Chimichurri and Churrasco Recipe...
One of Puerto Rico's fonda meals.
Hey! Buy this shit. Love you. Kthxbye.
Yes! We’re still selling my salt-free Sazon and Adobo seasonings! Purchase them by clicking this link!
Recipe (and video) all the way down at the bottom for you TL:DRs
Slabs of beef is not something that I cook often, so maybe that’s why I didn’t anticipate churrasco being difficult to find. Even though it’s one of those meals that you can find in the intimate fondas of Puerto Rico. A bantam-sized piece of churrasco that has been marinated and if cooked well, slightly charred around the edges, served next to habichuelas de la olla and white rice all together on one plate. Don’t forget the sparkling chimichurri that goes on top of the churrasco right before serving. It’s zippy, it’s meaty, it’s filling. It’s all the things.
Churrasco is skirt steak. I’ll say here what I found myself saying to multiple grocery store “butchers,” during my search: “It’s not flank. It’s not hanger. No, they can’t not be used interchangeably when I’m trying to cook Puerto Rican churrasco.”
TF?
Skirt steak is the US name for a cut of beef steak from the plate (which is where you get your short ribs from and it’s right next to the brisket). It is long, flat, and prized for its flavor rather than tenderness. It is distinct from hanger steak. Though skirt, hanger and flank are from two different parts of the cow, the way it looks (with a heavy grain you can see with your eyes) people assume they’re one in the same.
These types of cuts can sometimes be found more easily at Mexican markets, which there are not many in my area. But, there are plenty in Mami’s neighborhood. But, if you’ve ever been to a Mexican market to buy meat you know your chances of avoiding the dudes behind the meat counter are nil. You’re gonna have to talk to them. And I hate it! I just want a pound of those costillas that they chop into pieces without having to humiliate myself with the No Sabo, “Uhh…me da dos libros de costillitas par favor. Garcias.”
I’m willing to take a (safe) wild guess that the skirt steak was brought to Puerto Rico by the Spanish, considering that Mexicans (which the Spanish also boinked) and the vaqueros came to prefer skirt steak; what they call arrachera. It would eventually seep its way into Tex-Mex cuisine as the prefered cut of meat for fajitas.
For my family, churrasco became the preferred cut of meat for carne asada. We took a familiar cut of beef from Puerto Rico and turned it into a familiar food we learned of in California. An experience that couldn’t exist anywhere else.
We’re Puerto Ricans from California. Our Sunday evenings were not spent on brownstone stoops or concrete porches shaded by the foliage of flamboyant trees. Our Sundays were spent cruising in lowriders down Franklin Boulevard to the end of Broadway until we hit Miller’s Park. In between ice cold beers, we’d man the Weber kettle for most of the day along the river. The sound of the shifting of hot coals interlacing itself with music spilling out of boomboxes; oldies with the first few beers and salsa with the last few shots.
Our barbecues had potato salad, arroz con gandules and carne asada marinated in oregano, sofrito, fresh orange, lemon and lime juice to mimic the flavor of naranja agria and the chinas that grow in Las Marias. The beef sizzled and charred for just a few moments before being removed from the grill, sliced thin against the grain and jammed in between a warm corn tortilla and slathered with fresh salsa made with cilantro and jalapeños, or sprinkled with pique.
It was the proximity culture we felt the most familiar with, another Spanish speaking Catholic culture. When my Nino went to jail, he didn’t side with the “phenotype” he physically matched with, he sided with the Norteños; a gang culture of Chicanos. And he was a Norteño until he died.
I don’t call my goddaughter “nena,” I call her “mija.” I don’t shout out “Coño!” I shout out “Aye güey!”
When I’m driving in the summer evenings during the twilight hour and all the little bumps of the road agitate my car's shocks and make the car shake, it reminds me of lowriding in my Nino’s 1970's Cadillac. When I’m slowly backing up into my driveway in my little European hatchback, it’s not what I’m envisioning as I listen to Smokey Robinson's Agony and Ecstasy. In my mind, I’m in my dream car; a 1969 Chevy Nova SS.
We didn’t get the luxury of creating our own culture like the Ricans de la isla or the Nuyoricans. Because of our ability to speak Spanish, we were accepted and adopted into one of the most beautiful and unique cultures in the world. We can't claim to be Chicanos, it's not our place. But, we did create another unique subset/subculture by default...
The CaliRicans.
For the visual learners
CHIMICHURRI RECIPE
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely minced
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Combine everything together in a small bowl and allow to set aside for minimum 20 minutes. Do I abide by this minimum? Of course not.
CHURRASCO RECIPE
Serves 2-4
1 pound of skirt steak
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce, like Kikkoman
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small orange
1 small onion, diced
1 tablespoon of salt free adobo
One tablespoon of dried oregano
Add your skirt steak into a medium sized bowl and add all of the ingredients into the bowl with the steak, ensuring you massage everything extremely well into the steak. It does not matter in which order you add the ingredients.
Set aside for one hour, minimum.
The preferred way to cook the churrasco is open flame. So, build your fire.
However, if you’re in a apartment or a place where that isn’t allowed, that’s ok too.
Doesn’t matter if you cook this on a grill, on the flattop, on a comal, in a cast iron pan on the stove or in the airfryer…this cut of meat cooks very quickly. High and fast! I’d say 3-4 minutes on each side. That way you get the crusty charred bits on the edges and the meat is still relatively tender.
Remove from heat and thinly slice against the grain. The good news about skirt steak, is that the grain is so obviously seen from the naked eye. If you need a visual, this link should help https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/dining/how-to-cut-steak-against-the-grain.html
Garnish with chimichurri and serve with white rice and quick Puerto Rican habichuelas (in my cookbook)!
NOTES
If it didn’t take so long to get the grill going, I’d say this recipe is actively 30 minutes. Once you make the chimichurri, would should take 10 mins max. That’s generous. And marinate the meat. Both of those things set aside until ready to use. The day of cook, 10-15 minutes, tops!
I think this is a simple recipe, but maybe it’s not. Let me know in the comments!
NEXT WEEK…
You can turn leftover churrasco into carne asada tacos and top it with my Salsa Verde Recipe, it has a secret ingredient: it’s Taco Bell Hot Sauce.
Thanks so much for this gorgeous recipe! Unrelated - my aunt was a typesetter for Lowrider magazine.
Lord, I would like to fall face first into that plate of food.