I love a good steak sandwich, and one of my favorite cuts of meat for the sandwich is skirt steak. A naturally tough piece of meat, skirt steak is full of flavor and takes to marinade like a fish to water. I particularly like Alton Brown’s marinade, which can be found at the food network website, and have slightly adapted it to my own use.

I generally don’t need much on my sandwich other than the meat, so long as there is good bread as well. I just like to add a little grilled or sauteed onion and a little bit of mayo to keep everything moist. As you may have realized, I’m particularly fond of food in the sandwich format, but if you’re not feeling it, the skirt steak is great on its own with some veg and a glass of wine.

The Pantry:

skirt steak (hanger steak will work just as well)
ciabatta bread
onions
butter
For the marinate:
1/3 C soy sauce
4 green onions
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp vinegar
several cloves garlic
1/2 C olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
pinch salt

The first order of business is to make the marinade. Make sure to do this well before you want to eat because you want to let the meat marinate for at least an hour and preferably longer. So start by chopping up the green onions and garlic (if you don’t have squeezy garlic like I do…so easy).

Combine the onions with the rest of the marinade ingredients and whisk well to combine. You can also put all of it in a blender and puree it together, but if you’re feeling lazy (like me), then it’ll be fine to just throw it all together. Cut the steak into 2 to 3 large pieces and put in a big ziplock baggie with the marinade. Refrigerate and let sit to soak up all that flavor and tenderize.

When it’s getting close to suppertime, fire up the grill! When it’s really nice and hot, throw the steaks on the grill. Good for a few minutes on each side and then take off the grill, cover with foil and let sit for about ten minutes.

While the meat is resting, slice up the onions and wrap in heavy duty foil with some butter. Throw the packet on the grill and let the onions cook until translucent and starting to brown. Also slice the ciabatta and throw it on the grill to toast.

Once the meat has rested and you have nice soft onions and crispy bread, it’s time to slice the steaks up. Important slicing tip: make sure you cut across the grain. If you cut with the grain it will be much harder to chew.

Now just spread a little mayo on the ciabatta and layer up the meat and the onions till your heart’s content!  I had my sandwich with some fresh elote and it was delicious!