The Best Steak Cuts For Satisfying Tacos

Carne asada is the perfect recipe to try if you want something easy and delicious. It translates to "grilled meat" and works with numerous flavor, marinade, and spice combinations. If you're making carne asada tacos, you probably want to find the tastiest, most tender steak. But not all cuts are created equal. So which one is the best?

A few stand out, including skirt steak and flank steak, for their balance of affordability, quality, and overall taste. Even though skirt and flank steaks are different, both work well for carne asada tacos because you can get a long piece of meat, grill it with or without a marinade for maximum flavor, and chop it up into smaller pieces for your dish. You can also find steak marketed specifically for tacos and fajitas. Even though these two dishes are different, you can use similar cuts of meat, and these can come pre-marinated or already sliced for cooking ease. Keep in mind that smaller pieces of meat are going to work better for tacos because they're bite-sized and won't pull other ingredients out of the taco when you try to eat.

A skirt steak works well for taco recipes like carne asada. It's cut from the beef plate, which is the underbelly of the cow. Skirt steak has more fat than other cuts you might use, especially when compared to flank steak. You might also hear this referred to as marbling, which describes the appearance of the fat weaving throughout the meat when it's cut and prepared. When cooking steak, fat adds flavor. This makes skirt steak a fantastic option if you want the natural flavor of the meat to come through or if you only plan to add minimal seasoning.

You can get skirt steak cut normally or butterflied. A butterflied cut adds more edges and grooves to the steak, which can help it pick up more marinade and create more charred bits as it's grilled. Cook over high heat for a short amount of time to prevent the meat from becoming tough. To serve, cut the grilled skirt steak into strips or bites and use it in your favorite taco recipe.

Flank steak is a little bit thicker than skirt steak and often leaner as well. Flank steak is cut from the portion of the cow just behind the skirt steak. It takes a bit longer to cook because of its size and thickness. Also, it can be a tough cut of steak due to less marbling, but a good marinade can go a long way to create something tender and flavorful that's great for carne asada. If you opt for flank steak, let it marinate overnight to soak up extra flavor since it won't have as strong of a meaty taste due to its lower fat content. Marinades can also help tenderize the meat, especially those with a lot of acid from ingredients like orange or lime juice.  One surprising marinade that combines flavor and acid is regular cola, which complements and tenderizes steak. 

Like skirt steak, flank steak can be butterflied, resulting in a similar number of grooves and edges that work well for carne asada. Most cuts of flank steak are larger and have less fat compared to skirt steak. You'll need to cut them up into smaller pieces after grilling as well.