Skirt Steak in Malbec and Cumin

Prep Time: 1 Hour

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Yield: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

Cut the steak along the grain into a few equal sized pieces, about the length of your favorite knife. Sprinkle aggressively with Kosher salt and rub with the cumin, coriander, and black pepper. Let sit under plastic wrap at room temperature for 30 minutes.

While the meat rests, prepare the marinade. Roughly chop the garlic, rosemary and onion into 1/2” chunks and drop into a freezer bag with the red pepper and about 1 cup of Malbec. Seal the bag and shake it to ensure everything is mixed well. Leave the bag on the counter until the steak is ready.

After 30 minutes of resting, gently pat the steak dry with paper towels. Don’t wipe it or you’ll lose the spice rub. You just want to remove any excess moisture that the salt has brought to the surface of the steak.

Drop the steak into the marinade. If there’s not enough marinade to cover all the meat, just pour more wine into the bag. Put the steak in the fridge for 2 hours. Longer is better, but if you’re short on time 2 hours gets things pretty tasty.

When you’re ready to start cooking, preheat your grill on high for 15 minutes. While the grill preheats, pour the excess marinade out of the bag, but leave the steak. Add enough canola oil into the bag to coat the steak. Shake the bag just enough to make sure all the pieces have a light coating of oil. We’re not adding flavor here, just helping to ensure that the steak doesn’t stick to your grill.

Since skirt steak is usually an uneven thickness from one end to the other, you’ll need to adjust cooking times a bit. The thicker pieces will hit a nice medium at about 3-4 minutes a side. The thinner pieces will take probably 1-2 minutes per side.

Take the steak off the grill and rest it on a cutting board under an aluminum foil tent for 5 minutes. When you’re ready to serve, cut 1/2″ thick slices across the grain of the meat. This is very important if you want a tender steak. Cutting across the muscle fibers makes a tougher cut like skirt steak much more enjoyable to chew.