The world's best fajita marinade

[carnivore]

i really hate giving away my secrets, but this makes the best fajitas you will ever eat, and it doesn't seem fair to not share it. I got this recipe from some friends who had a fajita party one night. I begged them for the recipe (i have no idea where they got it), added a few ingredients, and it doesn't get any better:

World�s Best Fajita Marinade

--makes enough for about 4 pounds of beef and/or chicken

1 jalape�o (canned, in juices, seeds left in)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cilantro


--Combine water & jalapeno in a blender. Puree until smooth. Pour into a large mixing bowl and combine with the rest of ingredients. Mix well, and pour over the beef and/or chicken, flipping meat to coat well. Marinate 12-36 hours.

 

[balibar]

balibar

It really seems delicious. I love fajitas and can't wait to try this marinade. Thank you for posting it. A very generous thing to do.

 

[ironchef]

I'm sure it is good, but I think there would be more than one cook in Mexico who would dispute your claim

 

[oldcoot]

I can't attest to the accuracy of this, but a friend of mine, born and raised in Mexico, said he'd never heard of fajitas until a few years ago in the U.S. Claimed they were unknown in Mexico, but are a U.S. commercisl inventiion..

Perhaps he was wrong, as this article suggests:

Fajitas!
by Patricia Mitchell
Texans would love to be able to lay claim to having originated fajitas, but the honor goes to the south-of-the-border vaqueros who learned to make good use of a tough and membranous cut of beef known as skirt steak.
Before fajitas became popular throughout the US, skirt steak was a cheap cut scorned by all but the most dedicated beef eaters. Since then, however, the price of skirt steak has doubled and redoubled.
The Mexican term for grilled skirt steak is arracheras, and its American counterpart is fajitas. Therefore, the term "chicken fajitas" is truly nonsensical, although we are not such purists that we don't include a recipe for a Chicken Fajita Marinade. But these days, fajita has come to describe just about anything cooked and eaten, rolled up, in a flour tortilla. The only true fajitas, however, are made from skirt steak.

 

[ironchef]

Mexico is a huge place, there are dishes indigenous to certain parts that people haven't evevn heard about in others. Mexico does not have the same media exposure and network throughout the country like the US so information travels much slower. I worked with a guy from Northen Italy who never heard of quite a few Southern Italian dishes that I was taught. I even work with a guy now who was raised in North Carolina, but never heard of Brunswick Stew, what NC is supposedly known for.

 

[carnivore]

I'm sure it is good, but I think there would be more than one cook in Mexico who would dispute your claim

I was hoping someone would take exception to my "world's best" claim, but i was also hoping they would provide the competing recipe as the "evidence"...

since no one has done so, i must consider mine still the best

 

[Sloan WY]

Fajitas

is a Mexican "border term" for skirt steak! Flank steak is the only acceptable substitution. Chicken, pork, catfish, etc. are all american "bastardizations." :twisted:

 

[Thecookiemom]

A+

Our guests loved this! I used it with chicken and flank steak. Thanks for posting

 

[inchrisin]

Anyone know of a good substitute for flank steak so I don't have to pay $8/pound? Sorry for threadjacking. I'm thinking top sirloin.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Anyone know of a good substitute for flank steak so I don't have to pay $8/pound? Sorry for threadjacking. I'm thinking top sirloin.

Since you are jacking a thread from 2003...I don't think anyone will protest too much!

I use sirloin for fajitas.

 

[pacanis]

Since you are jacking a thread from 2003...I don't think anyone will protest too much!

I use sirloin for fajitas.

Exactly!
And besides, everything from post 3 to 7 is jacking... or just plain jacked

 

[no mayonnaise]

Why cider vinegar? Lime juice works so much better. Same with fresh jalepeno.

 

[GrillingFool]

Flat iron steaks make great fajitas!

 

[DMerry]

I have a Mexican recipe that I found on the internet for Carne Alhambre which basically is made up of diced bacon, finely diced onion, tender meat, and bell pepper strips -- I use a couple of colors -- that are stir fried together. At the bottom of the page there was a suggestion to marinate the meat for an hour in 2 tablespoons fresh limon/lime juice, and one table of a seasonins sauce -- I have used Maggi sauce which is sold here in Mexico and in some Hispanic stores in the U.S. and Worcestshire sauce when I couldn't find Maggi sauce. Also included in the note is that this is the meat used for fajitas. I don't know about that, but I do know that carne alhambre is wonderful to eat, either in a tortilla or with rice.

 

[CraigC]

Ingredients (none are measured)

onion- sliced or diced
Mexican oregano (dried)
Freshly toasted and ground cumin seed
Ancho chili powder
Fresh lime juice
Several cloves of garlic
Fresh cilantro or culantro
Spanish olive oil
Whole fresh serrano chilis, stemmed
Silver tequila

Throw it all in the blender, whiz it up, pour over steak (I really prefer skirt) and let marinate for 1-2 hours. Pat steak dry, S&P and cook via prefered method. Mine is a fast sear, direct method over hardwood charcoal.

 

[Kylie1969]

Cheers Craig