut it against the grain.
As always, I hope you enjoy!
Note- I am a paid ambassador for Mishima Reserve Beef. However, all recipes and opinions are my own.
How To Cook This Steak
The marinated skirt steak has been processed to increase tenderness and as a result Costco advises that you cook it to an internal temperature of 160F.
Normally, cooking a steak to 160F would make it Well Done and completely ruin the poor thing. However, this steak has been tenderized with a papaya extract and pumped up by 22% in weight with a marinade.
Between the tenderizer and 22% marinade you could cook this thing with a blow torch and it would still come out tender and juicy.
There is usually over three pounds of steak per package which is more than I need for most fajita dinners. I like to cut the steak in half before cooking and reserve one of the halves for grilling later in the week.
I grill these steaks over direct high heat for five minutes per side. When I am using my Weber Q1200 I let the grill preheat for 15 minutes so the heavy cast iron grates are at a temperature of about 520F when the steak starts cooking.
As always, use a digital thermometer to measure the internal temperature. And again, even though every part of my body is screaming at me to take this steak off when it hits 135F I keep grilling to 160F.
If you dont have a grill then you can sear this under the broiler in your oven.
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Recipes For Skirt Steak
Although perfect on a hot grill, you can also cook a skirt steak in a cast-iron skillet or under the broilerâor anything else you can get extremely hot. Just remember, you need to cook this cut very hot and very fast. Under no circumstances should skirt steak be cooked past medium-rare it will be way too tough.
If youâre making fajitas or any other stir-fry dish, slice it up first , then marinate and cook it.
Where Is Skirt Steak Commonly Found
Skirt steak is commonly found in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
In the United States, its usually referred to as a butchers steak or a bavette.
In the United Kingdom, its generally called a skirt, although some British butchers may call this cut a sirloin skirt or a mini-sirloin.
New Zealand and Australia both refer to this steak as a sirloin skirt. In all three countries, it is one of the least expensive steaks out there, making it ideal for budget-friendly, family dinners.
This cut of meat is among the least expensive beef options in the meat case. Its also one of the leanest steaks you can buy.
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Fall Off The Bone Lamb Shanks
This recipe is perfect for the cold autumn/wintery months! Not to mention it’s one of our favourites here at Kerrigans. Have a go yourself and make sure to let us know how you get on!First, brown off the shanks in the frying pan. Brown them on every side you can reach. Heat some oil in a casserole dish and add the vegetables. When they begin to soften, add the lamb shanks and season them. Season them well, and then add in some wine and stock. Pop a lid on and and place the casserole dish in the oven at 140 celcius. Here comes the patient part.
How Is Skirt Steak Best Prepared
Preparing skirt steak is also easy, simply ensure that you set aside enough time to pull together everything you need, then have your cooking method ready to go.
The most common way to prepare steak is searing it in a pan or grill it, but you can also cut skirt steak into thin strips and add it to stir-fries.
Ensure you season the skirt steak with salt and pepper beforehand and use any steak rub that you prefer.
Other than this, theres not a lot more you need to do to prepare this cut.
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How To Shop For And Cook Skirt Steak
This lesser-known cut is worth seeking out: It’s quick-cooking its loose, open fibers are great at soaking up a marinade and it’s beefy, tender, and juicy.
We highly recommend tender, beefy skirt steak. But it turns out that this cut takes 2 different forms, and we strongly prefer one type over the other. We’ll show you what to look for to ensure you get the right type of skirt steak, explain why marinades work so well with this cut, and give you some great recipes to try.
How To Cook Skirt Steak
Both outside and inside skirt have a good amount of fat within and between the muscle strands, which helps keep it moist when grilling it. The grain on the inside skirt is a little bit wider, so it might have slightly more fat.
A lot of skirt steak recipes call for marinating the meat before grilling it, and because of its looser structure, skirt steak will absorb the flavors of the marinade quite well. But thereâs no need to marinate it for more than 30 minutes or so, as .
Since skirt steak is tough, the best way to cook it is very quickly over the hottest grill you can get. As a matter of fact, some people will even skip the grill altogether and cook it directly on the coals. This actually works quite well, because you do not want to overcook skirt steak. Cooking it directly on the coals gets the surface of the meat nice and brown very quickly, without cooking the inside of the meat for too long. Ideal doneness is medium-rare to medium.
Most importantly, skirt steak absolutely must be sliced thinly against the grain. Because itâs so long, your best bet is to cut it into shorter sections first and then slice those sections across the grain.
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How Do You Serve Skirt Steak
Skirt steak can be served as a main dish with roasted potatoes or grilled vegetables.
My sauce of choice is a tangy avocado chimichurri. Slice it up for fajitas with sautéed peppers and onions. Put it on a salad, with greens like romaine, spring mix, or arugula with a tangy vinaigrette. Chop it up to make quesadillas or nachos.
If I ever have leftovers, I always look forward to the next morning’s breakfast, so I can enjoy it with over-easy eggs, sliced avocados, and sautéed spinach.
Tips For Cooking The Best Skirt Steak
Slice up the skirt steak into pieces. Marinate the skirt steak for about 30 minutes, or if you want to enjoy the real flavor of the skirt steak just sprinkle some salt and black pepper over it.
After you remove the skirt steak from the marinade, pat dry with a paper towel. This will remove any excess moisture, so the meat can make a crust easily.
Make sure to heat the grill properly before you put the steak on. For a medium rear cooked steak, you need to cook each side of the steak for 2-5 minutes depending on its thickness.
Remove the steak from the grill and leave it on a warm plate to rest for a few minutes, so the juices can redistribute inside the steak.
Slice the skirt steak against the grain, and enjoy the perfectly tender piece of steak.
You can serve the skirt steak with grilled vegetables or grilled potatoes. You can also slice it and put it in a salad, or fajitas with some sauteed onions and peppers.
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How Long Can Skirt Steak Be Marinated
Skirt steak and flank steak are ideally marinated for 4 to 12 hours. Skirt steak can be marinated overnight, or for up to 24 hours. Although you can marinate skirt steak for longer, it wont improve the flavoring, and may break down the meat too much.
As steak marinades, the flavoring penetrates through the fibers of the meat. For tougher cuts, such as flank and skirt, this helps to break down these fibers and tenderize the meat. The loose knit fibers of the skirt steak makes it the ideal meat for marinating, and the strong beef flavor works well with a range of spices.
Acid is a vital ingredient in a marinade, as this is what breaks the fibers. When the meat is left to marinate for too long, it breaks these fibers too much. Rather than becoming tender, the meat turns mushy.
Why Skirt Steak Is A Great Cut To Marinate
We dont typically marinate steak since we have found that beyond its surface. For a thick-cut steak, that means minimal flavor impact. But skirt steak is different: It has much more surface area than other cuts. And because its 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 flavor. 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.
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How To Prepare Flank Steak For Grilling Or Smoking
Set yourself up for success by prepping your flank before you start grilling. Just follow these simple steps.
You should not need to trim anything off your flank steak since theres very little fat already. That means you can move straight to marinating or rubbing.
The heavy grain allows this cut to take marinade nicely, adding a lot of flavor and tenderness. You could also opt for a seasoned rub, including salt, to tenderize and flavorize before grilling.
For a more hands-on approach to tenderizing, you might want to hammer your flank steak with a tenderizing mallet. Unlike the skirt, the flank is thick enough to make this an option.
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What Is Flank Steak
As you move towards the rear end of the cow, we get flank steak. Flank steak is a favorite in many countries and has earned nicknames, like Babette in French and sobrebarriga in Columbia.
Being from the belly of the cow, flank steak is lean with lots of muscle fibers. There is often fat along the edges of the meat, with light marbling. A sizable chunk of meat that can be tough to eat if not cooked properly. Along with skirt steak, we often use flank steak for fajitas.
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Where Does The Inside Skirt Steak Come From
The inside skirt steak is just below and a little further back the outside skirt steak. It goes deeper into the body wall which is where the name comes from and is wider because of fats.
It is in the middle of the body of the cow and is right below the ribs. Because of its relatively higher fat content, the inside skirt steak extends to the lower parts ribs.
This cut of meat extends to the beef flank primal cut. However, when a butcher prepares it properly, it is cut from the ribs, leaving the other part of the meat to the flank.
The inside skirt steak usually weighs more than the outside skirt steak. However, when cooked, the inside skirt steak shrinks more because of the more compact muscle content.
The outside skirt steak, since it has a bit of space between the muscles, shrinks less. Along with its evenly cut shape, the lesser shrinkage is what makes it great for restaurant meals.
Whats The Difference Between Skirt Steak And Flank Steak
Both skirt steak and flank steak are lean cuts of beef that are often grilled, pan-seared on the stovetop, or stir-fried.
Flank steak comes from the flank primal, the abdominal area right next to the short plate, where the skirt is located. It has a less intense beefy flavor compared to the skirt, and it is noticeably thicker.
A good visual cue is that skirt steak has its grain running across the width of the meat, whereas flank runs lengthwise. With both steaks, you want to cut them across the grain to end up with a tender slice.
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A Quick Dry Rub Packs Flavor Into This Steak
Skirt steak, my favorite beef for quick grilling, benefits from rubs and marinades. My Meat Seasoning is excellent here. The skirt is cut from under the breast of the steer and rarely is thicker than 3/4 inch, which makes for quick cooking. When you buy skirt steak, ask for the outside cut, which is a little more tender than the inside cut .
How To Cook Skirt Steak:
Ive written a pretty comprehensive blog about the best way to cook skirt steak here, where I discuss using a very high heat to sear while not cooking past medium rare. This cut of beef is also great for marinating the course grain and thin nature of the cut allows marinade to work well for thin slices used for tacos and quesadillas.
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Who You Should Serve Each Cut To
Both cuts are great options for you, your family, and your guests. They are tasty, affordable, and popular at barbecues. As weve said though, one thing to note is because of their tough fibers, these cuts can be harder to chew. Young kids and seniors might find flank easier to consume. If you get skirt, be sure to remove all of the membrane and excess fat so everyone can enjoy.
Flavor Texture Fat Content And Tenderness
With its open grain and distinct marbling, the skirt has a reputation for big flavor and tenderness when cooked correctly.
Having lots of muscles connected by fat, this cut has a fabulous fatty flavor, but dont expect it to taste like a regular steak. It has a profoundly unique flavor that is buttery and very beefy, which some liken to the richness of liver but with a nicer steak-like consistency.
The open grain takes very well to a marinating.
Normally, not getting much past the surface, a marinade is somewhat wasted on a steak, but with the skirt it has open ridges and a wide grain that the marinade can soak into, meaning it holds a lot more of it and can stand up to the strong flavor with its intense beef hit.
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Easy Italian Marinated Skirt Steak
Easy Italian Marinated Skirt Steak is a delicious dinner recipe! This simple steak is packed with Italian flavors then seared to perfection.
This steak is great for meal prep, a keto diet, an easy lunch idea, or simple dinner recipe.
I love pairing this steak with a simple salad, but you can add this to just about anything!
Whats The Difference Between Outside Skirt Steak And Inside Skirt Steak
Glad you ask!
Outside Skirt Steak is a popular meat cut praised for its rich fat marbling, tenderness and flavor. This is a very favorite cut among Argentinians, who also know it as âentrañaâ. On the other hand, Inside Skirt Steak comes from the flank and is thinner, leaner and narrower than its outside counterpart.
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