Bloody Mary Skirt Steak

This is a pretty simple one, and a close riff on one of my earlier skirt steak recipes. Buy yourself a bunch of skirts, some habanero peppers and some tomato juice (or Bloody Mary mix), and you should be pretty much set with the rest of the shit in your pantry.

Shit you’ll need:

  • Tomato Juice or Bloody Mary mix
  • Garlic Powder
  • Sea Salt
  • Cracked Black Pepper
  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • Fresh Habanero Peppers (optional)
  • Horseradish (optional)

Grab a large, long piece tupperware and pour some tomato juice into the bottom to create a little layer of marinade. Season with crushed red pepper, cracked black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Drop a few slices of your habanero pepper in too. Then place two of your steaks in, and repeat in layers until you run out of steaks. I like to use a whole pepper per layer, because I like spicy shit. Top off your tupperware with a little more juice and spices so every square milimeter of meat is covered with the marinade. Then throw that shit in the fridge for several hours, or overnight.

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When you’re ready to eat, get your grill screaming hot. I’m talking 500 degrees or more. Drip-dry or paper-towel-dry the meat before you slap it on the grill. You want to get as much of the liquid off as you can, so that you end up with GRILLED meat instead of STEAMED meat. If you need that sauce for some reason, you can boil up the remainder of the marinade in a sauce pot to use as gravy topping, or you can baste lightly as the meat grills. If you have a little more time, you can reduce the marinade into a really awesome, thick BBQ sauce. It comes out delicious when you do it right.

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You’ll only need about three minutes per side, max, to get a nice medium rare temperature. So three minutes, flip, three minutes, then pull them off and let them rest.

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Now here’s the key part of the process – the slicing… First, cut your skirts WITH the grain into four or five inch chunks. Then, spin each piece 90 degrees and slice AGAINST the grain for plating and serving. This cross-grain cutting is absolutely key to eating this kind of steak. It makes for an easier-to-chew bite of meat; way more tender.

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The finished product: a plate of delicious meat. Pour some of your boiled marinade over the slices if you want, and throw a little horseradish on top. Enjoy with a refreshing Bloody Mary to double down on the flavors.

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A fun part of this – take your leftover meat and broil in the oven on some garlic bread smothered with mozzarella cheese to make an incredible sandwich. Good shit.