Growing up as a kid in Southern California I fell in love with street tacos. To many, they are more than just food, they are a way of life. And I proudly declare that I too am a member of this holy congregation.
Now there are many different types of tacos, some use flour tortillas, some use corn, and of course, there’s crunchy. There are also many different types and cuts of meat utilized in tacos ranging from fish, barbacoa, al pastor and lengua. But today we are going to learn how to make the simple, yet addictive carne asada street tacos.
Street tacos in my humble opinion are the king of all tacos. While some might complain that they are too small in size, I instead say that this supposed weakness in street tacos is actually its greatest strength. The small size of street tacos allows you to partake in a larger variety of different meats in one meal. With larger tacos, you will most likely only have an appetite for 2 to 3 tacos, and thus only get 2 to 3 varieties at max. However, with street tacos you can have an appetite for 6 to 8 tacos, thus having the chance to taste 6 to 8 different kinds of meats. And as the great sages say, variety is the spice of life. If you want to do just that, and make more than just carne asada street tacos for your party then check out my recipe for pollo asado.
One last thing I would like to discuss before we get into the lesson is the proper structuring of street tacos. ALWAYS, make sure that you use two tortillas for every taco. Now maybe you’ve seen restaurants that have done this before and wondered why. Well, the reason is that corn tortillas lack gluten making them severely less elastic than a flour tortilla. This ultimately makes corn tortillas more prone to ripping, which is why you never see burritos made out of corn tortillas, it just can’t be done. Now when it comes to tacos, obviously you can use either type of tortillas, but true street tacos always use corn tortillas, and there is nothing worse than taking a bite and having the tortilla rip with everything falling out. So use two tortillas in order to help mitigate this issue, you’ll be thanking yourself that you did.
Alright so let’s get to making these carne asada street tacos.
Carne Asada Street Tacos Recipe
Prep time: 30 to 40 minutes
Cook time: 10 to 15 minutes
Servings: 3 to 4 people
Ingredients
1-1 1/4 Lbs of either thin cut top round steak, or skirt steak
1 Tsp of salt
2 Tsps of chili powder
1 Tsp of ground cumin
1 Tsp of dried oregano
½ Tsp of garlic powder
4 Large limes
3 Tbsps of olive oil, or vegetable oil
Street taco size corn tortillas
Garnishes:
½ White onion finely diced
2 Limes
Cilantro
Salsas *
* If you are feeling up to the challenge then try making some homemade salsa, here are my recipes for Salsa Roja, and Salsa Verde
Instructions
- Marinate the meats: In a plastic ziplock bag add the juice of 4 limes, oil, salt, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and garlic powder. Shake this up until everything is nice and mixed. To this bag add the steaks, and mix it all up again. Let it marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Prep all of the garnishes: While the meat marinades, take the time to prep all of the garnishes needed for your tacos. Finely dice the onion, mince the fresh cilantro, and cut the limes into wedges. You can also do this a couple of hours ahead of time if you prefer.
- Grill the meats: About 5 minutes before you start grilling the steaks, make sure to turn on your grill in order for it to be nice and hot. Once you’ve done that then take your steaks out of the marinade and place them on the grill. Discarded the marinade. Let the steaks cook for 2-3 minutes on the first side if it is thin cut top round. If you are using skirt steak then let it cook for 5-6 minutes.
It is important at this time that you don’t flip them, we need to let them get a nice char. Once they’ve done that, then flip them over and let them cook for the same amount of time on their other side. 
After this take the steaks off the grill and place on a cutting board. Cover them with aluminum foil while we move on to the next step.
- Heat the tortillas: Get out a skillet and put it over high heat on your stove. To heat up the tortillas place them individually on the skillet. Make sure that none of them overlap, and let it cook on each side for a minute. You will know that they are properly heated when little bubbles start to form on the surface of the tortillas.
When the tortillas are heated place them between two paper towels in order to keep them warm while you heat up all of the tortillas that you feel that you need.
- Chop up the meats: After all of your tortillas are heated up, take the aluminum foil off of the steaks and chop it up. I personally like to use a meat cleaver to do this step. However, if you don’t have one then a simple chef’s knife will work. Chop up the steaks into really small pieces about a ½ inch to a ¼ inch in size.
- Make the tacos & enjoy: Now that everything is cooked and prepared, have your guests make their own tacos, first by placing two tortillas down. Then place about a tablespoon of meat in the middle. Top with a pinch of onion and cilantro. Spoon some salsa on top of that, and then right before eating, squeeze some lime juice on time. Perfect carne asada street tacos.
Carne Asada Street Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-1 1/4 Lbs of either thin cut top round steak or skirt steak
- 1 Tsp of salt
- 2 Tsps of chili powder
- 1 Tsp of ground cumin
- 1 Tsp of dried oregano
- ½ Tsp of garlic powder
- 4 Large limes
- 3 Tbsps of olive oil or vegetable oil
- Street taco size corn tortillas
Garnishes:
- ½ White onion finely diced
- 2 Limes
- Cilantro
- Salsas
Instructions
- Marinate the meats: In a plastic ziplock bag add the juice of 4 limes, oil, salt, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and garlic powder. Shake this up until everything is nice and mixed. To this bag add the steaks, mix it all up again, and let it marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Prep all of the garnishes: While the meat marinades, take the time to prep all of the garnishes needed for your tacos. Finely dice the onion, mince the fresh cilantro, and cut the limes into wedges. You can also do this a couple of hours ahead of time if you prefer.
- Grill the meats: About 5 minutes before you start grilling the steaks, make sure to turn on your grill in order for it to be nice and hot. After you have given your grill time to heat up, take your steaks out of the plastic bag and place them on the grill. Discarded the marinade. Let the steaks cook for 2-3 minutes on the first side if it is thin cut top round. If you are using skirt steak then let it cook for 5-6 minutes. It is important at this time that you don’t flip them, we need to let them get a nice char. After you have let your steaks cook for the amount of time that I have stated, flip them over and let them cook for the same amount of time on their other side. After this take the steaks off the grill and place on a cutting board. Cover them with aluminum foil while we move on to the next step.
- Heat the tortillas: Get out a skillet and put it over high heat on your stove. To heat up the tortillas place them individually on the skillet, making sure that none of them cover each other, and let it cook on each side for a minute. You will know that they are properly heated when little bubbles start to form on the surface of the tortillas. When the tortillas are heated place them between two paper towels in order to keep them warm while you heat up all of the tortillas that you feel that you need.
- Chop up the meats: After all of your tortillas are heated up, take the aluminum foil off of the steaks and chop it up. I personally like to use a meat cleaver to do this step, but if you don’t have one then a simple chef's knife will work. Chop up the steaks into really small pieces about a ½ inch to a ¼ inch in size.
- Make the tacos & enjoy: Now that everything is cooked and prepared, have your guests make their own tacos, first by placing two tortillas down. Then place about a tablespoon of meat in the middle. Top with a pinch of onion and cilantro. Spoon some salsa on top of that, and then right before eating, squeeze some lime juice on time. Perfection.
If you liked our carne asada street tacos then check out our recipe for pollo asado street tacos
Inspiration from other blogs
From I’m Bored Let’s Go
From Eating On A Dime
