The Best Carne Asada Tacos You’ll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

Making tacos de carne asada is not hard.

You just have to follow a couple of rules

and pick the right ingredients.

[jazzy music]

Choosing your right meat is gonna make

a hundred percent difference on your tacos de asada.

Today I'm using flap steak,

which is the bottom part of the sirloin.

If you're looking for this piece of meat on the market,

just look for the bottom sirloin butt.

It's very similar to a flank steak and a skirt steak.

And what I love about this meat

is that it's juicier and it's tender.

Some meats are made to be for braising, roasting.

This kind of meat is perfect for grilling.

The marbleization in between is incredible.

So meaty, so juicy, so beefy

that it's gonna make the best carne asada tacos.

And it goes from thin to thick,

so that's why you need to cut it.

The reason why you cut always against the grain

is to break the nerves and to have a a softer meat.

I want my tacos to be nice, tender, juicy.

That's why is very important how you cut your meat.

You see here the marbleization.

This has perfect marbleization.

Marbleization means that it's healthy.

It has fat in between the meat.

And fat, when you cook it,

it melts and it keeps it moist and juicy.

[upbeat music]

The most important part of a taco asada is the marinade.

While making the marinade, we're looking for two things.

We're gonna make this meat flavorful

and we're gonna make it more tender.

Every single ingredient here

has something to add to that flavor.

Some people do a dry rub.

The dry rub is,

I feel like it's more better for smokiness

when you cook it for a like a longer period of time.

Instead of just grilling it.

Grilling it, you're just gonna grill it

for like 10 to 15 minutes.

So I feel like it needs fresh ingredients.

Orange juice is going to help to tenderize

and also gonna add some sweetness to it.

Lime juice is going to cure the meat a little bit.

It's gonna give the meat that acidity

that tacos asada should have.

Worcestershire sauce,

it makes the taste of the meat more beefy,

but it also adds some saltiness to it.

That's why we're not using salt in here.

One of the reasons why I also love to use

Worcestershire sauce is because I can't pronounce it.

I just wanna keep practices until I get it right.

Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire sauce.

Worcestershire sauce.

Now beer is going to help tenderize the meat.

Today I'm using dark beer

because I want to add that note of caramel.

I'm Mexican so I use anything to open my beer.

That's what happens when you're broke.

You know, you make it work.

And then jalapenos so you add some spiciness,

but without overpowering.

Garlic cures everything, so.

Some spring onions too.

I think adding onions

will add a different type of acidity and spice.

And some aroma. Cilantro.

They're having a good time.

They're swimming, getting some spiciness,

some sweetness, some acidity.

Everybody here is having a good time.

And we're going to let it sit on the the fridge

for like two to three hours.

Any more time than that, you just gonna overpower the meat

and we don't want to overpower the meat.

So respect science.

Meat has been marinated for the past three hours.

I can see that the color of the meat changed already.

That means that all the love is in the meat.

[upbeat music]

Before I cook my meat,

we're gonna start grill some vegetables.

Spring onions. We use cebollitas cambray in Mexico.

The longer you cook, the sweeter they'll become.

But look how beautiful this is the beauty

of grilling something.

You see the char, you see the transformation

from being okay to being delicious.

What it's gonna do to the dish is gonna add the sweetness

and it's gonna help you to kill the spiciness of the taco

if it's too spicy.

Spring onions are done.

Now I'm gonna move into cooking the meat.

This meat looks phenomenal.

You can see all the ingredients are doing their job.

What I'm doing right now

is removing some of the moist out of here.

This is a very important step.

If you don't do this

and you put it straight from here to the grill,

you won't have the sear,

you won't have the flavor of char.

When making tacos de carne asada the grill is very important

and if you can do open flame or charcoal,

it will be the best thing.

If you don't have that, you can do what I do.

Have a cast iron grill and that will do the job.

Before cooking the meat,

I want to put a little bit of salt and pepper.

Some people when they do the salt,

they do it very close to the meat.

So what happens? You don't get the salt evenly.

So that's why you have to go up and do this.

So you get the salt evenly.

Are you ready?

Are you ready to be cooked?

[light music]

If you don't hear that noise, you're not doing it right.

If you don't see that smoke, you're not doing it right.

If you don't see me,

it's because the studio is getting full of smoke.

So we're just gonna cook it for,

I would say three to four minutes.

It depends on how thick it is.

When you're cooking meat,

make sure that the grill is nice and hot.

And make sure you don't touch the meat.

Leave it alone.

Doesn't bother you, it's not in your face.

So when do you know your meat is ready to flip?

It's when you see the sides changing color.

And also when you start smelling the smoke flavor.

That means you're cooking your meat.

So now it's been three minutes.

Now we're gonna flip it this side.

Patience. Finish your beer.

Making a carne asada tacos without beer,

you're not doing it right.

Now I'm going to flip it.

Look at that beautiful, that's what asada means.

Asada, grill.

Char, smoke, asada.

I'm smelling Mexico.

I'm smelling carne asada, summer, my friends,

my family, kids running around, grilling, drinking.

That's what I'm smelling. That's what food does.

Takes you to places.

Look at this beauty.

So this is ready to go.

While this meal is rest,

I'm going to go cook the other ones

because were a big family.

Ladies and gentlemen,

meet my carne asada for my tacos.

Remember if you don't see that sear,

if you don't see that smoke,

that means you're not doing it right.

So this is exactly what I'm looking for.

The meat has color, it's seared.

So now the entire meat is nice and sealed.

So that means that all the juices are inside.

They're not gonna go anywhere.

So now I'm just gonna let this rest

for like eight to 10 minutes

so the juices can stay in the meat.

Resting is very important,

not just for the meat for yourself.

Let the meat rest so it tastes good.

Rest yourself so you can be happy.

[upbeat music]

Now that my carne asada is rested,

I'm going to chop it up, get it ready for our tacos.

It looks like how a carne asada is supposed to look like,

char with nice and golden colors.

And the best part is the smell.

I'm gonna show you how to cut it

to prepare it for your tacos.

First of all, you need a cleaver, una hacha taquera. Why?

The reason why taqueros use this is because it's so heavy

that you don't need to put that much force into it.

If you see the layers here of meat,

they are going horizontal.

So we going to cut against it.

So we're gonna go vertical.

Horizontal, vertical.

It sounds better in Spanish.

So always go against the grain.

So it will make it less chewy, more tender.

This is how supposed to look like, little pinkish.

So it's nice and moist and tender.

Now we're gonna cut it like a taquero.

It's gonna be a little loud. So get ready.

[rhythmic tapping]

This sound is the sound of someone making tacos.

[rhythmic tapping]

The reason why I am chopping it this way

is because I want to make sure

that all the flavors are mixed in together.

Every bite of your taco should be nice and tender.

If I would use a knife, I would be like this

putting in so much effort, but look at this.

[rhythmic tapping]

Plus I look like a badass chef.

[rhythmic tapping]

There you go. And that's ready.

I don't know, but this makes me feel so powerful.

[rhythmic tapping]

Makes me feel I can do anything I want.

It's looking good. All the flavors are mixed in.

All the moist meats and the dry meats are mixed in together.

So every single bite that you eat,

you will have the same balance of texture, of flavor.

[upbeat music]

When plating tacos, you have to plate the meat right away.

Getting out the tortillas, put in the meat,

salsa, pass it on, doing it right there.

That's the beauty of tacos.

You have to eat it in this path.

The tortillas, it's very important part of the taco.

You can have two tortillas,

the store bought or the fresh made.

In this case I'm using a fresh made

and they're nice and soft, nice and strong.

When choosing your tortilla,

if it has a Mexican name, a real Mexican name,

that's the tortilla you're gonna get.

Now I'm going to build my taco.

So now I have my freshly made tortillas.

They smell delicious. They smell like corn.

I think a really good taco

should be two and a half to three bites.

It shouldn't be big.

If it's big, that means it's not,

to me, it's not authentic.

So we're gonna start with some meat.

So I'm using two types of salsa for my tacos.

One is spicy and the other one is a little mild.

Now my salsa, I'm using chile de Arbol,

tomatoes, onions, garlic, little bit of cumin

and it's spicy.

This is going add heat, char

and it's going to also add a little bit

of moist to your taco if it's too dry.

The salsa needs to be the end to the other end.

So every single bite has the same amount of salsa,

same amount of love.

And then we do the avocado.

I want to add a texture which is smooth, soft, fresh.

And also it's gonna balance the spiciness

from the chile de Arbol.

A little bit of onions. It looks so nice.

Cooking is fun.

Cilantro, cilantro adds aroma.

And there you have it.

My spring onions on the side.

You get a bite of the taco, you get a bite of the onion.

Put some lime, be happy.

This looking just like the ones that I used to eat

when I was back home in Mexico.

Simple, delicious, well done, well execute.

I think it's gonna be the best taco

I've ever had in my whole life.

Squeeze lime everywhere.

I can smell the tortilla.

The, oh, you know what, that's it. Lemme try it.

[light music]

Hmm. Hmm. I eat almost half of the taco.

That's a good sign.

It's spicy and it's screaming

and it's char and it's moist.

You have the flavors of a Mexican street food

and also you have the consistency of a gourmet taco.

So like the best out of two worlds.

[vocalizing explosion]

My advice of making tacos de asada, is you have to do it

with your family and friends.

I think just making the tacos de asada

you have to involve your whole family

and the people that you love the most

because it will taste even better.

[light music]

Now, the fire department is gonna come

and have some tacos de asada.

This is why this is an outdoor dish.