Grilled Coffee and Cola Skirt Steak

Two great drinks equal one fantastic marinade for skirt steak, the juiciest and most flavorful piece of meat you can put on a grill. It's smoky and subtly sweet. The flavors are balanced perfectly with the bitterness of the coffee in the grill marks. I really hope you'll give this a try.

• Preparation Time: 10 mins
• Cooking Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins
• Calories: 213 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon salt
• salt to taste
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle cola-flavored carbonated beverage
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
• ½ cup freshly brewed strong coffee
• ¼ teaspoon Louisiana-style hot sauce, or to taste
• 1 (1 1/4 pound) beef skirt steak - trimmed of large fat chunks

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.

Step 2

Place garlic into a nonreactive bowl and whisk in cola, coffee, rice vinegar, ketchup, black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, rosemary, and hot sauce until thoroughly combined.

Step 3

Unroll skirt steak and cut into 6-inch lengths with the grain, using kitchen scissors. Submerge meat totally in the marinade; place a piece of plastic wrap onto the meat and marinade surface. Marinate 8 to 12 hours in the refrigerator or overnight.

Step 4

Remove meat from marinade; save the marinade. Pat meat thoroughly dry with paper towels. Season both sides of meat with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Step 5

Pour marinade into a saucepan over medium heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Step 6

Grill meat on the preheated grill until steak pieces are still pink inside and meat has good grill marks, about 4 minutes per side. Place thin cooked pieces onto thicker pieces of meat to prevent thin ones from overcooking. When the surface of the meat looks shiny and wet from juices being forced up to the surface, the meat is medium-rare to medium in doneness. An instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the center of a piece should read 125 to 130 degrees F (52 to 54 degrees C).

Step 7

Remove meat to a platter and let rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing thinly across the grain to serve. Drizzle servings with reduced coffee-cola marinade.