Skirt Steak Fajita Taco Night

I probably do a taco night every few weeks. It is one of the first things I put together while learning how to cook. Usually I do this with ground bison meat, but there's some bison flank steak in the freezer that needs to be used, so it gets to be made into yummy taco meat.

Components:

1) Taco meat (Meat, cumin, paprika, chipotle chili powder, garlic, salt, pepper)

2) Roasted corn and black beans (I use 1 can of each, fried in some avocado oil until the corn starts to char.)

3) Guacamole (Avocado with garlic, salt, pepper, lime juice)

4) 2 Sliced bell peppers and 1 onion to fry with the meat.

Other Miscellaneous Taco Stuff:

1) Shredded Iceberg Lettuce

2) Shells (can be whatever you prefer, today I used taco salad bowls)

3) Salsa / Spicy mayo

4) Spicy Mayo (Siracha and mayo mixed together)

5) 1 lime. Some of it for juice, some of it for garnish.

Sometimes I don't add the black beans to the corn and heat up a can of refried beans instead. It mostly depends on what I have on hand and/or my mood.

For the taco meat, I cut the flank steak (I had a little under 1.5 lbs.) in small slices against the grain. I then coated them in garlic salt. pepper, about 1 tbsp of cumin, 2 tsp paprika, and 1/2 tsp chili powder. I let that sit and marinate while I cut up my bell pepper, an onion, and halved the two small avocados that I used for the guacamole.

The onion wasn't in that picture because I forgot about it until I was about to start cooking the meat lol. I fried the onion slices in butter until they were soft, then added the meat. While frying the meat, I added more of the above spices until I thought it smelled enough like taco meat to me. For me, I added about a 2 tsp more cumin, 1 tsp more paprika, and a generous sprinkle of the chili powder. How much spice you add will depend on how spicy/flavorful you like your taco meat. I feel like I add different amounts of the spices every time I make this dish. Once the meat was around half done, I added the peppers, and then finished cooking the meat all the way.

While the meat was cooking, I drained a can each of corn and black beans, and fried those in some neutral oil on high heat. You want the corn to be slightly burnt. I know it sounds weird, but when the corn is a little charred, it takes on sweetness that compliments the taco meat. I also made the guacamole during this time, which was the two small avocados in the picture, a tsp of garlic salt, and sprinkle of pepper, and the juice of a 1/4 of a lime. 

Once all of my components were done, it was time to assemble! I started by dividing the meat between my three taco salad shells

Then I added my charred beans and corn. I wish I had bigger salad shells, because these got really full, but they were the only option at the grocery store.

Trying to divide my bag of shredded lettuce between the three plates was a struggle, but I managed to make a cute dome of lettuce on top of each shell.

And finally, to top this masterpiece, I added on my guacamole and finished with a drizzle of spicy mayo.

This was a long post! This meal is high maintenance, but I think it's fun to make and assemble. As a bonus, here is a picture of my cat Pewter in a box.