In episode 69 of the Grill Like A Mother podcast, host Taryn Solie teaches you how to smoke skirt steak on a pellet grill for the ultimate flavor and tenderness. You’ll hear her tips and tricks, including a reverse sear technique and the perfect marinade, to make sure your steak turns out perfect every time. Don’t miss out on this episode for a delicious and easy recipe that will have you smoking meat like a pro in no time!
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
RECIPES MENTIONED
These are some of the recipes mentioned in the episode, all of which are on Hot Pan Kitchen.
- Traeger Smoked Skirt Steak
- Steak Burrito Bowls
- Grilled Zucchini
- Grilled Bell Peppers
- Instant Pot Potato Salad
- Grilled Potatoes
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Some of the following are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
We LOVE our Thermoworks Thermapen ONE meat thermometer to quickly and easily check the internal temperatures of meats. We’ve used a Thermapen for years and they are AMAZING. Get one for yourself here (affiliate link).
- Traeger pellet grill and smoker
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Salt conversion chart from Epicurious
- Ziploc bags
- Grilling tongs
- Temperature probe for smokers
TRANSCRIPT
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers, and thank you for tuning in today! I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to give you some grilling inspiration.
Today we’re going to talk about smoking steak, specifically skirt steak. If you’re not familiar with skirt steak it’s a long and flat cut of meat from the underside of the cow. It’s similar to flank steak, but thinner and will therefore cook more quickly. A lot of recipes for skirt steak call for it to be marinated to help tenderize the meat as it can be tough, and that’s what we’re going to do today.
Before we get to the ingredients, there’s a couple of things I want to tell you about this recipe. The instructions I’m giving are to cook the steak to a medium doneness, around 140 degrees F. If you like your steak more rare or more done, you’ll need to adjust the cooking time up or down and be sure and check that internal temperature as you go.
We’re also going to do a bit of a reverse sear on this steak, which is wear you cook it low and slow first then cook it quickly at the end on a much higher heat to get some browning on the steak. Because skirt steak is so thin you only want to cook it for a couple of minutes at the high temp, but I find it adds just a little crispiness and flavor to the edges of the steak.
Now we use our Traeger grill for this recipe, so that’s what I’m going to call out in the instructions, but you can use any wood pellet grill for this. A smoker might be harder to use unless you have a separate grill that you can have going at a high heat for the very last bit of cooking.
Okay, let’s get to the ingredients you’ll need! Go ahead and grab the following:
- ¼ cup of fresh lime juice;
- 1 tbsp of oil – I like to use avocado oil;
- 1 tbsp of coconut aminos;
- ½ tsp of ground cumin;
- 1 tsp of Diamond Crystal kosher salt;
- ¼ tsp of ground coriander;
- ½ tsp of chili powder;
- 3 cloves of garlic; and, of course,
- a 1 lb skirt steak
A couple of quick notes about some of these ingredients.
First, the fresher your ingredients, like your spices and lime juice, the more flavor it’s going to impart onto the steak. You can absolutely used bottled lime juice or older spices, but it will impact the flavor a bit. I suggest going through your spices and seeing how long you’ve had them before making this recipe – it may be time to invest in some new ones.
Second, this recipe specifically calls for Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is my preferred salt for cooking and grilling. This is because it’s less salty by volume than other salts, which leaves more room for error when salting your food. If you’re using a different type of salt, you’ll want to adjust the measurement a bit and I’ll link to a resource on the show notes page for how to do that.
Okay, let’s get into how to smoke this skirt steak!
First you need to make the marinade. Press or mince the garlic and place it in a bowl or container of some sort – I like to use a measuring cup. Add all of the other ingredients except for the steak and stir them all together with a whisk until they’re well combined and there are no more clumps of spices.
Next, remove the steak from its packaging and place it in a large sealable plastic bag, like a ziploc bag. Pour the marinade over the steak and seal the bag, using your hands to press as much air as you can out of it. Flatten out the steak as best you can in the bag and use your hands to help get the marinade over all of the steak. Put the bagged steak flat in the fridge and let it marinate for at least 2 hours and up to 10 hours.
Before you grill the steak, you want to take it out of the fridge 20 to 30 minutes before putting it on the grill so it can come up to temperature a bit. While it’s warming slightly, set your Traeger or other wood pellet grill to 225 degrees F. Once the grill comes up to temperature, remove the skirt steak from the bag using a pair of tongs and set it on the grill – you can discard the leftover marinade. If you have a temperature probe place it in the meat, if not, keep a meat thermometer handy. Close the lid and smoke the meat until the internal temperature reaches around 115 degrees F – for me this takes around 40 to 50 minutes.
When the steak has come to temp, use the tongs to remove it from the grill and onto a cutting board then crank the temperature of the grill up to 450 degrees F. Once the grill is at the higher temp, place the steak back on the grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until the internal temperature reaches around 140 degrees F.
Use the tongs to remove the steak from the grill and let it rest on the cutting board for 3 to 5 minutes to keep the juices in the meat before cutting. Then slice it up and serve!
This steak can definitely be eaten on its own, but it’s mostly used in other dishes as it’s so thin. As the flavor of the marinade is Mexican-inspired, things like fajitas, tacos, salads, and burrito bowls would all be good for this steak. If you do want to eat it on its own, try grilling up some veggies like zucchini or bell peppers and serving it with a starch. We will often just use some plain rice as a side, but you could absolutely do something different like potato salad or grilled potatoes.
I’ll include a link to the full printable recipe for this smoked skirt steak, as well as the other recipes I’ve mentioned, on the show notes page. To get to it you can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on.
If you enjoyed this recipe, consider subscribing to the show on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss out on future episodes! I’ve got so many more great grilling and smoking recipes you’re going to love.
That’s it for today, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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