I can eat Mexican food all day, every day.

Love the stuff and never get tired of it!  Jeff is the same way.

When we go back for visits, it doesn’t matter what time our flight lands — our first stop is the nearest Robertos, Santanas, Adalbertos — you get the picture — for a carne asada burrito.

When we moved to Sardinia, Italy in 1999, it didn’t take long before we were missing carne asada — real bad. We set out to learn how to make our own.

You see, we never actually prepared carne asada while living in San Diego.  We bought it.  It’d be like making my own wine while living in Tuscany.  Why bother when you can just go down the street for delicious perfection?

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.  We needed our carne asada!

In the course of trying to find the perfect carne asada recipe, Jeff and I did all sorts of experimenting with different marinades and cuts of meat.  Our favorite cut for carne asada is flank steak.

Tenderloin is pretty good too.  We know this because we ended up with 10 pounds of tenderloin instead of the flank I THOUGHT I was ordering from the Italian butcher for our 2002 Cinco de Mayo party.  Trying to speak a foreign language can bring so many … surprises!

The tenderloin was fantastic, but yike$!

This marinade recipe is the result of lots of taste testing, laughter and good times.

Enjoy!

Carne Asada for Tacos or Burritos

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Serves	6
Prep time	8 hours
Cook time	12 minutes
Total time	8 hours, 12 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish

Ingredients

• 3 Pounds flank steak (can also use skirt steak, tenderloin or round steak)
• 1/3 Cup fresh lime juice
• 1 Large white onion (sliced thin)
• 3 Tablespoons garlic powder
• 4 Cloves fresh garlic (chopped)
• 2 Tablespoons oregano
• salt and pepper

Directions

Step 1

Trim flank steak of any excess fat and season both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano. Place seasoned steak in large ziplock bag. Add lime juice, sliced onions and chopped garlic. Mix so that both sides of steak come into contact with all seasonings. Marinate in fridge overnight. Cook on grill over high heat about 4 minutes on each side and then continue cooking until meat reaches 130°F for medium rare. Allow cooked steak to rest 10 minutes before slicing into small pieces against grain. Serve with corn or flour tortillas accompanied by your choice of cheese, sour cream, salsa, olives, cilantro, jalapenos, etc. A squeeze of fresh lime juice is great too!