Unfortunately, my record of this experiment is written up a full two weeks after the experiment itself. I have had some prior experiments, but they failed (though I have a few thoughts about them that I may refer to in future posts). Regardless, this was a quite successful experiment since I met my objective of getting a marinade to penetrate the beef.
Overall Objectives
My main goal is to replicate Orlando’s burritos. Unfortunately, I haven’t had one of Orlando’s burritos in 5-10 years, so I need to break the overall goal into smaller, more achievable tasks.
- I want a beef entree that replicates the taste and texture of Orlando’s Carne Asada.
- The marinade should match taste.
- The cut of beef should match texture.
- The beef preparation should match texture.
- I want a collection of sides, that, together with the Carne Asada, replicates the taste and texture of Orlando’s Carne Asada Burrito.
- I want a burrito preparation technique that permits me to replicate the construction of an Orlando’s Carne Asada Burrito.
- As a secondary objective, I would like to explore substitute preparation methods.
- By way of explanation, I tend to operate under a lot of constraints when cooking. For example: (A) As of March 2025 I have never had a grill, (B) My wife is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, so we don’t bring those into the house (not a huge issue here, but an example of a constraint).
- Therefore, it’s important to me that my work helps evaluate substitute cooking methods (alternate cooking surfaces, alternate meat cuts, ingredient substitutes, etc.) I hope these experiments will help other amateur chefs work out their own recipes.
Today’s Objective
In past experiments, my burrito marinades and rubs failed to substantially flavor the beef beyond the outmost edges. Therefore, my primary objective in this experiment was to develop a marinade that actually penetrates the beef.
My secondary objective was to develop my repertoire of burrito sides. My side list is:
- Beans
- Rice
- Salsa
- Olives
- Cheese
Literature Search
Information sources:
- Primary recipe:Little Spice Jar
- How to get marinade penetration: https://www.seriouseats.com/carne-asada-food-lab-recipe-kenji – The piece that interested me was the piece about using salt to get the marinade to penetrate.
- I would probably be wise to investigate that article more deeply.
Target Recipe
Based on my research, I wanted to modify the above recipe by: (1) increasing the volume slightly, (2) setting a small amount aside to serve as a sauce, (3) adding extra salt
Ingredients:
- Top Round Steak (3lb)
- This is not the right steak for Carne Asada! But it was cheap at my local grocery store. I think there is value is working with available materials instead of perfect materials.
- 1.5 oranges
- 3 limes
- 3/8 cup soy sauce (recipe recommends low sodium, I didn’t have low sodium on hand)
- 15 cloves garlic
- 4.5 tablespoons avocado oil
- 3 tsp cumin
- 3 tsp mexican oregano
- 1.5 tsp chipotle chile powder (I try to keep spice down, since I’m feeding kids)
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt (+ ~2 tsp later)
- 3/4 cup cilantro
- 1 onion, cut into 8ths
Process
- Butterflied the steak to make 2 (relatively) thin steaks
- Mixed all of the ingredients marinade ingredients except the Cilantro, Onion, and extra salt in an 8×13 glass baking dish.
- Extracted a small amount of the marinade (appx 1/4) to use as a sauce.
- Placed the steak in the marinade, flipping once to ensure coverage across the entire steak.
- Sliced the orange and lime peels into quarters, then placed them in the dish with the steak.
- I tried to get the peels into pools of liquid where possible, but the marinade was not deep enough to make that work well.
- Added the extra salt to the marinade.
- This was an unforced error – I intended to mix that salt in right after pulling out the sauce.
- Let the steak marinade for about 2 hours in the fridge (while I went to mass).
- Another unforced error. I ran out of time before mass.
- Cut the onion into 8ths, and chopped the cilantro once.
- Flipped the steaks in the marinade.
- Put the onion and cilantro on top of the steaks, once again placing them in pools of liquid where possible.
- Removed the whole marinade dish from the fridge and let sit on the counter for ~.5 hour
- I put the previously reserved sauce in a small sauce pan and began to warm.
- Heated a large stainless steel pan on the stove at highest heat.
- Added Avocado Oil (spray oil, not included in ingredient above).
- The oil began smoking immediately
- I put one steak in the pan immediately. I cooked 4-5 minutes, then flipped. I flipped again after 4 minutes, and temped until ~140-150 F, then removed, and wrapped in tin foil.
- I cleaned the pan, and then executed the same cooking process for the second steak.
- After cooking the second steak, I cut the first into strips, placed in a sauce pan with the warmed sauce, and served.
- I cubed the second steak, and reheated it in the saucepan with the leftover sauce the next day.
Sides
- Beans
- All of the recipes I initially found wanted me to start with dry black beans. For convenience, I really wanted to start with canned black beans, so I just took the seasonings from one recipe, threw them into a pot with the black beans, and simmered them until the steak was ready. Proportions were taken approximately from (#TODO source here). I didn’t love what I did with these beans. I simmered them in the juice from the can, and the beans were not reduced sodium. I wonder if simmering them in water would have let the flavors sink in more.
- Rice
- Little Spice jar cilantro lime rice. To be honest, I didn’t pay a ton of attention to this recipe. The rice was too gummy. I think maybe the lime juice, zest, and cilantro didn’t sink in super well, (probably because the rice was gummy?). It was fine, since it’s not the primary element of the recipe, but I should probably pay more attention next time.
- (Note: my wife informs me that, despite her typical estimate-heavy kitchen processes, she tends to be super specific with rice/water ratios, because they actually matter. I suspect I just had too much water in this case.).
- Little Spice jar cilantro lime rice. To be honest, I didn’t pay a ton of attention to this recipe. The rice was too gummy. I think maybe the lime juice, zest, and cilantro didn’t sink in super well, (probably because the rice was gummy?). It was fine, since it’s not the primary element of the recipe, but I should probably pay more attention next time.
- Salsa
- For this dinner, I used a Reddit Chipotle Copycat Pico de Gallo (https://www.reddit.com/r/TopSecretRecipes/comments/dg3f0t/chipotle_corn_salsa_vinaigrette_and_pico_de_gallo/)
- Original Recipe: ” 4 cups diced tomatoes (Roma works best, be sure to strain them for seeds and juice) 1 cup cilantro, chopped 1 cup red onion, diced 1/3 cup diced, seeded jalapeño 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp crushed black pepper 1 tbsp lime juice – combine in a bowl and mix”
- This came out pretty well, although it was extremely salty, and in my opinion a bit low on liquid.
- I believe this is because I interpreted the tomato instructions “be sure to strain them for seeds and juice” to mean that I should rinse the tomatoes to remove seeds. I think I lost all the tomato juice which should have been the base liquid, and may have diluted the saltiness. Next time around I think I will cut the salt (and probably pepper) in half and try to retain the tomato juice.
- Olives
- Safeway brand medium black olives, cut in half. Fine.
- Cheese
- Monterrey Jack cheese. Finely grated.
- Tortilla
- Mission white flour tortillas, burrito size. Honestly I probably need bigger tortillas.
Results
The steak was good! The marinade penetrated, and the sauce flavored it well. I could feel the citrus. The steak was relatively well cooked. It had good texture. I liked the feel of the cubes in my burrito better than the strips, although the re-heated steak got a little tough.
Unfortunately, I think both the beans and the rice I made were steps back from my previous successful (undocumented) side-dish experiments. I feel that I was unable to evaluate the marinade and sauce fairly because of the unsatisfactory beans and rice.
The cheese and olives were entirely satisfactory. The pico was too salty, but that defect didn’t really interfere with anything.
Overall, the marinade felt like a big “process” breakthrough, since I am now somewhat confident that I can get my meat flavored. I can now tweak this marinade in subsequent experiments. I need to get my rice and beans fixed so that I can properly evaluate the flavor profile.
Next Steps
I think these are my next steps:
Fixing the beans, rice, and tortillas:
I think my next experiment can just be some quick taco seasoned ground beef to go with these sides. (1) I think I need to be really precise with my rice/water ratio. (2) I think I’m going to make the beans without using the bean sauce. (3) I’ll try to find larger tortillas at the grocery store. Possible “stretchier” tortillas too?
Alternate cuts of meat:
Once I feel good about my sides, I’ll return to the Carne Asada burritos. Apparently a lot of street carts use a cut called “Diezmillo” which appears to be Chuck. I will keep an eye out for that cut (in addition to flank/skirt). I’ll try to re-do my marinade without any unforced errors. I also intend to make a larger amount of marinade, both so I will have more sauce, and so I can ensure the steaks are fully covered.
Speculation about my objectives:
I’m just putting a note here that I am actually not sure that I am or should be pursuing “the perfect Carne Asada burrito.” Orlando made something that he called a “Carne Asada burrito”, but I have no clue whether his terminology is broadly applicable. Where did he learn his craft? I have no clue! I have no clue what local traditions or personal experimentation went into his burrito. Given that, I think I may stop pursuing Carne Asada, and start pursuing “The perfect steak burrito”.
Equipment upgrades:
Eventually, yes, I will need a grill. The main reason I haven’t got one yet is because it costs money, and also because I think if I buy one I will constantly want to grill things, which will cost even more money since I will have to keep buying new and interesting meats.
On the one hand, it’s kind of stupid to keep cooking steaks in a steel pan. On the other hand, I hope that my journey will help other people who don’t have the resources to acquire a grill.