Thursday, July 27, 2017

Steak, Black Bean and Rice Burritos

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  We received no compensation for this post. Smithfield and SABER Grills are two of our partner brands but this isn't a sponsored post for either brand.

This is one of our "go to" recipes when we want something quick, delicious, and satisfying.  Even our ultra picky, in house food critic (aka our son) loves these steak, black bean, and rice burritos.

recipe for steak, black bean, and rice burritos

The Components
  • Steak - We use whatever looks the best and is the least expensive between flank steak, flat iron, skirt, and sirloin flap.  I have really become a fan of the sirloin flap in the last year or two, we just can't get it all of the time. The main thing is that the steak has to be thin sliced and medium rare.
  • Rice - Sometimes we use a version of this Mexican Rice recipe.  Other times I'll just do regular basmati rice with some fire roasted poblano tossed in while it cooks.  If I have leftover plain white rice, I'll even use that just to get rid of the leftovers.
  • Cheese - Ideally, this should be fresh shredded and something like Monterey jack, pepper jack, Chihuahua, or our favorite, Oaxaca. Oaxaca is like Mexican mozzarella, rich, buttery, and melts well.  But as a confession, there are times we use pre-shredded cheese....yeah, I know, it's coated with stuff to keep it from sticking together and drying out.  When we do pre-shredded, we like Sargento's the best because it seems the least processed.  
  • Tortilla - We use Mission style sized flour tortillas for our burritos.  
  • Black beans - We usually use the black bean recipe below.  It has more onion and bell pepper than I would normally use when making black beans for eating as a side dish. We usually use Ranch Style brand or Bush's unseasoned black beans. 

Black Bean Mix for Burritos

Ingredients

  • 4 slices Smithfield Homestyle Bacon, chopped
  • 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
  • 15 oz can black beans, drained
  • 1/4 cup tomato sauce
  • 3/4 teaspoon taco or fajita seasoning

Instructions

  1. Crisp bacon pieces in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, about 8-10 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon pieces to a paper towel.  I do this either on a kamado grill at 350°f or on a gas grill side burner.  
  2. Remove and discard all but 2-3 tablespoons of the bacon grease.  Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until tender, 5-8 minutes.
  3. Stir in the black beans, tomato sauce, and fajita seasoning.  Simmer until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes.
  4. Stir the bacon pieces in and remove from heat.


As usual, either season the meat just before grilling or at least an hour before.  This was a half flank steak that we seasoned with our beef rub.

Lodge cast iron on a Big Green Egg kamado grill.
Grilling the flank steak and beans on my oldest kamado grill - a 9 year old large Big Green Egg.  The grates are Craycort's new cast iron grate for large kamados.

Cooking sirloin flap steak on my bad ass SABER Elite 1500 infrared grill
On a different night but same recipe, grilling a sirloin flap steak on my SABER Elite 1500 grill. This gas powered infrared grill impresses me every time that I use it. The infrared heat doesn't dry out the food like convective gas grills tend to, it delivers grill marks as good as GrillGrates (a huge compliment), and the temperature control between zones is impeccable. 
 
The sirloin flap steak that was cooking on the SABER in the picture above.  Perfect!
 
This burrito has the flank steak that was grilled on the Egg.  

The cheese for this burrito is a local dairy's roasted garlic and black pepper cheese that we bought at Pratt's Country Store.

Sirloin flap steak and accouterments literally ready to roll.

Sometimes I will wrap the burrito in foil for 5 minutes because it seems to let everything blend together better.  It also helps keep it warm until the kid gets home sometimes.

Appropriate meat to rice ratio, ha ha.  Don't you hate when you get burritos at quick serve places and it's 80% rice?  Cheapskates :) 

Burrito and a brew, great way to spend a Summer evening on the deck!
So what are your favorite burrito ingredients?  I'm always wanting to try new things.