Chipotle Skirt Steak Salad

I had the pleasure of watching Rick Bayless make this at the Fancy Food Show in Chicago.

This uses canned chipotle peppers for the dressing - and they're SPICY. Use more or less depending on your tolerance for heat.


Serves 4

YOU WILL NEED:

  • 2 # skirt steak (pick the thinnest one, or ask your butcher for the outside steak)

  • Greens: Bayless made this with a mixture of red leaf and frisee. You want a heartier mix that can stand up to a warm dressing

  • Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - a canned product in any grocery store

  • Fresh limes

  • Beef broth - I like ImagineOrganic

  • Cotija

Season the skirt steak with kosher salt and pepper and cook in a cast iron or sauté pan for 5-7 minutes, total, or until at least medium well-done. See notes, left, for explanation.

When done, let sit on a cooling rack set on top of a sheet pan or plate (to collect juices) for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Dressing:

In same pan used to cook steak, briefly sauté:

  • 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Add:

  • ½ cup beef broth

  • Juice of 2 limes (about 4 T)

  • 6 T olive oil

Seed, finely chop and add:

  • 1 chipotle chili (canned with adobo)

Heat the dressing thru, simmering gently for about 10 minutes. Taste, adding salt and fresh ground pepper and more lime juice or olive oil as you like.

Prep salad greens and reserve in a large mixing bowl.

Slice steak across the grain into strips.

Toss greens with dressing and transfer to plates. Top with steak and crumbled Cotija.

NOTE: Skirt steak is the diaphram muscle. It's got a lot of texture and tons of flavor - the polar opposite of a filet mignon which is buttery soft but has less beefy taste.

Its texture makes skirt steak easy to wreak: when it's not properly cooked or sliced it's impossibly rubbery. It has to be cooked more toward the WELL DONE end of the spectrum or it'll be too tough.