Grilled Skirt Steak With Garlic and Herbs

By Melissa Clark

Grilled Skirt Steak With Garlic and Herbs
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
25 minutes, plus at least 30 minutes’ marinating
Rating
5(1,224)
Comments
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Grilling might just be the best way to cook up a skirt steak. The intense heat gives the succulent and flavorful cut a rich char that’s smoky and crisp at the edges. The trick is to get the fire hot enough and dry off any marinade before placing the meat on the grill. This will give you the deepest sear. Here, the meat is marinated in a garlicky herb paste flecked with pickled pepperoncini chiles. Other pickled peppers will work, too, so feel free to substitute pickled jalapeños if that’s what you’ve got. Or use a fresh jalapeño and a dash of pickle juice to get a similar hot and vinegary punch. Lastly, be sure not to overcook the meat. Rare to medium rare guarantees tender beef.

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings
  • 1cup basil leaves, more for garnish
  • 3scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced, more for garnish
  • 2tablespoons lemon thyme leaves, more for garnish
  • 2fat garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 2tablespoons coarsely chopped peperoncini (1 to 2 peppers), pickled jalapeño or other pickled peppers
  • 2½teaspoons kosher salt
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • ¼cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2½pounds skirt steak
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

345 calories; 25 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 29 grams protein; 403 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a blender or food processor, combine basil, scallions, lemon thyme, garlic, peperoncini, salt and lemon zest and juice. Pour olive oil over mixture; blend until it turns to paste.

  2. Step 2

    Using paper towels, pat steak dry and place in a large bowl; slather paste mixture all over meat. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or overnight.

  3. Step 3

    Light the grill or heat the broiler with the rack as close to the heat source as possible. Use a paper towel to pat steak dry. (You can leave some of the paste, but for the best sear, the meat should be dry when it hits the grill.) Grill meat over direct heat until char lines appear, and meat is done to taste, 3 to 5 minutes per side, or broil until charred, 2 to 5 minutes per side. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing against the grain and serving, garnished with herbs and scallions.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,224 user ratings
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Comments

KellyDC

I can't imagine ever throwing meat away. You couldn't add a chimichurri sauce? Fajitas? Steak sandwiches with garlicky mayo? I apologize for sounding preachy, but we need to respect the animals that die for our dinner. If we're going to eat them, we should do just that. (No, I'm not vegetarian. Far from it.)

Ben

I need to whip up a quick dinner for my hungry parents, so I omitted the marinade and basted the sauce on the meat as each side finished grilling. I served the sauce on the side for dipping for extra punch. Still got great results!

Carey

Then it was either poor quality meat or it was overcooked. There's no reason why this marinade would make any decent cut of steak dry and tasteless.

ElisaB

This was delicious. I had to use flank steak because that was all I could find but it yielded wonderful results. We had corn on the cob and I reserved 2 tablespoons of the marinade and mixed itt with some softened butter and put it on the corn. It was amazing!

KatieC

Delicious. Used 3 pickled jalapenos instead of pepperoncini. Marinated about 5 hours. Gas grill ran out of gas half way through so had to make a quick switch to charcoal which helped a lot. Served with grilled corn. Yum!

Don Smith-Weiss

Easy to puree everything and coat the steaks with it. The drying off really worked—got a great sear in about 3 minutes per side. Watch it—they cook fast! And make sure to let them rest.

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