What to do with skirt steak?
“What’s a skirt steak?” you may wonder. Skirt steak comes from the belly of the cow. Long and flat, skirt steak is covered by a tough membrane that needs to be removed as much as possible before cooking. The meat itself is a tougher cut and is best suited to quick, hot cooking (searing in a pan), or long, low cooking (braising in a slow cooker, or cooking in a smoker).
Last night, I tried a new recipe using skirt steak with Asian-inspired seasonings as the star of the meal.
I adapted this recipe from Milk Street: Tuesday Nights, which I have loved using over the past couple of years. The idea behind the cookbook is that you can make a really great-tasting meal on an ordinary weeknight. Drawing from world-wide flavors and techniques, Christopher Kimball and team have made it easy to enjoy fabulous dishes any night of the week— and I have done just that since I’ve had this cookbook!
The Miso-Marinated Skirt Steak was a hit! The rich flavors of miso, chili-garlic, ginger, and other Asian ingredients are always a family favorite around here and I was glad this one was quick and easy, too.
I started by trimming and dividing the skirt steaks into 5-6” pieces. After combining the seasoning ingredients, the meat went in the mix and marinated for while. I kept some of the marinade aside for sauce at the end.
Check out these little gems!
Mouth watering goodness…
Once the meat had a chance to absorb some of the flavors, as well as soften up a bit, I seared the pieces in a 12” skillet for about 4 minutes on each side, until they looked nicely browned. I was aiming for medium-rare doneness, which is about 125 F. (Based on the finished dish, I think I hit medium doneness, which still turned out wonderfully!)
Almost done…
Perfect!
Once the meat was seared and had a rest on a platter for about 10 minutes, I sliced it against the grain, drizzled with some of the marinade mixture, and served it over steamed rice. So good!
If you’d like to try it yourself, here’s the recipe:
Here’s what you’ll need:
3 T red miso
1 T soy sauce
1 T chili-garlic sauce
1 T sugar
2 t sesame oil
2 t grated ginger
2 medium garlic cloves, grated
1 1/2 lbs skirt steak
2 T rice vinegar
5 t neutral cooking oil (such as grapeseed oil)
Here’s what you’ll do:
Whisk together miso, soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic; this is the marinade mix. Set aside about 2 teaspoons of the mixture to use as sauce later.
Trim the skirt steak by removing as much of the membrane on each piece as possible, then cut steaks into 5-6” pieces.
In a medium bowl, combine the meat with the remaining marinade mixture and let it stand on the counter for at least 15 minutes.
Pre-heat a skillet over medium heat. Add 2 t of cooking oil to the pan and heat until it shimmers.
Pat the steaks off with paper towels— don’t worry about getting them clean. You just want to have them be kind of dry and not dripping with marinade.
Add the meat to the pan in a single layer. You may need to do this in two batches. Don't disturb the meat for 3-5 minutes, then flip to cook the other side for 3-5 more minutes. If you can check with a meat thermometer, you want the internal temperature to be around 125 F for medium-rare.
Remove the meat from the pan and let it rest on a platter, tented loosely with foil, for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the vinegar and remaining oil with the reserved marinade mix to make the sauce.
Slice the steaks across the grain to make them more tender. Drizzle with sauce and serve over steamed rice.