4 Day Carne Asada Marinade

Needless to say Jason and I are still raging on with our Mexican Food Bender and we are loving every bite of it.

After the chicken we made last week we were craving Carne Asada Tacos.  Luckily, I found 1 package of skirt steak left at the store.  Last Thursday I began the marinade process for the meat, experimenting with the flavors I love most about the cuisine and what would break down and tenderize the meat during the marinade process.  The night I created the marinade, Jason also felt inspired and made a Roasted Tomatillo and Jalapeno Salsa - Salsa Verde.  It is so good and deserves a symbol with 3.5/5 hot chilies on the side.  Jason and I are a really great team in the kitchen.  Cooking together is one of the huge things that won us both over about each other.  We both really like enjoy experiment with flavors and perfecting our skills at cooking meat properly.  But we definitely excel as a team with me being in charge of flavors and Jason being in charge of cooking (or in this case grilling) the meat.  This was one of our favorite collaborative efforts.

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Marinade Ingredients:

*Proportions are to your discretion*

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1/2 a lemon and 1/2 a lemon rind

Juice of 2 limes and 1/2 a lime rind

Half a white onion sliced
Chili Powder
Cilantro
Dash of kosher salt
Dash of black pepper

How-To:
Saturate meat in marinade and ingredients.
Seal tight.
Place in Refrigerator for however long you want to marinade the meat.
Rotate meat in juices and ingredients every 18-24 hours.

Jason's Salsa Verde is killer.  He roasted the tomatillos and jalapenos before blending them with cilantro onion and vinegar.  He then let the flavors of the salsa meld together as long as the meat was able to marinate.  His Salsa Verde is a beautiful, beautiful thing.  The perfect addition to any meal needing salsa or some Chilies.

Yesterday afternoon Jason let the meat come to room temperature and then he placed the vegetables on a cast iron skillet at the top of the barbecue while cooking the meat in an oven like environment on the bottom half.  To finish it off he placed the meat on the grilled onions with the citrus rinds to add a last punch of flavor to the meat before taking it off the grill.

For us, the meat was cooked to perfection.

For our Carne Asada Tacos we used corn tortillas, chopped the meat into fine pieces, and placed it on top of the grilled onion.  Mixed the Salsa Verde with Sour Cream and it created a decadent dressing for the taco.  I am a Cilantro fiend, so I added a Lot of Cilantro, and some sliced radishes. This taco was killer.  It really fulfilled that empty void we have been trying to fill with authentic Mexican Flavors.

Cheers!