The Best Types Of Steak To Use For Delicious Breakfast Burritos

A burrito is a hearty, tasty breakfast of champions. And adding steak to a breakfast burrito really takes things up a notch. We spoke with Scott Thomas, owner of Grillin' Fools, about the best types of steak to use for a delicious breakfast burrito. According to chef Thomas, "The best cuts of steak for breakfast burritos are the best cuts of steak: ribeye, NY strip, filet." These cuts of steak are from different parts of the cow, offering varying degrees of beefy and buttery flavors. While the filet and ribeye are very juicy, the strip is a leaner, firmer, ultra-beefy cut.

If you aren't willing to spend the big bucks for steak you're going to stuff inside a burrito, Chef Thomas says, "I like to save some funds with a meal like this and go with something like hanger steak or skirt steak." Hanger steak is thicker and more tender than skirt steak, with a bold beefy flavor similar to NY strip. However, it's more expensive and harder to find than skirt steak, a thinner, chewier cut with that same lean beefy flavor. Skirt steak is known as arrachera in Mexican cuisine, used in fajitas and carne asada. If you really want to cut costs, repurpose leftover roast beef into burrito filling, as it's already been slow-cooked to fork-tender perfection. 

Thomas also recommends stuffing a spicy steak burrito with pepper Jack cheese and guac. "The cheese binds it all together while the guac cools everything off," he says.

Skirt steak and hanger steak are great options that take no time to cook. But the key to cooking these thin cuts of steak, says Chef Thomas,"[is] to cook the thin hanger or flank very quickly over super high heat, as it doesn't take long to overcook these two cuts." According to our recipe for grilled skirt steak, all it needs is one to two minutes per side on an ultra-hot grill. Now you won't be stuffing the entire slab inside the burrito without cutting it first. And the key to tender slices of hanger or skirt steak is to cut against the grain, thereby severing the long muscle fibers that result in chewiness. "If you cut with the grain," says Thomas, "your jaw will be hurting by the time you finish the burrito."

Steak is flavorful on its own, but you can also bring even more flavor to the mix with a marinade. "I like acidic marinades like adobo or a mild hot sauce," says Thomas. "Adobo is the sauce that comes in a can of chipotle seasoning." A marinade will bring flavor and tenderize the steak while the moisture instilled will safeguard against burning or drying out on the grill. In fact, you could even decrease the temperature and increase cooking times for a marinated hanger steak, as we do in this recipe. For cuts of steak as thin as skirt or hanger, a two-hour marinade is more than enough time.