Discover 7 different options for steaks you can use when you want to make beef fajitas at home.
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My Own Cast Iron Fajita Set
A lot of the time, when you're at a Mexican restaurant and you order fajitas, they come out sizzling on a cast iron skillet with a piece of wood underneath. The sounds and the smells are just so intoxicating! You have to resist digging it immediately so you don't burn your tongue!
I wanted to recreate that experience at home. I got to visit the Lodge headquarters in Tennessee, where they make their cast iron products—and that's where I found these:
Whenever I make my own fajitas now, I use my cast iron skillet, bringing that restaurant experience to my own home whenever I want it.
Now that I got the perfect cooking equipment, I have spend some time trying different cuts of beef for fajitas and am here to share with you what different cuts make the best fajitas. We got some of the usual options as well as a few ones you may not have heard of yet.
Types of Steaks To Use for Fajitas
When you are picking out what type of steak you want to use for fajitas:
- You want steaks that are not too thick, so they cook quickly and get a nice ratio of char.
- You want your steak to be flavorful. Of course!
- You want the steak to be easy to cut without too much gristle or excessive fat.
Here is a list of steaks that I believe meet these requirements.
- Skirt - The two more popular cuts used for fajitas are skirt steak and flank steak. There are two types of skirt steak - inner and outer skirt steak. The inner steak has the advantage of being thinner which is good for fajitas, but the outer skirt steak is more tender. In most cases, I say go for the outer skirt steak when making fajitas. I do have a recipe for Sous Vide Skirt Steak for Fajitas, that you can use the inner skirt steak for. Since you can cook it longer via sous vide it gets tender enough.
- Flank - Flank steak is another popular cut of fajitas. It's also thin and is easy to slice - always do it against the grain for the most tender meat. Flank steak is also the perfect steak to marinade. Because of it's structure it soaks up marinates better than any other beef cut I have tried. If you wish to learn all the different things you can do with it check out my post - What to Do with Flank Steak.
- Hanger - Similar to both the skirt steak and the flank steak, hanger steak tends to be more tender and have more marbling than those two. It's for sure underrated steak for fajitas that I recommend trying out at least once. You may have a nice favorite. The downside with this steak is that it's not as easy to find as skirt or flank. For years, it's been one of those steaks that butchers kept for themselves.
🛒 Get a Hanger steak from Porter Road, one of my favorite meat sources, out of Nashville, Tennessee.
- Flat Iron - In terms of flavor it's hard to top the flat iron steak. This steak comes from the chuck known for it's flavorful cuts. But a lot of those cuts can be tough and are best for pot roast. But flat iron is a more tender one. The downside with flat iron is that it's a thicker steak than the other ones on this list. It's one of my favorite steaks to sous vide, so you can try out my Flat Iron Sous Vide Steak recipe and when the steak is done, finish it in a hot cast iron pan, along with your peppers & onions.
- Top Sirloin - A very popular steak, top sirloin is also an option for fajitas, although I do use it more often for a steak on the grill. Top Sirloin is a good value steak when compared to more expensive cuts like NY Strip and Ribeye that I would never really use for fajitas.
- Sierra - Fans of the flank steak, need to give the much lesser known Sierra steak a try. This steak has the texture of a flank steak and is similar thickness. Like the flat iron steak it comes from the chuck primal. I have an entire write up I did explaining what a Sierra Steak is that you can read to learn more. The first Sierra steaks I tried were from Porter Road.
- Bavette - Also known as flap meat, Bavette is a steak cut that comes from the same area as the flank and the skirt, so it's very much a suitable replacement. It's got great flavor. Just as it's important to cut flank and skirt steak against the grain, it's equally important to do that with Bavette steak. This is also another steak that I was introduced to by Porter Road. and that I also have written an entire post explaining what a Bavette steak is.
What type of steak have you tried when making fajitas? Leave a comment below and share your experience. You can also share which steak you have never tried before that you would want to try out the most.
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