Quick Carne Asada

I treated myself with one of my favorite Tex-Mex meals for my final real meal before my surgery today.  I actually made this on Monday and then had a bland eating day pre-surgery.

But this Quick Carne Asada is flavorful and delicious and will carry my taste-buds through all the Jell-o that’s in my future!

The good news is that as wonderful as this meal is, it’s super-fast to make.  You can make it on a Wednesday night without too much worry.

Quick Carne Asada

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5 from 1 vote

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 4 Servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

A flavorful spice-rubbed beef flank steak grilled and served over a black bean salad. This makes for a quick and delicious Tex-Mex meal!

Ingredients 

• 2 pound flank steak, rubbed
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose rub
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Flour or corn Tortillas

Black Bean Salad:

• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, rinsed
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 avocados, diced
• 2 limes, juice only
• ¼ cup cilantro, minced
• Salt and pepper

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Instructions

• Rub both sides of flank steak with olive oil, all purpose rub, and red pepper flakes. Let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can rub it, wrap it in plastic and let it sit overnight in the fridge.
• For black bean salad, just mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Set aside in the fridge until needed.
• Heat grill on high heat and let heat for 10 minutes to get very hot.
• Grill flank steak for 5-6 minutes per side for a medium rare steak.
• Remove flank steak from grill and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
• Slice flank steak across the grain and serve over black bean salad with flour tortillas.

Nutrition

Serving: 1plate | Calories: 632kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 52g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 25g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 148mg | Potassium: 1389mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 607IU | Vitamin C: 23mg | Calcium: 114mg | Iron: 6mg

Course: Main Dishes

Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex

Quick Carne Asada Recipe

Prepping the Steak

Flank steak is one of my favorite cuts of meat to cook these days.  It’s actually getting a bit more expensive in the store because people are catching on to the wonderfulness of it.

It’s still relatively cheap for steak though.

The key to cooking a good flank steak is to cook it super-hot, not to overcook it, and to make sure you give it plenty of flavor to help it out.

For this version, I used my favorite all-purpose rub as a base and then also tossed in some red pepper flakes for a little extra spice.

Rub the flank steak on both sides with olive oil and then put on a liberal coat of the spice rub and red pepper flakes.

I gave some measurements in the recipe, but honestly I never measure.  I just completely cover the steak.  If you can see a lot of pink, you aren’t using enough!

If you have time, I like to rub this and then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

If you’re crunched for time, then rub it and let the steak sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

As you can see, the rub kind of melts all over the steak which will form a really nice crust when we grill it.  If you don’t let the steak rest before grilling then a lot of the rub will just fall off.

The Black Bean Salad

There’s a lot of serving options for this steak.  You could serve it with rice and refried beans.  You could dice it up and put it in tacos.

For this version though, I wanted to serve it over a simple black bean salad.

For the canned ingredients, drain them and rinse them well.  Then dice up all the veggies and herbs and season them with a pinch of salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Cooking The Steak

I’m not sure that I would recommend cooking this steak anyway other than on the grill.  It’s just the perfect way to cook it and there’s not really a close second in my mind.

Crank your grill up to high heat and let it get very hot.  Then toss on the flank steak and let it cook, untouched, for about 5-6 minutes per side.

It should get a nice char on it.

5-6 minutes will give you a nice medium rare steak.  Feel free to go longer if you want it medium.  Personally, I don’t recommend cooking flank steak beyond medium because it starts to get tough.

When the steak comes off the grill, let it rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing into it.

Then slice it pretty thinly against the grain of the meat.

You know the rest.  Pile a few slices of the steak on a big bed of the black bean salad and serve it with some warm tortillas.

It’s one of my favorite meals.

Tex-Mex is one of my favorite cuisines and for a quick and relatively healthy dinner, it doesn’t get much better than this Quick Carne Asada in my mind.