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Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas marries juicy paper-thin sheets of freshly sliced beef with rainbow-colored sweet peppers, golden caramelized onions, and fresh avocado; it’s restaurant-level ‘fresh Mexican’ cuisine at home.
An easy meal for when you do not have much time to “think dinner” is these shaved beef fajitas. They are about the most leisurely meal in my repertoire. This single-skillet meal is easy because it can be prepared stove-side or on your outdoor grill. Love meals like this? Pair with my oh-so-Southern Pimento Cheese Nachos and enjoy a night in!
Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas are an easy meal any night of the week. Fajitas are a great way to encourage your kid to “wrap their food (sneaky vegetables!) up in a blanket.”
Using shaved beef makes them especially easy. Have you never worked with shaved beef? It comes in paper-thin sheets and is cooked in mere minutes! You can find shaved beef in the butcher case of your local grocer. I have purchased it before at Trader Joe’s and Aldi, in addition to my local independent butcher.
There is no 2 to 3-hour marinade time to deal with, and there is no shortage of flavor because the meat cooks in minutes in the fond in the skillet. So, if you are looking for a new fajitas recipe that your whole family will find 100% customizable for their taste, look no further than the Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas method I’m sharing today!
I love autumn. It is the best feeling when the seasons change from zillion-degree Charleston heat to ‘sleeping with the window open’ temperatures.
The air is crisp, and my favorite cooking tool sits just beyond the French doors on the back deck—time to get grilling.
And what more straightforward low-stress dish to consider than Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas? You’re going to adopt this method; you wait and see.
These Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas are juicy, warm, and plenty flavorful. My preparation method is way healthier than how these are cooked at your favorite Mexican restaurant with little saturated fat.
Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas are one of my new favorite dinners. They’re great for cooler-temperature family grilling. Short on time, but still want to eat healthy? Yup. Fajitas.
Fajitas are an authentic Tex-Mex dish initially prepared with a marinated skirt steak or flank steak. Chicken and other cuts of beef are also commonly used. For the longest time, I prepared steak fajitas by marinating my beef. This was according to a steak fajitas recipe I had followed for years.
Today, I am using a new product (new for me) that I recently discovered. I have been using it quite a lot. Shaved beef or shaved steak. No, not deli roast beef, but raw, shaved, fresh meat. These virtual sheets of beef are so thin they cook in under a minute. And because they cook so quickly, there is no drying out. No slicing. No guessing if it is cooked through or not. And because I am opening my eyes to the convenience of shaved beef steak recipes, I can honestly tell you that I love shaved steak.
Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas are incredibly versatile when you consider that they can be served as a taco with tortillas, as an entree with yellow rice and seasoned black beans, or as a low-carb lunch atop a crisp green salad.
Now, fajitas may look intimidating. But if you study my photos hard, you will see we are talking vegetables, beef, crumbled Cotija cheese, and a few wedges of lime for brightness. Whatever else you like, you can serve alongside. I am a guacamole fan, but my family not so much.
Rather than the guacamole, I slice one avocado thin. I offer it alongside fresh sour cream, sliced tomatoes, a lettuce salad dressed with Crema, good old yellow rice, and zesty warmed black beans.
My Mom loves the flour tortillas. I prefer to quarter them and flash fry them in olive oil for a quasi-homemade tortilla “chip.” There is no wrong way; this is healthy, super quick, and all done in one skillet.
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Tender Shaved Beef Fajitas
Equipment
- large cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 1 pound beef, shaved; sold pre-packaged in 1lb trays or ask your butcher to shave 1lb of quality steak for you
- 1 large onion, cut in half, then sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
- 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into long strips
- 1 orange bell pepper, sliced into long strips
- 2 ½ tablespoons Canola oil
- 2 tablespoons Cotija cheese
- 2 tablespoons cilantro, fresh, leaves torn
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Prepare a large sheet of aluminum foil by spraying it lightly with cooking oil on one side.
- In a small bowl, combine chili powder, cumin, paprika, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.
- Preheat grill to medium high heat.
- Beginning with 2 teaspoons of the Canola oil, add the onions and garlic to cast iron skillet over grill. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the chili cumin mixture. Cook, moving often, over medium-high heat allowing skins to char, about 2-3 minutes. Move the peppers to one side of the skillet.
- Add the peppers. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the chili cumin mixture. Cook, moving often, over medium-high heat allowing peppers to char, about 2-3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer vegetables to prepared foil and set on cool side of the grill. Do not wrap.
- Reduce grill heat to medium. Add the remaining Canola oil to the skillet. Working in batches, peel single sheets of the raw beef from the packaging and add as flat layers into the skillet. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the chili cumin mixture. As the first layer cooks, and there is barely any pink remaining, flip the layer and move it to the sides of the pan. Repeat with additional sheets of beef and the chili cumin mixture until there is none.
- At this time, move the foil back over to the hot side of the grill and briefly heat the vegetables so they are hot.
if using fajita skillets to serve in, transfer the meat and the vegetables now, otherwise…
- …move the meat to one corner of the skillet used to prepare everything, and using tongs, transfer the peppers to another corner, and then the onions to another. Cut heat.
- Sprinkle fresh torn cilantro leaves and crumbled Cotija cheese over the fajita mixture. Squeeze several lime wedges over all. Serve the fajitas hot with the remaining lime wedges, sliced avocado, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, and warmed tortillas.
Fried Tortillas
- If wrapping your fajitas in tortillas does not excite you, try cutting several tortillas into quarters and frying in hot oil on the stove top 2 minutes per side. Remove to paper toweling, sprinkle with flakey sea salt, and serve at room temperature with fajitas as a crispy tortilla "chip." Watch out because these are addictive!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I was looking at this recipe for fajitas and saw this in your recipe – ” the meat cooks in minutes in the fond in the skillet” – what does that mean? fond??
Thanks much.
Ja, glad you reached out with your question! ‘Fond’ is the flavor layer, otherwise known as ‘brown bits’ that forms in the bottom of a skillet or pan when the onions, peppers, and aromatics cook. ALL OF THAT FOND flavors the paper-thin sheets of beef like nothing else can – naturally. The beef will release its own juices and that’s when you want to gently scrape the fond from the bottom of the pan and stir it into your beef. I do this step in batches so I am assured to get all of that fond up and into my fajitas!
Let me know if you need help sourcing shaved beef. I can usually find at Whole Foods and my everyday grocery (a bit cheaper). 😉 Jenny
I really, really want to make this! All your recipes I have made are perfect but with this one I am unsure what Bridger shaved beef is? Ribeye? Deli? Frozen?What section of the grocery store would I find this? I am in the Florida Panhandle so I will check WinnDixie & Publix. Thank you, can’t wait to make it!
Carol, I will email you a photo of what the Bridger package looks like, although I suspect others sell shaved beef, not just Bridger. For others who will read your query and wonder the same, shaved beef is shaved steak. Since not all beef companies offer it, you must ask your grocer’s butcher if they stock it. It is literally paper thin, which gives you the advantage of cooking it in mere minutes. I use it for fajitas, French dip sammies, pepper steak with onions, you name it. And for those who will think, ‘I’ll just shave my own,’ well without a meat slicer, I just do not think it possible to achieve. It’s a game-changer once you’ve worked with it. Look to read from me in your inbox, Carol. Let me know how you enjoy it if you do make these fajitas! – Jenny
mmmm fajitas are my fave and this look so good!
Nicolle, I promise the time you spend assembling these fajitas are worth it! Thank you for stopping by NEA! x – Jenny
Yum, yum, yum! Fajitas are my go-to order at Mexican restaurants. Thank you for this recipe for making restaurant quality at home!
Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I’m featuring you this week!
Richella!!! THANK YOU! I promise these are ten times better and without the added fat! I am so grateful my Friend. 🙂
What a great idea! Pinned – and printed to make next week!! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party. Hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Just enjoyed shaved beef fajitas as recipe is printed Excellent flavors Used a skillet and a cast iron grill to cook & keep warm Put veggies & meat over lemon rice instead of in a fajita shell Used dairy free bleu cheese crumbles as I am dairy free Only 1 change- recommend cutting shaved meat into small bite size pieces before cooking Excellent recipe 7/22
MR thanks for the compliment! I absolutely LOVE the idea of the lemon rice! And yes, depending on what brand of shaved beef you purchase, ‘whole sheets’ can be a mighty forkful. I suggest turning the package out onto a cutting board and running your sharpest kitchen knife through the pile at least in half. I hope you’ll make them again and again! Jenny
Your awesome post is featured on Full Plate Thursday,575, thanks so much for sharing it with us! Hope you have a great week and come back to see us soon!
Miz Helen
Oh Miz Helen, it feels SO GOOD to be back! Thank you, thank you!
These look fabulous. Pinned to try later
Thanks Stacy! Let me know how you enjoy it if you do!