Carne asada on the coals


 

Steve Holat

TVWBB Member
I've seen it somewhere on TV - Alton Brown, Raichlen, ATK - but I was wondering if anyone has a marinade & procedure for chargrilling skirt steak directly on the coals. Mucho gracias!
 
I've never done it directly on the coals, but I've done it on rocks, on the coals. Mexican friends of ours do it this way, and it certainly does taste good, but I think it is more of the ambience of it, than the technique. I like to do carne asada with my WSM in the egg configuration to get the grate very close to the coals for that intense heat. Wal-Mart here sells what they call "Thin Sliced Milanesa" which is a beef cut that is sliced paper thin. I'm 99% sure it's from the bottom round, just super thin. That works excepetionally for carne asada. I give it MAYBE 30 seconds per side and then yank it. With a full chimney of K, and the egg configuration with the grate +/- 1" above the coals, it's probably 1287465939 degrees of heat, or somewhere in that range, giving the same results as having it right on the coals.
 
I've done ribeye, tri-tip, and T-bone, caveman style. As mentioned, it's done for ambiance and if you have guests, they will certainly be amused by the technique, and you'll earn extra points for the wow factor...lol.... In fact, I'm doing tri-tip on the coals this weekend. I'll do carne asada on the coals one of these days.

I wonder if the thinly sliced beef from WallMart would be good for shabu-shabu...
 
Thanks for the replies!

I purchased about 15lbs of BA skirt steak (3 trays of two each that were about as long as my arm...)at Sam's Club.
Cut each steak into managable lengths, seasoned with Adobo (cuz it seemed appropriate...) and split between 6 - 1 gal ziplocks and marinated them overnight in a _double batch_ of

1/4c vegetable oil
1/2c red wine vinegar
1/3c lime juice
1/3c tequila
1/4c orange juice concentrate
2T fresh garlic - minced
1 1/2T salt
1T white pepper
1T chili powder
1T Mexican oregano
1t ground ancho
1t ground chipotle
1t ground cumin
1/4t ground clove
1/4c fresh cilantro, chopped (no stems)
2 scallions, sliced thin w/ some green
[also, because I thought I needed more marinade I added 8 ozs of Goyo Moyo Criollo.]

Grilled directly on glowing lump coals (bottom grate of 22.5 Weber) 2 at a time about 4 mins per side. Rested 10 mins. Chopped crossgrain to taco-sized 1" pieces. Filled 2 half-steamer trays that were enough for 120 tacos.

A nice tongful of carne asada on a flour tortilla, a scattering of black beans, fresh pico de gallo, queso fresco, splash of Cholula if you like and a squeeze of lime...
 

 

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