Using just a few ingredients, many of which are store cupboard essentials, steak tacos are both easy to make at home and relatively healthy – perfect for weeknight dinners. Served on flour or corn tortillas, the quickly seared steak is marinated with lime juice, cumin, chilli, paprika and oregano, teamed with bell peppers and onion, ready to eat in under an hour. Many toppings are also suitable, but sliced avocado, salsa, coriander, and crumbled Mexican cheese are recommended (if available).
Steak Tacos Cooking Tips
You can use practically any steak for this recipe, but inexpensive cuts are the best here. Bavette, skirt, flank, or even rump work well. Ideally use a thin steak, however, as it will cook quicker and be better suited to this steak tacos recipe.
If using bavette, skirt or flank steak, it’s worth increasing the marinating time to around an hour or two to make the meat more tender.
If using super fresh or homemade tortillas, corn are arguably much better, but if not supermarket-bought flour tortillas are generally the best for this steak tacos recipe.
The toppings are completely customisable, based on personal preference. I like to top my steak tacos with either Mexican cheese, sliced avocado, salsa and coriander; or simply with finely diced white onion and chopped coriander – like at La Chingada, arguably the best taqueria in London. Guacamole, sour cream, refried beans, and pickled onions or radishes are also suitable.
Shop-bought salsa is fine if you’re in a hurry, but homemade salsa is infinitely better.
Resting the steak after cooking is absolutely crucial. Not only will this help remove some of the blood, it will also keep the beef used for your steak tacos both tender and succulent.
Cutting the steak across the grain will also make it far more tender.
If steak isn’t available, the same recipe can be followed with chicken, prawns, pork, or any white fish – just adjust the cooking times accordingly.
Equipment
- Cast-iron skillet or large frying pan
- Large saucepan
Ingredients
- 8-12 flour or corn tortillas
- 4 beef steaks ideally something inexpensive such as flank, bavette, skirt or rump – marinate for 1-2 hours if using flank, bavette or skirt)
- 1 small brown onion
- 1 small red onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- ½ tbsp smoked paprika
- ½ tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chilli flakes I like ancho, arbol, or pasilla
- 1 tsp dried oregano ideally Mexican oregano
- 1 lime juice only
- 2 tsp sugar
- Salt
- Neutral cooking oil such as vegetable or rapeseed oil
- Fresh coriander to garnish
- Optional toppings such as sliced avocado, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheese, or refried beans
Instructions
- To begin, add the steaks to a large plate or mixing bowl and add the smoked paprika, ground cumin, chilli, dried oregano, and a generous pinch of salt. Rub all over the steaks, then add a healthy splash of cooking oil and the lime juice. Rub again and leave to marinate for 20-30 minutes.
- While the steak is marinating, roughly slice the onions and de-seed the peppers and cut into strips.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet or large frying pan until screaming hot and add the onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes, turning often, until lightly coloured, then transfer to a large saucepan and continue to cook over low heat, stirring often.
- Add the peppers, skin-side down, to the hot skillet and cook over high heat until the skin blisters. This should take 2-3 minutes. Turn the peppers over and continue to cook for a minute or two.
- Add the peppers to the saucepan with the onions and add 2 teaspoons of sugar. Increase the heat and stir often for a minute until the sugar dissolves and the onions and peppers begin to caramelise. Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan and continue to cook on high heat until the water dissolves. Once dissolved, reduce the heat to its lowest setting.
- While the water is dissolving, add the steak to the hot skillet and cook over high heat for around 2-3 minutes on each side, or to your liking. Remove from the pan and rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing into approx. 8-10mm strips.
- While the steak rests, return the peppers and onions to the skillet. Decrease the heat to the lowest possible and continue to cook while you warm the tortillas.
- In a separate pan, warm the tortillas for 15-20 seconds on each side then eat as quickly as possible, filling the tortillas with the steak slices, onion-peppers mixture and optional toppings such as sliced avocado, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheese, refried beans, and a good pinch of fresh coriander.
Related: How To Make: Chicken Fajitas
