A Tex Mex favorite and staple at many restaurants, Grilled Steak Fajitas are the perfect blend of well seasoned steak charred with bell peppers and onions all wrapped in a warm tortilla.
As legend has it, Maria Ninfa Rodriguez, better known as “Mama Ninfa Laurenzo” starting serving fajitas in her Houston restaurant called the Rio Grande Tortilla Co. in 1973. Originally a tortilla factory, she turned it into a restaurant after her husband passed and the rest is history.
Tex Mex food takes the best of both American and Mexican and makes it their own.
Fajitas originally were quite minimal with simply salt and pepper used to season the meat and beef flap meat and sliced thin after grilling with warm tortillas and condiments. As Mama Ninfa stated, “I was just serving the same kind of good, honest food at my restaurant that we used to eat at home. Fajitas were an old family recipe.”
Over the years the dish known as “fajitas” has evolved and expanded in flavor and presentation. Think sizzling platters of smokey charred beef and vegetables being served at your table.
For my recipe I keep the marinade simple using my steak fajitas seasoning and citrus juices.
Serve with whatever makes you happy like guacamole and sour cream if you like, but the charred vegetables and thinly sliced (against the grain) skirt or flap meat that’s been marinated in citrus, cumin and chili keeps this easy to make and serve any time.
If you like these steak fajitas, check out my Grilled Shrimp Fajitas, Grilled Chicken Fajitas recipes too.
For other Tex Mex ideas, try these Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers, Chicken Corn Soup, Hot Corn Dip, Real Chili Con Carne, Slow Cooker Cowboy Beans or these sweet and flakey apple empanadas. Enjoy!
Grilled Steak Fajitas
Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs skirt or flap steak (or flank steak, too!)
Marinade
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp steak fajitas seasoning blend
- 2 garlic cloves minced
Construction
- 4 bell peppers color variety, sliced into strips
- 1 large onion sliced into strips
- 12 tortillas
Instructions
- Mix together the marinade ingredients and add the steak. Toss to coat, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours.
- Grill the steak over medium-high heat and cook for 4 minutes each side. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to rest 5 minutes. Slice against the grain into thin strips.
- While steak is cooking: In a large sauté pan over high heat roast the bell peppers and onions until slightly limp and charred. Set aside.
- Serve sliced steak and vegetables with warm tortillas.
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Been craving fajitas and found your recipe. I like this one the best after looking at MANY for a copycat recipe like Ninfas. My question is do you juice a fresh orange for the juice or do you use bottled orange juice? Going to store this evening to buy ingredients as well as make your seasoning. Looks wonderful.
I use orange juice. They are so good! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Will sirloin steak work as well?
Certainly that would work Colleen.
Hands down the best fajita recipe I’ve ever made! The flavor of the meat is amazing which surprised me for only marinating for two hours.
Thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to tell me!
I want to make chicken and steak fajitas would this marinade be good for the chicken also
I say so! Let me know how it turns out!
I usually grill my peppers and onions separate, a little I olive oil and soy sauce.. they taste great..
Thanks for sharing your tip Jeannie!
Could you leave the marinade on overnight without cooking the steak in the citrus?
I wouldn’t as the acid in the citrus will toughen the steak if left overnight Poppy. But it’s up to you.
I’ve done this when some guests cancelled, and the next day I also made second batch. After cooking the flavor was way way better with the 2-3 hour marinade, so I mixed them so no one could tell.
Fantastic and sneaky, Marty! 😉
Poppy, I marinate flank steak overnight and I have never had a problem, it turns out tender and juicy! I even freeze the steak marinade sometimes and grill later. I pound out the steak, poke holes in it, and put marinade and steak in a ziplock baggie. I smoke it with jack daniels wood chips, kicks up the flavor a bit, hope this helps, good luck. Kevin thank you again for sharing this wonderful recipe!😀
Thanks for the tip here Tina, appreciate the input. 🙂
These fajitas look delicious.. I’m going to try and cook mine your way..
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do Jeannie!
Hi, I see that you grill the steak but cook the onions and peppers in a skillet separately…I was wondering if there is any particular reason to not marinade the veggies with the steak then cook separately as described? Thanks
No reason, but that is an option Joey. You could even grill the veggies alongside the steak if you like, but I’d just cut them in half, then slice after grilling them.
Thanks for your input on that idea, I am making this when I get off work today! 🙂
Excellent, enjoy!
Put your uncut onion and the bell pepper de-seeded together in aluminum foil drop it the coals before you start cooking and pull it out at the end. Delish with a nice char.
Five stars!
Thank you so much!
I made these last night to rave reviews! Marinade is delicious! Will definitely make these again!
Excellent! So happy you enjoyed this Susan. Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know.
I’d never made fajitas before tonight! I was concerned that the orange juice would over power the marinade but it didn’t and dinner was absolutely delicious! Thank you! I’ll definitely be looking at your chicken fajita recipe!
Excellent, love to read comments like this Sara. Cheers! 🙂
Wow! This was packed with flavor! We marinated both steak and chicken for 2 days! Poked holes in the meat to let the marinade in. I did sprinkle some fajita seasoning on the veggies. It was delicious! This will be our go to recipe for fajitas from now on.
Thank you Kevin for another great recipe!!
I actually have a chicken version coming out tomorrow so check it out, too! I have a variation on the seasoning. So happy you enjoyed this Gwyn, thanks for coming back to let me know. 🙂
My hubby loves fajita’s. I don’t get very excited about them. We’ve tried several different recipes including making our own fajita seasoning over the years. Of all the marinades we tried, the flavor gets lost in the fajita. I saw this one because I’m subscribed to your blog and thought I’d try it. The flavor did NOT get lost and it was awesome. It gave the meat a delicious yummy flavor. I think the key was marinating it as long as we did. We made extra and we were both eye balling the little bit of left overs on the… Read more »
Excellent! A fajitas convert. My job is done…. for now! Thanks Gwyn. 🙂
I really want to take that bite in the first picture, Kevin! So juicy and flavorful!
I had no idea about the origin of fajitas – they’re such a simple and perfect meal!
Been doing lots of research and recipe testing of Tex Mex. History of it is so cool. Thanks Marissa.