As I was searching The Atlanta Journal-Constitution archives for a throwback recipe appropriate for the start of the grilling season, I ran across an article on fajitas published in the Los Angeles Times in May 1985.
“For the uninitiated, fajitas (pronounced fah-HEAT-uhs) are strips of grilled skirt steak served with flour tortillas, guacamole and salsa and eaten wrapped in the tortillas, taco style,” wrote staff writer Barbara Hansen for this story made available through the Los Angeles Times wire service. “If they do not come to the table sizzling from the grill, they are not fit to be called fajitas.”
It may seem silly that fajitas needed to be defined and the pronunciation spelled out to readers, but 40 years ago, this dish was not part of the lexicon of a mainstream national audience.
Hansen noticed a trend though. The dish with roots in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley was popping up on menus in California, throughout the Southwest and even in Paris. Back in the Lone Star State, the Houston Restaurant Association was celebrating the dish that year at the First Annual Fajita Meet. Hansen called the rising interest in fajitas a “Cinderella story for the skirt steak,” which had long been considered an inferior cut of tough beef and sold for cheap.
Two decades later, in a 2005 story published in the Austin Chronicle, reporter Virginia B. Wood pointed out the irony of the fajita’s rise from a humble beef trimming given to Mexican cowboys as part of their pay to the hottest thing since sliced bread. “The more popular the dish became, the less likely it was to be made from skirt steak at all,” she wrote.
Grilled chicken, shrimp or even vegetables — any of it could be used to make the hottest Texas export since chili and still call it fajitas. The 1985 article included a recipe from a George Brake of La Palma, California, improving on one from Gary Miller of Corpus Christi, Texas, with a marinade that incorporates beer and tequila.
Credit: AJC archives
Credit: AJC archives
George Brake’s Corpus Christi Fajitas
- 1 flank steak, about 1 pound
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup beer
- 1/4 cup tequila
- 2 tablespoons liquid drained from canned pickled jalapeño chiles
- 1 pickled jalapeño chile, seeded and minced (optional)
- 2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, or to taste
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Flour tortillas, guacamole and salsa, for serving
- Trim all fat from steak. Cut steak into 1/4-inch slices, cutting across grain and slightly on diagonal.
- In a large bowl, combine olive oil, beer, tequila, jalapeño liquid, jalapeño chile, garlic, cilantro and lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Place steak slices in marinade, cover and allow to stand 2 to 3 hours or overnight in refrigerator.
- Grill over coals or under broiler until medium to medium-well done.
- Serve in flour tortillas, adding guacamole and salsa, as desired.
Makes 4 servings.
Per serving (without tortillas, guacamole or salsa): 321 calories (percent of calories from fat, 66), 24 grams protein, 1 gram carbohydrates, trace total sugars, trace fiber, 22 grams total fat (5 grams saturated), 74 milligrams cholesterol, 203 milligrams sodium.
This recipe was originally published in the May 9, 1985, edition of the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 29, 1985.
Archival research contributed by Pete Corson.
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