Fajitas- The Forgotten 80's Classic

There are few foods hotter these days than Texas Hill Country Barbecue specifically smoked brisket. People are waiting two hours early in the morning for Franklin Barbecue in Austin (which recently appeared in the movie Chef and Obama himself has stopped by). Shows on the Food Network and the Travel Channel are extolling generations of pit masters who have worked the legendary spots like Salt Lick, etc. New York City has no less than four restaurants devoted to Hill Country BBQ with places like Brisketown
But back in the 80's as a kid living in the Hill Country, BBQ was not a big deal. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. Instead of crappy deli meat, I got my mom to buy brisket by the pound and make my lunch with that. But it wasn't something made to worship, it just was part of everyday life. What was a big deal at that time was a sliced skirt steak dish served with peppers and onions on a sizzling hot plate- the Fajita.

Now this was special occasion food. During the early 80's we would trek all the way to Market Square in the heart of San Antonio to eat at La Margarita. There waiters jostled about with sizzling platters of fajitas that would be brought to your table with great fanfare. You assembled your own tacos with a myriad of ingredients brought to your table. Mariachis played in background, the location was historic, the food was good, the whole scene was magical. It was my understanding as a kid that the early Fajitas were an effective way to feed cattle ranch hands with a "throw away" cut of tough meat and that the dish was commercialized by La Margarita in the 1920's/1930's. From there it formed the centerpiece of the Tex-Mex menu throughout the remainder of the 20th century

La Margarita

Of course this was all complete bullshit. The "Fajita" didn't appear until the 1970's and those Fajitas were skirt steak cut up into strips and assembled into tacos. No sizzling plates here. It was a German head chef at the restaurant in the Austin Hyatt who came up with the sizzling steak concept in 1982 (for complete history see this excellent article here). Customer loved the theatrics of a sizzling plate arriving at their table with all of the fanfare that entailed. Soon he was moving 13,000 orders of this stuff a month. And soon more legit Tex-Mex restaurants picked up on this dish success and started replicating it at their own restaurants.

Unfortunately by the late 1980's, everyone was doing Fajitas and the dish was watered down. Skirt steak started to get expensive and restaurants started pitching shrimp and chicken fajitas. All of the Mexican chain restaurants(i.e. Chevy's, El Torrito, etc.) started serving the dish often cuts other than skirt. The final nail in the coffin was when fast food chains got in the game with the legendary Chicken Fajita Pita at Jack-in-the-Box and what Taco Bell called Fajita tacos. The once proud icon of 80's Tex-Mex cooking was now a fast food joke best represented in the first episode of Family Guy when Peter orders 6000 chicken "va-ji-tas" .

Ian's Fajitas

Well its time to take this dish back! You are going to have to make it yourself since finding a decent restaurant version is next to impossible outside of Texas. The key to a good plate of fajitas is a long marinade that tenderizes the meat and gives it that distinctive taste. Also use skirt steak! No sirloin, no tenderloin, and I wouldn't even use flank. The beefiness and fat content of skirt is key to the dish. Alternative cuts just don't have the same level of flavor or don't have the right fat content. Make sure you have a cast iron pan as a non sizzling plate of fajitas is just sad. Outside of those rules, feel free to make the dish your own. The dish was born as a hodge podge of more traditional ingredients, so there is not a longstanding tradition to follow here.

Here is how I make it:

Fajitas for Two
(will feed two Texans, four of anybody else)

Ingredients:
1 lbs of Skirt Steak
1  Onion cut into rings
1  Julienned Red Bell Pepper
1  Julienned Bell Pepper
2  tbs Minced Garlic
1/2 Cup Worcester Sauce
2 tbs Goya Adobo with Coriander
1 tbs Freshly Ground Pepper
1 Packet Goya Sazon
1 Tbs Canola Oil
1/2 tsp Cayenne (optional)

Additions:
2 Cups of Shredded Monterrey Jack
2 Cups Shredded Romaine Lettuce
1 Cup Minced Cilantro
Salsa
10 Flour Tortillas

1. Mix together the garlic, Worcester Sauce, Adobo, Sazon and pepper in small bowl
2. Combine spice mix with steak, onion and peppers in a gallon sized bag
3. Marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours
5. Assemble your extra ingredients
4. Heat a gas grill up to 450 degrees

5. Heat oil in a cast iron pan
6. Place meat on the grill cooking each side for 2 or 3 minutes
7. Saute onions and peepers on the heated cast iron pan until peppers are slightly charred and onions are
    caramelized
8. Let the skirt steak sit for five minutes then slice into thin strips
9. Add skirt steak to the sizzling pan and saute with the peppers and onions
10. Serve the pan still sizzling to the table with all of the extras