Grilled Flank Steak Tacos
Grilled Flank Steak Tacos are an easy and delicious way to celebrate warm summer nights on the back porch!
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We don’t eat steak all that often around our house. I remember as a young kid, my parents would have steaks along with baked potatoes every Friday night. For us, our weekend comfort food is homemade pizza…especially during football season. Saturday night pizza and college football is the best! But in the warmer months, you can usually find us outside by the grill when it comes to dinner time. (Plus, baseball is way too boring to watch on tv. I’d much rather be outside!)
My in-laws came in town a few weeks ago, and we stopped by the store to grab some food. They were staying for a week, and we didn’t have much in the fridge. As I walked by the meat department, my eyes landed on flank steak. We used to use flank steak for fajitas, but it always came out tough. So we eventually just shifted over to veggies and chicken for our fajitas.
But I decided to go out on a limb and grab some flank steak. I’ve had delicious flank steak before, so I figured we had to just be doing something wrong. Sure enough. I was right that we were wrong. (Haha!) Turns out the problem came from marinating the flank steak overnight. Flank steak shouldn’t be marinating more than 1-2 hours. 8+ hours > 1-2 hours. And our flank steak for those fajitas was definitely tough as a result.
But hey, a side bonus of marinating flank steak for just 1-2 hours is that it requires less planning to make dinner. I grabbed a nice large steak with the goal of making flank steak tacos for dinner. And it totally worked! I went with cilantro + lime as the primary flavors, and more importantly I only marinated that flank steak for ~45 minutes. And it was more of a paste than a marinade. Guess what? That steak wasn’t tough at all. In fact, these Grilled Flank Steak Tacos were quite tasty! So tasty that the father-in-law went back for seconds.
As I’ve noted before, anything can be turned into tacos. Anything. We always keep the basic taco ingredients (tortillas, sour cream, onions, etc.) around the house, so it’s no surprise that our leftovers often get transformed into tacos when we need to mix up our dinners a bit. But in this case, I actually set out to make tacos. Grilled flank steak tacos. And we will most definitely be making these again…and soon. Especially now that the weather is warm and baseball has taken over the world of sports. Here’s to summer evenings and time spent on the back porch!
Grilled Flank Steak Tacos
Ingredients
For the Paste
- ½ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1½ tsp garlic minced
- ¾ tsp chili powder
- ¾ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 tsp lime juice
For the Steak
- 1½-1¾ pounds flank steak ~ ½”-¾” thick, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- Canola or vegetable oil for brushing grill grates
For the Tacos
- 8 6” flour tortillas
- 1 cup fresh corn
- ½ cup red onion diced
- Fresh cilantro
- Sour cream
- Lime wedges
Instructions
For the Paste
- Using a food processor or mini-chopper, add all ingredients except for lime juice; pulse until well combined.
- Transfer 1 Tbsp of Paste into a small bowl and mix with the lime juice; set this mixture aside. (Note: it will be used after grilling.)
For the Steak
- Using a fork, poke steak every ~2”. Place steak in glass or porcelain baking dish. Spread Paste evenly on both sides of steak and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover dish and let rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
- Preheat grill to medium heat. Brush grates with canola or vegetable oil.
- Grill for 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat, flipping after 4 minutes. (Note: Feel free to adjust grilling time to match personal preferences for doneness of steak. 8-10 minutes should yield a fairly well-done flank steak.)
- Remove steak from grill; let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
- Cut steak against the grain into ¼” slices. Place slices in large bowl; add reserved Paste and toss until well coated.
For the Tacos
- Place several slices of steak on each tortilla. Top with corn, onion, cilantro and sour cream. Serve with lime wedges.
Yum! We always have taco fixings in our house too. It’s definitely a go-to meal for us. Love your grilled flank steaks! These would be so tasty and thanks for the tip about not over marinading! This works better for me because I am not very good about planning too far ahead anyway. 45 minutes…I can do that!
45 minutes! We’ve all got 45 minutes, right, Kathy? Especially when that 45 minutes involves the steaks just sitting there not requiring any special attention. 🙂 Tacos are always a favorite in our house. I hope you and the family had an awesome long weekend!!
Hi David! I made steak kabobs Wednesday and are having tacos tonight with the leftover steak and veggies! Once again we are on the same wave length! I always have tortillas on hand, they are so versatile. I will definitely be trying your marinade next time I grill steak! I like the corn and red onion going on here, it adds a nice, fresh crunch factor that works so well. Have a fantastic grillin’ weekend!
Now you’re talking my kinda language, Dorothy! I love the idea of kabobs one night and then just make extras for tacos the next night. It’s like a buy-one-get-one-free kinda deal…but with awesome dinner food. 🙂 We had an amazing grilling weekend, and I hope you guys did, too! It was a much needed break for us.
Flank steak is my favorite cut of steak. It’s delicious and so versatile. I love something that can be ready in just a few hours! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much, Amanda! I’m with ya on flank steak…especially now that I realized not to marinate it too long. Delicious! Hope you guys had an awesome long weekend. 🙂
Haha, there have been so many times when I’ve been right about being wrong too, David! In fact, I think those times are more than the times I have been right about being right! Ugh!
Moving on – Thanks for the tidbit about marinating flank steak – I used to think you could never ever marinate something too long. Now I want tacos for dinner – even though pizza is on the menu – yup, it’s Lil Shashi’s and my fav Friday night dinner too!
Hope you, Laura and Robbie have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!
Same here, Shashi! I always thought the longer you marinate something, the more tender it will get. (Except for shrimp…I knew that one.) But I was totally wrong with flank steak. And now I’m not afraid to pick it up at the store. Easy peasy! But truth be told, pizza is still my favorite, too. Now if that pizza had flank steak on top? Well then we’d be heaven. 🙂 Hope you guys had an awesome long weekend, my ATL friends!
I always thought the danger of overmarinating would be that the meat would get mushy rather than dry out. I’ve always marinated flank steak just for a few hours, because I lack self-control. But now I’ll just sit back and pretend like I knew better!
Yeah, I’ve had meat get mushy from overmarinating, too, Jeff. Maybe it has something to do with what actually goes into the marinade? Either way, I’ve definitely learned something with the whole marinating flank steak thing. Less is more. Hope you had an awesome fireworks-filled, grillin-like-a-fool weekend, Jeff!
So glad to see this beauty! Flanks are big in our house and I marinate it often overnight. I guess it depends on the acid in your marinade that might make it tough. Flank is one of those meats where cutting it properly across the grain is essential or it IS tough.
Olé amigo and have a great Fourth of July weekend with the family. Cheers!
Good point, Kevin! The marinade could make a big difference here, too. Hope you guys had an awesome weekend filled with amazing grilled food! 🙂
Classic Dave- Turning anything into tacos!
These photos…AMAZING! I actually want to eat my screen, but steak is just a tad too fancy right now.
Anything and everything can be turned into a taco! Don’t believe me? Try it. Strawberry Cake Tacos for dinner tonight? 🙂
This sounds amazingly delicious and looks so beautiful! Have a great weekend 🙂
Thank you so much, Kushi! These tacos were indeed delicious…and I think they might have even been better as leftovers. Yum! I hope you had an awesome weekend, too! 🙂
You see, the first and very important step to solve your issue is to acknowledge your mistake, like you did with this steak. As the result, I see the fantastically looking succulent meat. Great job, David! Perhaps, you should do the same with lavender: accept you’re doing something wrong, fix it, and enjoy a delightful lavender flavor! Well, how many hours do you usually marinate it, haha?:)
Good point, Ben! Sometimes it’s hard for us guys to admit our mistakes. But you know, I screw up a lot. And I’m ok with that…haha! As long as I don’t make the same mistake twice, then I’m ok with it.
Also, Laura had a lavender soda this weekend. It was interesting. Have you ever had lavender soda? I totally thought of you when I took a sip!
We don’t have steak all that often in our house either, but when we do it is usually in tacos. The paste for the steaks sound amazing – a delicious summer evening meal!
You’ve got that right, Dannii…nothing beats a good grilled meal in the summer. Especially when that grilled meal involves tacos. Yum! I hope you and Dave had an awesome weekend. (I know it wasn’t a long weekend for you guys…but I hope it still rocked!)
Oh my my…. I don’t do tacos that often but I’m happy to make an excuse so I can enjoy these tacos. Delicious!
Haha! Thanks, Linda. Everything tastes better in taco form…so grab those leftovers from the fridge and drop ’em into a taco for dinner tonight! 🙂
I agree….anything can be made into tacos! Hubby and I LOVE them and we have been eating them more and more regularly. I don’t think I’ve used flank steak before, but I think I’ll give it a shot after seeing these tacos 🙂 Love the corn on there too, David. Pinned!
Flank steak is totally amazing for tacos, Dawn! (especially now that I’ve learned not to overmarinate the steak..) I’m thinking tacos for dinner tonight (again)?? 🙂
Speaking of “anything can be tacos”, the Ice Cream Trucks in the summer have a “Choco Taco”. That’s right. Ice cream and chocolate crunchy coating!!
It’s good to know the steaks only need to be marinated an hour or less. I have been making that mistake myself.
Thanks!
Yes! The choco-taco…I was actually thinking about trying to recreate some of those here at home the other day. How fun would that be?? Thanks so much for the comment, Sue Ann! 🙂
Oh my goodness!! I haven’t been here in forever and missed so much. First of all, LOVE LOVE the site. I am sure it is not new (my bad!). And love these tacos!! Steak and tacos are a winning combination.
Nah, it’s all good, Zainab! The site is a work in progress…so thank you! 🙂 And as far as tacos, you can’t ever go wrong with tacos, right? Hope life isn’t too crazy for you and the little one. (I occasionally stalk your photos on Facebook…hope you don’t mind!)