Lime Marinated Grass-Fed Skirt Steak

Lime Marinated Skirt Steak Feature small

That name is a mouthful…a mouthful of meaty greatness! 

Skirt Steak is a great way to introduce grass-fed steaks into your budget.  It’s much more economical and has a ton of beefy flavor. 

This cut can be tough or chewy if it is cut the wrong way, or even prepared the wrong way.  And the beef from grass-fed animals, or animals raised on pasture, is much more lean (and full of meaty flavor), which can result in a tougher bite.  That’s why I chose an acidic marinade here.  The lime juice in the marinade ensures a tender chew, and desirable flavor.    

“Arghhh, No Marisa!  I don’t have time to marinate!  I have a 9-5 and barely make it home in time to make dinner as it is!”  I hear you friends.  Now, hear me out

 

Lime marinade

When you include acids in your marinades you are speeding up the process like crazy!  You can set this aside while you prepare a salad and heat the grill, and it’s already going to be amazing.  I’ve also prepared this marinade recipe with a dual function in mind.  You will be using 1/3 of the marinade for exactly that, and the other 2/3 to make a delicious sauce and dressing. 

When I made this dish I made the marinade before bed.  Then about 2 hours before dinner I put the steak in the marinade (that time worked for me, but you can marinade 30 minutes before dinner too).  See the recipe below for more pointers and variations!

 

About this steak.  I am lucky enough to have purchased this grass-fed skirt steak from a local rancher.  Lucky for many reasons, but mainly because I know where my food comes from, I am supporting hard-working, honest farmers in my community, I know this animal lived a healthy life eating the food it was meant to be eating (the latter is not as much about my compassion for animals as it is about the fact that a healthy animal yields healthy meat). 

That being said, I did not have the opportunity to choose my steak out of a lineup at the butcher counter, and inspect it for its size and accurate trimming.  My steak was a little small, and thin on one end.  I also had to do a little trimming myself just to remove the thick layer of excess fat.  This article on Serious Eats shows you how and tells you why. 

Call up your honeys and let them know that steak is for dinner!  Heck, steak is even for lunch!  These make great lettuce wraps.  Have fun, and tag me in your photos on instagram @mylongevitykitchen #mylongevitykitchen 

Lime Marinated Skirt dinner

 Suggested side dishes: Basmati or Calrose rice and Six-Spice Butternut Squash

Are some of these ingredients new to you?  Buy a bottle of Fish Sauce if you haven’t already. It lends a salty tangy dimension, like soy sauce and worchestershire combined, and is a healthy source of omega-3’s. The best brand is Red Boat Vietnamese Fish Sauce.  Check out my explanation of Coconut Aminos here

 

Lime Marinated Grass-fed Skirt Steak
A quick marinade of lime and fish sauce tenderizes your grass-fed steak, and gets an impressive dinner on the table with ease. This dual-purpose marinade serves as a delicious plating sauce and salad dressing.
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Prep Time
45 min
Cook Time
10 min
Prep Time
45 min
Cook Time
10 min
Ingredients
  1. 2 cloves Garlic, minced
  2. ¼ C Water
  3. 2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar
  4. 3 Tbsp Lime Juice
  5. 2 teaspoons Fish Sauce (or coconut aminos)
  6. 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
  7. 2 small grass-fed skirt steaks, up to 1.5 lbs total weight
  8. 4 fresh Basil Leaves
  9. 2 Tbsp Cilantro or Parlsey
  10. 2-3 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
  11. ½ fresh Chili Pepper, diced
  12. Butter/Bib lettuce leaves, or Salad Greens for two
Instructions
  1. In a small glass jar with a lid, mix together the water and coconut sugar, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, and crushed pepper. Shake it all up and set aside.
  2. Pat the steaks dry with paper towels and place them in a gallon-size Ziploc bag.
  3. Marinate your steak at room temperature 30 minutes before dinner by adding 3 Tablespoons of the marinade to the Ziploc bag with steak. Swish it all around to coat the steak.
  4. IMPORTANT NOTE: Max marinade time for this recipe is 2 hours refrigerated. You MUST refrigerate the steak while marinating if you go longer than 30 minutes because this is a salty/acidic marinade. Marinating any longer will ruin the taste and texture completely. Remove the steak from the fridge 15-30 minutes before cooking so it can come to room temperature.
  5. Once ready to cook, heat a grill pan, cast iron pan, or heavy bottomed pan; and coat the grill with a high-heat fat like ghee, avocado oil, palm oil, or palm shortening. You want the grill pan nice and hot before cooking.
  6. Remove the steak from the bag and shake off the excess marinade.
  7. Grill the steak 3 minutes on the first side and sprinkle with sea salt while grilling.
  8. Flip the steak and cook 2 more minutes on the other side, sprinkle with sea salt.
  9. Place the steak on a plate to rest for 3 minutes before plating.
  10. Meanwhile, add the herbs, olive oil, and diced chili to the jar with the leftover dressing. Shake it up.
  11. Spoon the dressing over each steak as you serve. You can use the lettuce to make a wrap or you may toss the greens with the leftover dressing.
Notes
  1. Make the marinade the night before, and add to the steak when you get home from work. Then by the time you’re ready to grill it will be ready to go!
  2. I suggest serving this for dinner with basmati rice, and my six-spice butternut squash. Makes a great lunch all by itself with the salad or lettuce wraps.
  3. This recipe works with flank steak too. Flank needs longer cooking time by 2-4 minutes extra per side.
My Longevity Kitchen https://mylongevitykitchen.com/

5 Responses

  1. Soooo I tried this recipe out for my husband a few weeks ago… and made a huge mistake of leaving the steak in the marinade overnight, thinking it would help enhance the flavors. Normally when I make a steak marinade it has olive oil, garlic and lots of yummy spices and it taste delish, marinated overnight. Oh boy was I wrong, when I went to go cook the steak the next day it turned out not good at all. The steak tasted like piece of fish, my husband was like I thought you were cooking steak not fish.. hahah. I’m sure if I would have followed the recipe exactly it would have tasted a lot better. Just thought I would share. Keep up the good work my friend! Got to try out that chili sometime soon.

    1. I am soooooo glad you are sharing your experience here Crystal! It is important for others to know that this is not the type of marinade you want to soak for long. I just updated the recipe with a warning about over marinating. I hope that helps others too!! Let me know if you ever try it again. Don’t be scared! Hehehehe

  2. I made this tonight and it was a hit in our house! Even my 2 1/2 year old who doesn’t always love steak are it all up.
    It really was a quick meal to make. I was a little nervous the marinade/dressing would take time but the hardest part about it was finding the fish sauce at the store! I marinated for only about a 1/2 hour and then cooked the steak in a grill pan on the stove. After letting it rest a couple minutes, I cut it up then put it in the fridge to eat once we got home from the kids activities. It was great to have dinner ready to eat when we got home at 7pm.
    I left out the spicy stuff so my young girls could eat it. To also save some time, I used some pre chopped garlic I had. Minced would have been better, not having to mince the garlic myself saved me some time when I was in a hurry.
    I will for sure be making this again.
    Keep em coming Marisa!

    1. This is so great! I’m happy you were able to encourage the family to try new things, even if they didn’t know it! So you ended up finding the fish sauce okay? It’s usually hiding on the bottom shelf in the asian section, and can be found at nearly every grocery store. Play around with it now that it’s in your pantry. It works like Worcestershire and spices up your burger mix, meatballs, roasted veggies, and sauces. Thanks for the feedback!

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