STOP Buying Mexican Food Kits! The Fajitas That Beat Any Restaurant

Weeknight fajitas that brown instead of turning gray: homemade fajita seasoning with no salt, flank steak sliced across the grain, and one cast iron skillet trick. Pásale, mija, set those grocery bags down. Four Tuesdays this year, four envelopes, and every time the pan filled up with gray water and the seasoning burned black on the bottom. It was never your stove. It comes down to three things my grandmother never wrote down: a jar of seasoning with NO salt, TWENTY minutes in the freezer before you slice, and a COFFEE CUP by the stove. One skillet, one sheet pan, forty-five minutes from the door to the table. ⭐ THE JAR (make it on SUNDAY, about 2/3 cup, five Tuesday suppers) - 3 dried ancho chiles and 2 guajillo chiles, toasted in a DRY skillet 20 to 30 seconds a side, stems and seeds out - 2 tbsp whole cumin seed, toasted until it pops - 1 tbsp Mexican oregano, 1 tbsp granulated garlic, 2 tsp black peppercorns - Blend to a fine red powder. No salt. Write the date on the lid. - Vent fan on, window open, kids outside. Chile smoke is no joke. ⭐ THE MEAT (Tuesday, the minute you walk in the door) - 1 1/2 lb flank steak (or skirt, or boneless chicken thighs), flat on a plate in the FREEZER 20 minutes. Firm, not frozen. - Slice ACROSS the grain into 1/4 inch strips, all the same size - 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 2 tbsp from the jar, juice of 1 lime, 1 tbsp oil. 15 minutes on the counter, never more than an hour. ⭐ THE VEGETABLES (under the broiler, rack 4 inches from the heat) - 1 white onion in thick wedges, 1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper in two-finger strips, 1 jalapeño cut in half - 1 tbsp oil, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp from the jar. Spread out, 8 to 10 minutes, turn once. Don't walk away from a broiler. ⭐ THE METHOD 1. Heaviest skillet, cast iron if you have it, on high for 4 minutes (6 to 7 on electric or glass-top). 1 tbsp vegetable or avocado oil. Wait for the first thin thread of smoke. 2. HALF the meat in one layer (thirds on electric). Don't stir. Count to 90. Turn, 1 more minute. Out to a clean plate. 3. THE COFFEE CUP: juice pooling in the pan? Tip it into the cup, give the pan 30 seconds to get its heat back. Then the second batch. 4. All the meat back in, vegetables in off the sheet pan, toss 30 seconds. Off the heat: chopped cilantro and a sliced serrano. 5. Tortillas on a low gas flame 10 seconds a side, or on a comal. Stack them in a towel-lined bowl with a plate on top. 6. Crema, sliced avocado, and a bowl of beans if there's a pot going. THE HONEST WORDS: - Gray and watery → pan too full, and the juice was never poured off. - Seasoning burned black → pan too hot between batches. Turn it down a notch and scrape out the black bits. - Chewy → cut along the grain instead of across, or cut too thick. - Tastes flat → more from the jar. There's no salt in it, so you can. - Soft vegetables → crowded sheet pan. Use two. - Leftovers → in the refrigerator within 2 hours, good for 3 days. READ THE BOX: Turn your fajita kit over. The first ingredient on the envelope is salt, with sugar and starch further down, and the directions tell you to add water to meat you want to brown. That's why it boiled. One homemade jar costs about what one box costs and does the work of five. If your pan filled up with gray water every time you tried, it was never your hands. Nobody ever showed you. Tell me in the comments where your people are from, and which one keeps happening to you: the gray water, the burnt seasoning, or the chewy strips? I read every one. #elenacooking #mexicanfoods #mexico