Fajita meat in the #2

grogorat

New member
Hello fellow smokers, sorry for the long hiatus from this forum but sometimes life gets in the way.  :P
I'm thinking of smoking some skirt and/or flank steak in the next few weeks and I'm wondering if I should do a marinade/brine and then a brown sugar Dalmatian rub; is that too much?  (I know it's a tough cut of meat)
I've seen smoking directions for 1-2 hours @ 220-225 to rare/med rare, then a reverse sear either on the grill or in my case, a skillet.
Thoughts?
Or is this a fool's errand, lol?
 
Your plan sounds good to me.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Let us know how it turns out.
 
A fajita marinade will definitely help flank a lot. Flank can be kind of thin, so you might consider smoking at 200 instead of 225. If you can get a probe in the thick part, you would want to take the internal temp to about 120, then quick high temp reverse sear, so your final product ends up medium to medium rare. Slice thin against the grain.
 
Results:
It came out tender albeit a little dry, even with resting it for 2 hours (my fault for leaving it in too long).  Put it in there for 2.5 hours at 220 but I think it was too thin for that length of time.  As far as the flavor, it was like brisket fajitas: mouth feel of fajitas with a smoky brisket leave.
I'll definitely cut down the smoke time down to 1.5 hours if I try this again.  Wife said it was fine despite the dryness.  Got some more giant beef short ribs for a future smoke.
Oh well, I suppose that's the fun of trying new things with smoking.
 
Sounds like you were in the 95% success area with 5% deducted for dryness.  Keep at it. You'll get it perfected.  Congratulations!
 
Shaved fajita meat would be too thin for smoking with heat IMO.  I'd cold smoke it and then do the grill sear.  Traditional fajita meat only takes a couple of minutes on the grill to begin with.
 
Stop abusing the Skirt Steak, it cooks in seconds. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_011&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&p=alton+bron+skirt+steak#id=2&vid=b7b5d101eb9872119f0ac66d4ae5ea60&action=click
 
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