Tex-Mex fajitas
Photo: Horacio Cambeiro · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

The modern restaurant fajita was popularised by Ninfa Laurenzo at the Original Ninfa's on Navigation Boulevard in Houston, who opened her ten-table room on July 25, 1973, and put grilled skirt steak with flour tortillas on the menu as 'tacos al carbon'. By the late 1970s she was branding them as fajitas and the dish went city-wide, then national. Skirt steak (faja means belt in Spanish, the cut runs along the diaphragm) had been a cheap ranch hand's cut on the Texas-Mexico border for generations, but it was Ninfa who turned it into white-tablecloth food. The sizzling cast-iron presentation and table-side assembly are her staging.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 25 minTotal 4 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 800g skirt steak, outer membrane removed
  • 120ml fresh lime juice
  • 60ml fresh orange juice
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
  • 60ml light olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons fine salt
  • 8 small flour tortillas
  • 2 white onions, sliced thin
  • 2 green bell peppers, sliced thin
  • Lime wedges, pico de gallo, guacamole and sour cream, to serve

Method

  1. Whisk lime juice, orange juice, garlic, cumin, pepper, oil and salt. Pour over the skirt steak in a non-reactive dish. Marinate 3 to 4 hours in the fridge, no longer (citrus will cure the meat past that).
  2. Heat a cast-iron skillet or grill very hot. Sear the steak 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Rest 8 minutes on a board, tented with foil.
  3. While the steak rests, blister the peppers and onions in the same hot pan, 4 to 5 minutes, with a pinch of salt.
  4. Slice the steak against the grain into pencil-thick strips. Pile onto a sizzling cast-iron platter with the onions and peppers. Warm the tortillas in a dry pan for 30 seconds per side. Serve with the garnishes; let everyone build their own.

Tip from the editors. Slicing against the grain is the difference between tender and chewy. Look at the lines in the meat; cut perpendicular to them.

Where to eat tex-mex fajitas

Tex-Mex fajitas in Houston

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation ★ 4.7

$$ Tex-mexEast End

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston is Ninfa Laurenzo's 1973 Tex-Mex room, the birthplace of the restaurant fajita, still serving skirt steak tacos.

OrderFajitas (tacos al carbon) for two, a Ninfarita on the rocks, queso and chips.

TipBack patio under the strings of lights beats the front room. The bar opens 90 minutes before the dining room.

Directions Book

Hugo's ★ 4.8

$$ $55 per personBrunchMexican buffet brunch

Hugo's Sunday brunch in Houston is Hugo Ortega's Mexican buffet on Westheimer Road, with chilaquiles, three moles, sopes, churros and the regional Mexican.

OrderThe buffet itself: chilaquiles, mole, sopes, churros

Tip12pm seating sells out two weeks ahead; 10am seating is easier. Tableside hot chocolate is the closing course.

Directions Book

El Tiempo Cantina (Navigation) ★ 4.3

$$ Tex-mexEast End

El Tiempo Cantina on Navigation in Houston is Roland Laurenzo's Tex-Mex room (son of Ninfa Laurenzo) next to the Original Ninfa's, with fajitas.

OrderFajitas, the beef rib parrillada, a stacked margarita.

TipThe Navigation flagship is the original; other locations exist citywide. Patio in cool weather.

Directions Book

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