Carne asada tacos may be the best steak tacos you’ll ever eat! Tender, double marinated skirt steak is tucked into corn tortillas with refried beans and Cotija cheese for a fantastic taco dinner. Watch the video in the recipe card below!

You don’t need to wait for a Cinco de Mayo celebration to enjoy a good Mexican steak. Carne asada is simple to make and it freezes well, so you can cook up a batch to give any Tuesday taco night a boost of deliciousness.

We’ve been sharing a lot of carne asada recipes lately. We started a few weeks ago, with a recipe for Carne Asada Marinade. Although the ingredient list is simple, marinating the meat creates fork tender skirt or flank steak with incredible citrus flavor!

After the marinade post, we shared a homemade version of Chipotle carne asada that is so much tastier than the restaurant’s version. Be sure to check out that post for tips on grilling the perfect steak.

After grilling the asada, there are plenty of ways to serve it. You can use it to make steak fajitas or burritos, or add it to top of a grilled cactus salad. But my favorite use for it is to make carne asada tacos!

Carne Asada Tacos

The reason the taco meat ends up so tender is because it’s marinated twice. For the first 2 hours, it marinates in beer. After that, it sits for 3 hours in a blend of chiles, garlic, oil and fresh orange juice.

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Recipe Video

To see how easy the marinade comes together, be sure to watch the video in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Steak Taco Toppings

To keep the tacos de asada as authentic as possible, I limit the toppings. This way, the flavor of the meat will be the star. Reserve the guacamole, sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes for traditional ground beef tacos.

• A batch of authentic refried beans
• Chopped cilantro
• Crumbled Cotija cheese
• Fresh lime juice

When it comes to the “transportation device” (the tortillas), I keep things authentic by using corn tortillas. Honestly, I think grilled corn tortillas are best for holding the weight of the steak. Flour tortillas tend to be a bit flimsy, but If you prefer them, you can certainly use them.

Just be sure to warm them up in the microwave or toss them onto the grill for a minute. This helps to prevent them from tearing under the weight of the carne asada steak.

What to Serve with Carne Asada Tacos

You’ll already have a serving of refried beans inside the taco shells, but you could definitely serve them on the side as well.

Other than that, a batch of fresh pico de gallo or Mango Pico de Gallo and tortilla chips would be great. Another great dip for the chips is queso fundido.

If it’s summertime, make my Mexican horchata recipe to go along with the meal. It’s really refreshing on a hot day!

This recipe, first published on Kevin Is Cooking in October 16, 2015, was last updated with new content on May 11, 2021.