How To Cook Skirt Steak

How to Grill Skirt Steak

Grilling Skirt steak is a sought-after cooking method — you can choose your favorite Skirt steak recipe, marinade, or seasoning to prepare a wonderful meal. If you choose to use a marinade, place your steak in a bowl or resealable plastic bag and add the marinade. Use enough marinade to cover the meat completely or and be sure to turn the steak a few times while marinating. Your marinade recipe should tell you how long to marinate your Skirt steak. For the sake of food safety, always refrigerate the meat while marinating. Before cooking, remove your Skirt steak from the marinade and allow excess marinade to drain away.

Typically, a Skirt steak is a very thin, long piece of meat. If you wish, cut the steak into 3&ndash4 sections for individual portions to make it easier to slice after cooking. Because of the thin cut, it is critical to follow the correct grill time, depending on your desired degree of doneness (see chart below).

Skirt steak grilled can be completed with either of the following grill methods:

• Charcoal Grilling
• Gas Grilling

Regardless of which method you choose, be sure your meat is completely thawed before placing your Skirt steak on the grill. We recommend thawing in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. If you prefer marinated Skirt steak, it's best to wait until it is fully thawed. Marinating while defrosting can make the surface texture of the meat mushy. Once thawed, remove your steak from the refrigerator approximately 30–40 minutes before cooking to allow the steak to come to room temperature. For those who enjoy seasoning your Skirt steak, we recommend using Kansas City Steak Original Steak Seasoning.

Skirt Steak on the Grill: Charcoal Vs. Gas Grill

How to Cook Skirt Steak on a Charcoal Grill

Preheat your grill on high. Place steaks over the hottest part of the grill, and sear both sides for 1–2 minutes. Then move to medium, ash-covered coals and continue to grill for the times listed in the Cooking Times Chart below. Turn about 1 minute prior to the halfway point.

How to Cook Skirt Steak on a Gas Grill

Preheat your grill on high. Sear both sides for 1–2 minutes, then reduce to medium heat and continue to grill for the times listed in the Cooking Times Chart below. Turn about 1 minute prior to the halfway point.

Grilling Skirt Steak Medium-Rare (recommended)

• Follow the directions for how long to grill Skirt steak. For the perfect medium-rare Skirt steak, grill for 5–7 minutes, turning about 1 minute before the halfway point. A meat thermometer should read 130°F.
• Rest your Skirt steak for 5 minutes before serving, covering lightly with foil. The temperature of the meat will continue to rise about 5°F during this time (this is called "carryover cooking"). The final temperature will read 135°F.
• To check the degree of doneness, use a meat thermometer to measure the Skirt steak temperature.
• Resting Skirt steak is important because the heat of cooking pulls the juices in the meat toward the surface; if you slice into it immediately after cooking, those flavorful juices will end up on your plate, not in your steak. Allowing your steak to rest will give the juices time to sink back in and throughout the meat, keeping it moist and flavorful.
• Make sure your carving knife is sharp (See our Expert Tips for How to Sharpen a Knife and Expert Tips for How to Carve a Steak).
• Take a good look at your Skirt steak and note which direction the fibers are running. Slide your knife back and forth across those fibers — across the grain — cutting your Skirt steak into slices. Keep each slice no more than ¼ inch thick.
• To make each bite extra tender, hold your knife blade at a 45° angle; this is called "cutting on the bias." Cutting against the grain this way exposes more surface area in each fiber and keeps the fibers from being stacked directly on top of each other in each slice of meat, further weakening the bonds that hold them together.