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Recipe

Skillet Ribeye and Peppers

ribeye fajitas on the menu boys!

The pan version. No tortillas, no building anything — the skillet goes on the table and people eat out of it.

The entire difference between this and something greyish and wet is heat and patience in that order. The pan has to be hot enough to hurt, the meat goes in dry and in batches, and nothing gets stirred for the first two minutes. Stirring is how you drop the pan temperature and start boiling the beef in its own juice.

Ribeye, not skirt. More expensive and worth it — the fat renders into the peppers and that is most of what makes this taste the way it does.

Feeds
4
Hands-on
25 minutes
In the pan
15 minutes
Pan
As hot as it goes

Twenty-five minutes of cutting and fifteen of noise. Have everything beside the stove before you light it.

Ribeye and peppers finished in the skilletFour raw ribeyes laid in the cast-iron panTwo ribeye fajitas with coriander and sour cream
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The beef

  • 2 lb boneless ribeye, cut into finger-thick strips
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp coarse black pepper
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tbsp beef tallow or neutral oil

The vegetables

  • 2 red bell peppers, in wide strips
  • 2 green bell peppers, in wide strips
  • 2 large onions, in thick strips
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • A handful of coriander, chopped

How it goes

  1. 1 — Cut the beef with the grain, thick

    Finger-thick strips, cut WITH the grain rather than across it — across the grain in a pan this hot and they fall apart into shreds. Season and leave them on the counter twenty minutes.

  2. 2 — Everything cut and beside the stove first

    Once this starts there is no time to chop an onion. Peppers, onions, garlic, lime and coriander all ready in bowls.

  3. 3 — Heat the cast iron until it is faintly smoking

    Five minutes on high, empty and dry. A drop of water should vanish instantly with a crack.

  4. 4 — Beef in two batches, untouched

    Half the tallow, half the beef in a single layer, and do not touch it for two minutes. It will stick and then release itself once the crust forms. Turn once, thirty seconds more, out onto a plate. Repeat.

    pro tip — Crowding the pan is the only way to ruin this. Two batches takes four extra minutes and is the whole recipe.

  5. 5 — Onions into the empty pan, hard

    Rest of the fat, onions in, left alone for two minutes so one face blackens, then tossed. Four minutes total.

  6. 6 — Peppers two minutes, garlic last

    Peppers in, tossed twice over two minutes so they soften at the edges and keep their colour, then the sliced garlic for thirty seconds. Any longer and the garlic burns.

  7. 7 — Beef back in with its juices, thirty seconds

    Everything from the plate tipped back in, folded through once, and off the heat immediately. The residual heat finishes it.

  8. 8 — Lime and coriander, serve in the pan

    Lime squeezed over, coriander through it, and the whole skillet onto a board on the table. Rice alongside if you want it to stretch.

Spatula in the pan, plates round the table. That is the whole service. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.