Fajitas. A Brief History... and Mama Ninfa's Original Recipe to Make Beef Fajitas (2024)

First of all, let’s get it straight exactly what fajitas are. I like to start off with what they aren't.They aren't chicken, or any part of a chicken. They aren't shrimp. They aren't pork, either. However, many authentic Tex-Mex restaurants that offer genuine beef fajitas also stretch the definition of them in order to serve a broader audience, such as those who don't care to eat beef.

So, we get a fewof the frequent misconceptions about what fajitas are out of the way immediately.

The word “faja” comes from the Spanish word for “belt.” Theword “fajita” means “little belt” in Spanish. Fajitas are a dish with roots inthe Rio Grande Valley of Texas, made from only one cut of meat: skirt steak.Preferably the "inside skirt". So, what is a skirt steak? A skirtsteak is a strip around 18 inches long and about ¾ to one-inch thick – and itis in the beef carcass beneath the heart and lungs, so fajita (little belt) isan apt nickname for this cut of meat.

There are four skirts per beef carcass,yielding about 8 lbs. of meat. The two outside skirts are the diaphragm muscle from the forequarter (slightly tougher and needs marinade to tenderize it) and the two inside skirts are the secondary flank musclefrom the hindquarter (and these need the marinade only for flavor).

The skirt steaks today are usually marinated prior to grilling. This process is actually more for flavor than for tenderizing the meat if cooking with outside skirts steaks,although acid (often citrus) in the marinade does tenderize the meat slightly. If cooking inside skirt steaks, they are less tender and require two hours of marinading. Skirt steaks are far more flavorful than many other cuts of beef, such assirloin, chuck, flank and round steaks... and when cooked properly, they are very tender, as well as gloriously flavorful.

Mama Ninfa Laurenzo, a widowed mother of five children,started selling fajitas as Tacos al Carbon around 1973 in a little five-table restaurant (where the family's tortilla factory used to be) with the help of her five children. She quickly began marketing them as “Fajitas” and they started showing up inTex-Mex restaurants all over Texas. They soon became a staple in Mexican andTex-Mex restaurants across the U.S. in the early 80’s and the rest is known by almost everyone everywhere. Although, in the late 1980's, Mama Ninfa's recipe was sought by Tex-Mex cooks and restaurateurs, but never cloned exactly. Even though many chefs came close, many restaurants left out the most important ingredients... the namesake, Fajitas (skirt steaks). And that is the case today, particularly in the northern United States.

So, now that we have established the fact that grilled beef,such as sirloin, tri-tip, chuck steaks, flank steaks, OR grilled shrimp, orgrilled chicken breasts are NOT fajitas (Calling grilled chicken "Chicken Fajitas" doesn't make them fajitas!), let’s get to making some REAL fajitas.The recipe that Mama Ninfa described to me in the ‘80’s is very similar to thisone, but other than her sons and grandsons (in the restaurant business inHouston) she never gave away the EXACT written-down recipe to anyone (as far as I know), but what I DO know came directly from Mama Ninfa and was confirmed by her son, Rolando (Roland) Laurenzo... patriarch of the Laurenzo family and owner/president of Laurenzo's El Tiempo Cantinas:

Mama Ninfa's Original Fajita Recipe

Ingredients

1 large orange, zested

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup pineapple juice (no matter who in Mama Ninfa's familytalked about the recipe, ALL mentioned how important pineapple juice was in themix in the early days on Navigation Boulevard in Houston).

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 dried chiles de arbol crushed

12 warm flour tortillas

Condiments such as Pico de Gallo, Cilantro, Sour Cream, Guacamole,etc.

Grate the orange and lemon zests. Combine the zest with thewater, the pineapple juice, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, blackpepper and chiles, in a large baking dish.

Using a sharp knife, remove any membrane or silver skin fromthe meat. In most supermarkets, this membrane will already have been removed. If the meat is thicker than 3/4" thick at the thickest part, cutit in half horizontally (butterfly) so that it will cook evenly. Place theskirt steak in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover the dish with plastic wrapand marinate at room temperature for 2 hours if inside skirt steak... or, 1 hour if outside skirt steaks.