Beginners Should Grill This Steak Cut First, According To Steven Raichlen

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Anyone who loves a steak should learn how to grill one, and if you need to learn anything about grilling, you go to Steven Raichlen. He is a food journalist, cookbook author, and TV show host, but more than anything, Raichlen knows grilling, and his award-winning book, "The Barbecue Bible," is one of the most essential cookbooks any chef should own. 

It's a fantastic book for experts and barbecue beginners alike, but if you fall into that second category, you'll find Raichlen's advice particularly helpful. And if steak is what you want, he recommends trying a skirt steak before moving on to other cuts.

When dishing on his five essential grilling recipes, Raichlen warns that starting with expensive cuts of steak is a recipe for disaster, because you don't want those high stakes when first learning how to grill. Instead, he recommends skirt steak, which he calls "readily available, flavor-packed, and mercifully affordable." While not as cheap as some of the most affordable cuts of steak, skirt steak is still on the lower end of steak prices, and it's tailor-made for grilling. Coming from the beef "plate", which is the section of cow under the ribs, skirt steak is a long cut of beef that has very large, visible grains. It's similar to a flank steak, but thinner and even more flavorful. It's a tough cut, which is part of why it's affordable, but that's easily made up for by preparing it on the grill properly.

The first step towards a perfectly grilled skirt steak is tenderizing it. This can be done with a tenderizing steak marinade or by dry-brining your meat with a rub, which will help break down the connective tissue that makes it tough. Raichlen prefers bold seasonings with his skirt steak, which will combine with the charring to give it an intense flavor.

The next step is getting your grill extra hot and cooking the skirt steak fast. Even after being tenderized, a skirt steak is too tough to cook past medium. Anything else will turn it into leather. And being so thin, it will cook very fast. So skirt steak needs to be cooked at high heat to brown the outside faster than the inside can overcook. That means a ripping hot grill, ideally in the 700 degrees Fahrenheit range. At that temperature, your skirt steak will be done in only a few minutes on each side. Once it's browned, it's done.

Once your skirt steak is finished cooking, make sure it is sliced against the grain, meaning across the visible lines on the meat. This will break up the tissue into shorter strands that will be easier to chew. But that's really it. If you know those basic steps, and have a great chimichurri recipe to pair it with, skirt steak is one of the easiest and most tasty steaks to grill.