Fajitas for 60


 
H

Hank B

TVWBB Pro
Hi folks,
I owe my neighbors a favor so I offered to grill for them at an upcoming event (this coming Sunday) when they will be winding down from holding a local bicycle race. (That's the Winfield Criterium for anyone interested.) They expect up to 60 people to be served picnic style and have asked for fajitas. I'm actually pretty happy with that selection because sliced vegetables and strips of meat will cook about as fast as anything I can think of grilling. Nevertheless, that's a bigger crowd than I'm used to cooking for so I thought I'd share my plans as some of you have more experience with this sort of thing.

First off, please feel free to suggest a marinade and/or rub to season the meat which will be chicken and beef. I can find plenty of recipes via google but I'd like to hear your suggestions. (Due to schedule constraints I will only be able to marinate at most for several hours.) I plan to cook the peppers and onions separately so feel free to suggest a rub or sprinkle for them as well. I do have Fajita seasoning but my preference is to concoct my own mixes out of the constituent spices.

For the meat, I plan to use my Platinum with cast iron grate:

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I call it my "magic grate" because it fits both my Silver A and 22 1/2" kettles just about perfectly. I think the spacing on the grate is tight enough to reduce or eliminate the desire of thin strips of meat to cook directly in the coals.
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I'll fire that direct with Mesquite lump and split up a few mesquite chunks to add for additional smoke.

I plan to grill the peppers and onions separate from the meat to accommodate any vegetarians/vegans. I'll do that on my Silver B which still has relatively tight grate spacing.

I plan to use my Q 220 to warm up and hold corn and flour tortillas. Hmmm... No zones there. Perhaps I should throw a few coals in another kettle to use for warming/holding.

I'd prefer to serve the meat and vegies right off the grill, but I think it wise to get a head start and have some ready in a chafing dish rather than have people lining up. Once I get the initial rush served, it should be a little easier to try gauge production to match serving.

My neighbors are handling all other aspects of the picnic leaving me to focus on the fajitas alone and that's going to make this a lot easier. If need be, I can probably recruit a helper, but I think I can handle three cookers without too much difficulty.

Other thoughts:
I need separate tongs to handle raw and cooked meat. A hand wash station would also be helpful. And I'll be far enough away from my kitchen so that I need to know everything I'll need in advance.

I appreciate any suggestions or warnings about possible pitfalls that I might have overlooked.

thanks,
hank
 
Cooking strips for 60 is alot of little pieces of meat to deal with on open grates. I prefer to cook fajita steak whole, then slice on the bias. Much more juicy this way.

This is a recipe from Alton Brown that I have used and like alot. Whipping it in the blender made it very thick and made it stick to the meat.

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 scallions, washed and cut in 1/2
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar
2 pounds inside skirt steak, cut into 3 equal pieces

Directions
In a blender, put in oil, soy sauce, scallions, garlic, lime juice, red pepper, cumin, and sugar and puree. In a large heavy duty, zip top bag, put pieces of skirt steak and pour in marinade. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow steak to marinate for 1 hour in refrigerator.

For the peppers and onions, I like to do them in my cast iron with a little EVVO, a little soy sauce, and lime juice.

Good Luck
 
First off, nice of you to help the neighbors. And you're right, fajitas are a great cook for a crowd. I did a large fajita cook for about 45 people last fall and it went pretty easily. I don't have a recipe for a marinade, as I usually "wing it" with fajitas. I use a lot of fresh lime juice, veg/canola oil, chili powder, cumin, salt and cilantro. Sometimes, I throw a little tequila in there too. I just mix all ingredients until it tastes right to me. I use the same marinade for meat and veg (not in the same container, of course). When I did them for this large crowd, I was using flank steaks and boneless, skinless breasts. I started by cooking the chicken and had a helper inside slicing them up as they came off the grill. They were then thrown in a chaffing dish as the steak and veg were grilled. Again, as the flanks were finished, my helper (my dad) sliced 'em up nice and thin, and put them into the appropriate chaffing dish. Tortillas were simply wrapped in foil and put in the oven to warm up. I chopped some cilantro ahead of time and served the fajitas up with that, salsa and sour cream, all buffet style. It all worked pretty well without too much work. I think fajitas are a great way to feed a large crowd without having to do burgers and hot dogs.

If you can, use a veg basket or cast iron griddle for the veg. I'd be worried putting them right on the grate.
 
Thanks, guys, for the tips. That looks like two votes for cooking the meat whole or in larger pieces and slicing before serving. I'll have to see if I can recruit a helper so I can do that.

I'm not averse to playing it by ear on the marinade, but I like to know what others have used so I don't overlook any important components.

I'll also have a griddle on hand to use for the vegetables in case handling them on the grate is a problem.

And no one who has lived with a Hispanic wife would ever be happy with tortillas warmed wrapped in foil.
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But I will bring some foil with and do what I have to do if I can't keep up warming them on the Q. But I think I can do OK there. My normal procedure is to stack two or three over a gas flame in the kitchen and flip them often enough to catch both sides of each tortilla until they're lightly toasted. The flavor and texture is so much nicer than tortillas warmed wrapped in foil.

thanks,
hank
 
I just picked up the meat. For beef they bought 2 7 lb briskets. I'm concerned that they're going to come out tough. I guess I'll just plan on cutting them across the grain before serving. Perhaps I should put them in a tenderizing marinade.
 
I've never "grilled" brisket but I have done plenty with the high heat method on the WSM. It could be done in 5 hrs but that would leave you little room for error and rest. If you could start early enough you could make a fajita rub and smoke those briskets in your WSM until tender then wrap in foil and let them rest until service. You could do your other cooking and prep while the briskets were finishing. Then just before service you could slice. This was just a thought, I am no expert but I would be a little worried about getting that brisket tender. I bet the WSM would work pretty good for warming those tortillas too.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ivan Stratton:
I've never "grilled" brisket but I have done plenty with the high heat method on the WSM. It could be done in 5 hrs but that would leave you little room for error and rest. If you could start early enough you could make a fajita rub and smoke those briskets in your WSM until tender then wrap in foil and let them rest until service. You could do your other cooking and prep while the briskets were finishing. Then just before service you could slice. This was just a thought, I am no expert but I would be a little worried about getting that brisket tender. I bet the WSM would work pretty good for warming those tortillas too. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Thanks for the suggestion.

It's a pretty good thought and I think it would work. But... I have other commitments that pretty much preclude anything but quick grilling.

What I've done instead is slice the briskets with the grain about 1/2" thick and at enough angle to get strips 2-3" wide. I did a quick search on tenderizing marinade and the common suggestion was to have some acid. I made the marinade described above (the Alton Brown one) and added a little malt vinegar to it to increase acidity beyond what the lime juice provides. The beef strips are marinating in that now and will marinate about 30 hours before I cook. Hopefully that will help. Once cooked, we can slice the beef across the grain to further moderate any toughness. Thinner slices will work for something like fajitas and SWMBO will help with that.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jon Des.:
A bottle of Mojo Criollo would work as a great quick and easy marinade for the veggies. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>It does sound good. But I had no time to find it. I did the vegetables as I did the meat. I quartered the onions and slabbed the peppers and roasted them on the grate with a little squirt of oil and sprinkle of fajita seasoning. Then we sliced up the onions and peppers as we did with the chicken and beef.

It all went well enough. At first we had difficulty keeping up, but everyone who wanted fajitas eventually got them and we did get a lot of compliments. The beef was still a little on the tough side but slicing thin helped with that. It didn't get left behind. Of course I had the benefit that these folks had been working all weekend to make the bicycle race work and were hungry and tired by that point.

And earlier that day we did well running the Chicago Rock and Roll half marathon. I finished at 2:12:04 and SWMBO beat me by over 7 minutes at 2:04:34. It was a big day all 'round. And I certainly could not have handled this cook without her help.

Thanks again for the tips.
 
You ran a 2:12 marathon, then cooked for 60!!??
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Very impressive day. Glad it turned out well.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JimK:
You ran a 2:12 marathon, then cooked for 60!!??
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Very impressive day. Glad it turned out well. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Half Marathon. (With tongue planted firmly in cheek) That's only 13.1 miles. It was still a pretty full day. And I was glad when it was time to crack open a beer or three.
 
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