The Culinary Works

Truly, one of my favorite cuisines of the world is Mexican food. I could eat it every day, and sometimes do. I have a couple hole in the wall joints I love and I also make it at home, whether it’s chicken tacos, ground beef tacos, burritos, enchiladas….and definitely Margaritas! For your Cinco party, how about some super simple spicy steak tacos!

These are super simple! You will need a heavy skillet or sauté pan for this and frankly, good ventilation…cuz they do create a bit of smoke. So open the windows and get ready for the best steak tacos ever!

The Day Before:

• Slice a flank steak into ¼ inch strips, against the grain, and place them into a Ziploc bag.
• Pour in enough Tapatia Hot Sauce to cover the steak and squish it around, making sure everything is covered nicely.
  Leave them in the fridge overnight.
• I know it might seem a little weird, but the sauce acts to tenderize the steak and does an awesome job flavoring it, especially when left overnight.  If you want to do it same day, I would say give it atleast 2 hours to marinate, but when at all possible, plan ahead and give it a night to sleep on it.

Cooking:

• Pour the steak into a colander to allow the extra sauce to drain off.
• Heat the skillet, add canola oil and allow the oil to get HOT!
• TURN ON YOUR VENT and remember, as the chili sauce cooks it will smoke a bit and if you breath the smoke in directly it will let you know it’s made of chilis…so be smart and give it it’s due space.
• When you see the first wisp of smoke, place SOME of the steak in the pan. You don’t want to put so much in that the meat steams, you want it to caramelize, so cook it in small batches, maybe 1 cup at a time in a large pan. When the meat is nice and brown, place it in a bowl and drizzle it with fresh squeezed lime juice. Continue to do the same with each batch until you are finished.

NOTE: I have also done this leaving the steak whole and marinating it, then grilling it the following day. Once it’s grilled, you just slice it against the grain into strips and serve it.

I love mine just placed on the warm tortilla with Cotija cheese, or any cheese for that matter, and guacamole. mmmmmmmm