This steak fajita recipe uses bottled Italian salad dressing as part of the steak marinade. For a healthy choice, pick dressing with a short and simple ingredient list including canola or olive oil. Serve the steak fajitas with fresh pico de gallo, guacamole and cold beer.

South Texas Steak Fajitas

Serves 4

Active Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes, plus 8 to 24 hours marinating time

For the steak and marinade:

3 fresh jalapeno peppers, stems and seeds removed

1 small onion, quartered

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

3/4 cup beer, pale ale or lager

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

1/3 cup lime juice

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 bay leaf

1 pound skirt steak

For the vegetables:

1 tablespoon canola oil

3 New Mexican green chiles or poblano peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch strips

1 medium onion, halved and cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 6-inch flour tortillas, heated

To marinate the steak:

1. Place jalapenos, quartered onion and cilantro in a blender or food processor and blend until finely chopped. Add beer, salad dressing, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt and cumin and puree until smooth. Stir in bay leaf.

2. Place steak in a gallon-size sealable plastic bag and pour the marinade over it. Close and refrigerate, turning occasionally, for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.

To grill the steak:

1. Preheat grill to medium-high.

2. Remove the steak from the marinade and place on the grill. (Discard marinade.) Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium. Remove the steak to a clean cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes.

To prepare the vegetables:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add chiles and onion strips, sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until blackened in spots and just softened, 4 to 6 minutes.

To serve:

1. Holding your knife at a 45-degree angle to the steak, very thinly slice across the grain — this helps keep the fajita tender. Serve the steak and vegetables on a platter with the tortillas so everyone can make their own fajitas.

Tasty tips

1. Before cooking, cut the steak with the grain into several portions to make the long piece more manageable on the grill or in a skillet. Once cooked, be sure to slice it across the grain for maximum tenderness. Hanger steak, flat-iron and flank steak can all be used as substitutes for skirt steak in most recipes.

2. New Mexico chiles (aka Anaheim chiles) are 7 to 10 inches long, ripen from green to red and are mildly spicy. Poblano peppers are dark green in color, about 6 inches long and can be fiery or relatively mild; there’s no way to tell until you taste them. The two can be used interchangeably.

Recipe nutrition per serving: 467 Calories, Total Fat: 20 g, Saturated Fat: 5 g, Cholesterol: 74 mg, Carbohydrates: 40 g, Fiber: 3 g, Total Sugars: 6 g, Added Sugars: 0 g, Protein: 30 g, Sodium: 792 mg, Potassium: 753 mg, Folate: 127 mcg, Calcium: 106 mg.

Carbohydrate servings: 2 1/2.

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