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

Carne Asada Tacos + How-To Video
Ingredients
- 2 lbs skirt steak
- 1 Corona beer or your favorite beer
- Carne asada marinade
Assembly
- 12 corn tortillas
- refried beans
- 1 cup Cotija cheese , crumbled
- 2 limes , quartered
- 1/2 cup cilantro , chopped, lightly packed
Instructions
- Marinate the steak in Corona beer for two hours, covered, in the refrigerator.
- Meanwhile, make the carne asada marinade and store it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. After marinating the steak in beer, transfer the steak to a clean container and pour the asada marinade over the meat.
- Cover the container and transfer it to the refrigerator for 3 hours.
- Start your grill. Use the highest heat possible. I mean smoking, blistering, searingly hot. For skirt steak, grill 3 minutes per side, or 5 minutes per side for flank steak (depending on the thickness and how you like it cooked). Remove carne asada from heat and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
- While meat is resting, grill the tortillas on each side until slightly charred.
- Slice carne asada thinly across the grain and serve with refried beans spread on grilled tortillas. Top asada tacos with crumbled cotija cheese, chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime.
Notes
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.
Nutrition

Everything in this recipe is so nicely described that really helped me lots. I am looking for more of such inspirations in coming future too.
Hi Kevin,
I just found your site and made your carne asada recipe – it was excellent, and a nice variation on the mojo I usually use.
Looking forward to trying your other recipes!
Thanks so much for coming back to let me know Dabney! Lots here to see and try so I hope you take a look around. Cheers!
That marinade is the stuff dreams are made of. I LOVE using ground up chiles to marinate meat- it tames the spiciness a bit but adds SO much flavor. These look amazing, can’t wait to try!
I agree and love guajillo chilis, so good! Thanks Elizabeth. đŸ™‚
I need to start making more tacos. Thanks for the recipe Kevin!
These should definitely hit the spot Kevin! đŸ˜‰
Hello, hello, hello I am in love! Kevin, you are killing me here, now I want like a dozen of these beauties!
Oh thank you so much Gaila! đŸ™‚
I’m drooling all over my computer Kevin! These look amazing! Can never get enuf tacos!
Appreciate the kind words Mary Ann, now go wipe down that keyboard and marinate some flank for tacos tonight! đŸ˜‰
Cannot beat beer as a meat tenderizer! Good one!
Nice flavor add too, right? Thanks Milena!
I’ve been looking for a Carne asada recipe and this one with the beer marinade has an incredible, complex flavor with little effort.
We skipped the tacos and just used the carne to top homemade nachos. Amazing!
Now you have me thinking nachos and it’s only 9 AM here! Thanks for the update Eva! These are a go to fav for me too. If you like this check out my Tacos Al Pastor. đŸ™‚
You had me at mojo … one of my favorite sauces! And marinating the steak in beer? Genius! Totally doing that this weekend!
Thanks Kimberly, appreciate your kind words. Hope you enjoy them and thanks for stopping by my little corner of the food blog universe. đŸ™‚
These look great! Good tip on not marinating the beef too long. I made that mistake once and it wasn’t pretty. đŸ™‚
Yeah, who needs mushy meat! Thanks Kristen. đŸ™‚
Kevin this looks delicious! Here in Florida, we use mojo seasoning a lot, and I love it! The citrus flavor works so well with chicken and pork đŸ™‚ Awesome recipe!
Thanks Paige, I do love this mojo on grilled chicken, too! I’m sure basting a nice pork shoulder on the BBQ would be heaven as well. Thanks for stopping by the site. đŸ™‚
These tacos look perfect, Kevin! Good advice about not overdoing it on the marinade time – I’ve made that mistake before.
Thanks Marissa. I bet there’s no good Mexican food over in Paris, but really who cares. You’re in Paris!