Carne asada often starts with steak over high heat, but this version sends flank steak into a slow cooker with lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, spices, and oil instead.
Christal Sczebel of Nutrition in the Kitch cooks the steak on low for about seven hours, then gives it an optional trip under the broiler before pulling it apart. The result moves away from sliced grilled steak and toward soft beef that can fill tacos, bowls, nachos, or salads.
Flank Steak Cooks in the Marinade
The recipe uses two pounds of flank steak with lime juice, avocado or olive oil, coconut palm sugar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce or tamari, garlic, coriander, cumin, and chili powder.
Instead of leaving the steak in the marinade before cooking, both go into the slow cooker at the same time. The beef stays in that mixture throughout the cook, so the marinade becomes part of the cooking liquid.
Sczebel notes that the steak can sit in the marinade for two to 24 hours first, but the extra step is not required for the recipe.
Seven Hours Changes the Texture
Traditional carne asada gets much of its texture from fast cooking over a grill or hot pan. A slow cooker takes the beef in another direction.
The flank steak cooks on low for about seven hours. That long cook softens the meat enough to pull apart with a fork instead of leaving it as firm slices cut across the grain.
The recipe can also use Crock-Pot's MyTime meat setting, with a cook time of at least six hours.
A Broiler Can Put Some Char Back
Slow cookers do not create the browned edges that come from a grill, so the recipe adds another step for anyone who wants that part back.
Once the steak has finished cooking, it can move onto a lined baking sheet and go under the broiler for two to three minutes. The short burst of high heat browns the surface before the meat gets pulled apart.
That step can be skipped. Without it, the beef keeps the soft slow-cooked texture and goes from the Crock-Pot straight to shredding.
Cilantro and Cooking Liquid Finish the Beef
Fresh cilantro goes in after the cook rather than spending hours in the slow cooker. The remaining liquid in the pot also gets poured back over the pulled meat.
That keeps the lime, soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, and spice mixture with the beef instead of leaving it behind in the cooker.
For tacos, Sczebel pairs the carne asada with corn tortillas, avocado, cilantro, radish, and white onion. The same beef can also go over rice and beans, into a salad, or across a tray of nachos.
The slow cooker changes what carne asada looks like on the plate, but the recipe keeps the citrus, garlic, chile, cumin, and coriander around the beef from the start of the cook to the final serving.
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