Carne asada

There is no special secret for making a great carne asada –“roast meat” in Spanish-. A good carne asada recipe is all about the marinade you prepare for the meat and the quality of the ingredients you use.

A good, fresh beef meat cut and Spanish extra virgin olive oil are a guarantee of success, that’s it. The reason for using EVOO specifically from Spain is plain and simple: Spain is the world’s leading producer of olive oil, producing about 50% of olive oil in the world using a thorough and sophisticated manufacturing process with harvesting, extraction, storaging, filtration, etc. All of this guarantees the best quality olive oil. And that’s why you have to use Spanish EVOO!

Usually the best meat cut to make carne asada is beef skirt steak or beef flank steak. However, the marinade that you will prepare for this carne asada recipe is good not only for beef, but also for pork or even chicken!

How to make carne asada:

1. Rinse some cilantro and parsley. Discard the stems and chop the leaves as finely as possible. Put them in a bowl.

2. Peel and slice the garlic cloves, add them to the bowl, as well as the Spanish EVOO, the soy sauce, the juices of an orange and of a lemon, the cumin seeds, some salt and some ground pepper.

3. Seed the jalapeno and chop it, too. Add it to the bowl and mix all the ingredients. The marinade is ready!

4. Now, take the steak and put it in a zip-lock bag. Add half of the marinade in the bag and spread it all over the steak, rubbing it in nicely. Save the other half of the marinade in a bowl for when serving the meat.

5. Leave it in the fridge overnight, so the meat will marinate, absorbing all of the flavors of the delicious mixture. The longer you leave it marinating, the more intense the flavors will be –you can marinate the steak for up to 24 hours-.

6. Let’s cook the steak –leave it at room temperature for about half an hour before cooking it-. Preheat your oven at a high temperature: about 450ºF. In the meantime, drizzle some Spanish olive oil in a pan at high heat and quickly sear the steak, cooking it just 1 minute per side. Then, put it in the oven.

7. Roast the meat in the oven for about 8-10 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of the steak and how rare you like it.

Serve the carne asada sliced and with some marinade on the side. It will make everyone happy!

Enjoy this carne asada recipe and, if you like cooking meat in the oven, try this amazing roast lamb!