Steak Tacos with Dual Sauces
Season the skirt steak with chili powder and lime juice and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Toast the ancho chilis, simmer them with tomatillos and garlic in water until soft, cool to room temperature, then blend with tomatoes, lime juice and cooking liquid for the sauce. Blend avocados, lime juice, half and half and cilantro with water into a drizzling cream. Brown the cubed steak in olive oil, cook the tortillas, top with cheese and steak, and drizzle with the sauce and avocado cream.
Great street tacos live and die by their sauces, and these come with two: a smoky, tangy ancho-tomatillo red and a cool, silky avocado cream. Piled with seared cubes of steak into warm tortillas, they let each bite play the smoky char of the beef against the bright heat of one sauce and the cooling richness of the other. It is taqueria magic, built at your own table.
The Two Sauces
The double sauce is the whole idea. For the red, toast the anchos just until they puff, then simmer them with tomatillos and garlic into a smoky, tangy salsa with gentle heat and real depth. For the green, blend ripe avocado with lime and herbs into a cool, silky cream that soothes and enriches. Together they cover every base — smoky and bright, hot and cooling — so make them both, and make them ahead so their flavors settle while you cook the beef.
Cutting & Searing the Steak
The beef wants a hot pan and a sharp knife. Marinate it for flavor, then cut it into small quarter-inch cubes before it ever meets the pan. That is the crucial move: cubing first gives you maximum surface area for caramelization, so every face of every piece browns on the hot griddle. Brown the tortillas in the hot oil, top them with cheese and steak, and drizzle on both sauces — a little red, a little green — to taste.
Steak Tacos with Dual Sauces
Ingredients
Method
- Place the skirt steak into a large baking dish. Season both sides with chili powder and drizzle with lime juice.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and as much as overnight.
- Place the chilis in a skillet over medium heat. Turn often and toast until the skin begins to puff (but not char), about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Place the toasted chilis, tomatillos and garlic cloves in a pot. Cover the veggies with water (about 1 ½ cups). Cover the pot and simmer until the tomatillos are soft and pale green, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Transfer the veggies to a blender or food processor.
- Add the tomatoes and lime juice. Add about 1 cup of the cooking liquid from the pot. Pulse to combine.
- Season with salt. You can add more cooking liquid to reach the consistency of a drizzling sauce.
- Place the avocados into a blender or bowl of a food processor. Add the lime juice, half and half and cilantro.
- Season with salt. Pulse to combine. Add enough water to reach a thin, drizzling consistency.
- Remove the skirt steak from the fridge and cut into very small cubes (about ¼ -inch squares). Season with salt.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on a griddle in large sauté pan over medium heat. Place the steak into the hot oil and cook until browned, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a platter. Add additional oil to the pan to coat the bottom.
- Lay 4 to 6 (depending on the size of your griddle) tortillas into the hot oil. Once the bottom begins to brown and the tortilla begins to puff, turn and flip over. (This happens quickly.) Top the tortilla with some of the cheese. Top the cheese with seasoned steak. Cook until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
- Drizzle the tacos with chili sauce and then with avocado cream.
- Garnish with thin slices of red onion and fresh cilantro. Serve with a fork as an open faced taco or fold over and eat with your hands!
The Heart of the Table
Taco night is generosity at its most fun — a spread of warm tortillas, seared steak, and bowls of sauce set out for everyone to build their own. There is warmth in that kind of hands-on, help-yourself meal, in the two sauces and the char and the shared assembly, the sort of dinner that keeps everyone at the table long after the last taco.
The Art of the Host
A griddle or large saute pan and a sharp knife are the essentials. Toast the anchos just until they puff, blend the avocado cream just before serving so it stays green, and cut the steak into small, even cubes so it browns on every face. Brown the tortillas in the hot oil and melt the cheese on them, and set both sauces out for everyone to mix and match.
Neighborly Grace
- The Preparation: Both sauces are best made ahead — the red deepens as it sits, and the avocado cream comes together in minutes — and you can marinate the steak in advance, so dinner is a quick sear. Set out the warm tortillas, the beef, and the two sauces, and let the table build their own.
- The Pour: An ice-cold Mexican lager or a margarita is the natural taqueria match. For a non-alcoholic option, an agua fresca or a tart limeade cools the smoky heat of the red sauce.
- The Vibe: This is festive, build-your-own taco night — set out the steak, the warm tortillas, and both sauces, and let everyone assemble to taste. It is a lively, communal dinner made for friends, a little heat, and a lot of napkins.