Chipotle Honey Glazed Skirt Steak Salad

What Makes A Great Steak Salad?

A great steak salad must have a contrast in textures and variations in the temperatures of the ingredients. The best steak salads give you meat that is juicy and flavorful inside with a charred exterior crust, complimenting fresh, crisp cool lettuce. This steak salad adds cubes of creamy avocado to complete the texture experience.

Skirt steak is deep and rich with beefy flavor and when cooked properly, tender and juicy. The chipotle honey glaze is the key to this skirt steak salad because the sugars caramelize and create that crunchy exterior protecting that tender juicy interior.

But most importantly, a great steak salad must be easy to eat. Cooked tender, sliced thin, against the grain, in easy to eat bite sized pieces = the key to easy eating.

This skirt steak salad checks all of those boxes with rewards of incredible flavors and textures.

Let’s take a look.

Ingredients You’ll Need

See recipe card for exact amounts.

• Salad greens of your choice. Use a mix of Spring greens, and crispy Romaine lettuce is also a good choice.
• Pickled Onions: In this recipe you’ll find a method to make quick pickled onions. Sliced red onion simple gets a 30 minute bath in red wine vinegar. If you’d like to have a more authentic supply, check out my recipe for Mexican Pickled Onions. They would also work very well in this salad.
• Red Wine Vinegar: Will be used to pickle the onions and as part of the vinaigrette dressing.
• Cherry Tomatoes, halved.
• Ketchup: Ketchup is used as part of the Honey Chipotle Glaze.
• Skirt Steak: There are times my grocery store simply doesn’t have skirt steak. Flank steak seems to be more prevalent and can be substituted here. And don’t forget about Hanger Steak. It will also work well here.
• Oil: Use a neutral oil such as canola or vegetable oil, or a mild flavored extra virgin oil. It’s use to make a quick vinaigrette to dress the salad.
• Honey
• Seasoning: I have used my Southwest Spice Blend to season the steak. You can use salt and pepper or a seasoning mix of your choice.
• Chipotle in Adobo Sauce: You’ll use two of the peppers and a tablespoon of the adobo sauce from the can. I like Embasa brand due to the saucier ratio of chile peppers and sauce. There are brands that contain more Chipotle peppers with not much sauce. So many recipes that call for using these peppers routinely include some of the adobo sauce as part of the ingredients.
• Avocado: Adds a creamy texture to this meal.
• Cotija Cheese: Cotija cheese is a common Mexican Crumbling Cheese. It’s resembled Feta cheese and can easily be found in the Mexican produce section at your store.

5. Step 5: Remove from heat, tent with foil and allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes. Slice the meat against the grain in ½-inch-wide strips.

• I like to use my big wide white pasta bowls for main course salads.
• Place a handful of green on the salad plate.
• Arrange slices of skirt steak. I like to curl them so they don’t conceal too much of the salad greens.
• Sprinkle on cherry tomatoes, chopped avocado and a few slices of pickled red onions.
• Drizzle on the red vinegar dressing.
• Sprinkle on crumbled Cotija cheese and serve.

Tips For Success:

• Once cooked, use a sharp knife to thin slice the steak against the grain. If you don’t follow this rule, the steak will be chewy and almost impossible to eat.
• I’m cooking this skirt steak in a stove-top grill pan. You can use a cast iron skillet or outdoor grill. Just make sure to create a crusty outer texture and a medium rare inside temperature.
• I highly recommend cooking this steak to an internal temperature of 135 degrees for medium rare. Over-cooking skirt steak will simply cause it to become tough and chewy.
• Use high heat to get a good sear on the outside of the steak. You’ll love the results.
• I recommend you invest in a good instant read thermometer. It will make your meat cooking life much more reliable.

Storage

Unfortunately, vinaigrette dressed greens will not keep well as leftovers. The acid in the vinegar will wilt the greens over a period of time.

Store any leftover steak in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Skirt Steak Salad

Steak seems to carry the stigma of being “fancy” food. A choice reserved for a special dinner. With that in mind, steak is incredibly easy to prepare and quick enough for a weeknight meal. And you don’t need any fancy equipment to get the job done.

What is skirt steak? For this steak salad recipe, I’ve chosen the humble skirt steak. The skirt steak comes from the plate section of the animal. Which is next to the flank. And in some ways it resembles a flank steak, except that it’s a longer and narrower cut of meat.

Recipe for Honey Chipotle Glazed Steak Salad

This skirt steak salad recipe is packed with tons of flavor, thanks to the beefy flavor of skirt steak, and the honey chipotle glaze. The super simple green salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado and pickled onions makes a perfect partner for beefy skirt steak.