Make the Best Steak Fajitas at Home

Making the best steak fajitas is easy to do at home. This recipe is easy to follow and you can even make it the night before if you’re strapped for time in the evenings. Growing up, I always would look forward to eating out at Chevy’s Mexican Grill and ordering their steak fajitas. Now, I can make my own.

This dish is incredibly customizable. Don’t like steak? Swap for shrimp, chicken, tofu or omit the protein altogether and just make the veggies. You can also swap the veggies for something else if peppers and onions aren’t totally up your alley- try mushrooms and broccoli instead.

The fajita seasoning is a mix of cumin, paprika and chili powder. You can also add other spices like oregano and garlic salt to mild the flavor a bit. My secret ingredient is adding pickled jalapaños to this dish and a couple of tablespoons of the liquid from the jar. Even the pickiest eaters in my family and those who don’t like spice couldn’t detect this addition to the recipe.

Best Steak to Use for Fajitas

There are many cuts of steak that will work for this dish: hanger steak, skirt steak and rump steak are all good options.

• Skirt steak: This is a fatty and flavorful cut of beef. This cut can be cooked well-done without getting tough and chewy because of its fat content.
• Hanger steak: This is a thicker cut of steak that isn’t long, usually measuring around 6 – 7 inches.
• Flank steak: Leaner cut that is better served medium-rare to medium. If it is overcooked it is more likely to taste tough and chewy because it’s a leaner cut.
• Rump steak: Generally a tougher cut of meat since it comes from the part of the cow that works hard during the cow’s life. It is an affordable cut of meat that will need to be cooked with a little more love and care.

There are many good options for your steak fajitas. It all depends on what you’re looking for in a cut of steak. I always go for the flank steak, since I want a leaner cut and I also enjoy eating my meat medium-rare. Flank steak is also a more affordable option when compared to hanger steak.

Ingredients

The ingredients for this authentic fajita recipe can be found at your local grocery store.

• Steak: A critical part of steak fajitas is the steak! I used skirt steak but you can use any of the steak cuts listed above.
• Marinade ingredients: Cumin, paprika, chile powder, jalapeno and garlic all go into marinading the steak. Go ahead and make this marinade and prep the night before cooking
• Veggies: I used hearty vegetables that will stand up to the grill top, but you can use any kind of vegetables you’d like. Typical vegetables for fajitas are onions and bell peppers.
• Sides: No fajita dish is complete without guac or pico de gallo.
• Tortillas: The typical vessel for eating fajitas. Heat the tortillas directly on heat to char them a bit.

Meal Prepping

Even though this may seem like a difficult dish- it’s easy to whip up and even easier to meal prep. You can make the marinade for the steak and veggies the night before, throw it all into a bag, and put it into your fridge. It’ll keep overnight (or for another night- I won’t tell!)

Even after cooked, these fajitas will keep in the fridge for up to three days. It’s easy to make a large batch of these fajitas for the family and have leftovers the next day. Since you’re cooking with a hearty cut of meat and fibrous vegetables, this dish will reheat well.

Chevys Steak Fajitas Recipe

Does this recipe seem familiar? If it does, that’s because I tried to build this recipe based on my past experiences on going to Chevys Fresh Mex. Unfortunately, Chevys empire has shrunk to a mere 22 locations in the U.S.

If you want a Chevys recipe, you’ll want to use Skirt steak and to add a secret ingredient: baking soda. It will tenderize the meat when cooked. This is a little known secret in the restaurant industry. If you’ve ever had a piece of meat that seems spongey, it’s because the restaurant has added too much baking soda to tenderize it.

Cutting the Steak

Have you ever bit into a piece of steak that was looked incredibly tender but was chewy and hard to take a bite of? It’s possible that the reason why is because it wasn’t cut against the grain.

You can cut the steak and thinly as you’d like as long as it’s against the grain.

Serving the Authentic Steak Fajitas

When serving your steak fajitas, make sure you have an “assembly line” style so that those serving themselves can pick up as much or as little of each item as they would like.

After letting your steak rest for at least 10 minutes, slice it against the grain so that it is easier to eat.

Take a warmed tortilla (corn or flour) and fill it with two or three strips of the steak and top with the vegetables.

What to Serve with Fajitas:

• Fresh Guacamole
• Pico de Gallo
• 5-Ingredient Mango Salsa
• Easy Queso (Mexican Cheese Dip)
• Slices of Onion

Did you make the best steak fajitas at home? Tell me how they turned out in the comments below.