Grilled Skirt Steak on Charcoal: Why We Only Flip Once

Today we want to share some of our favorite ways to cook skirt steak on a charcoal grill.

Skirt steak isn’t cheap, but it’s still one of our favorite cuts. It doesn’t take long to prepare, and it might be the fastest cut you can finish on the grill. Once the steak is on the grate, it usually takes less than 10 minutes to cook.

Along the way, we’ll share a few things we learned through trial and error, including how to manage your charcoal for such a thin cut of meat, and a simple method that helps you get the perfect doneness on your first try.

The setup

We had 2 lbs of skirt steak that came as one long piece, so we cut it into 3 sections to fit on our baking sheet and the grill. We also trimmed off a few side pieces and left them unseasoned. Those are for the dog, for later.

For charcoal, both lump and briquettes work, but lump charcoal is the better pick here because it’s great for short, high-heat cooking. Give the bag a shake before you pour so the bigger lumps settle on top.

The marinade

Feel free to use any of your favorite rubs. Sometimes we also buy pre-marinated steak that’s ready for the grill.

Here’s one of our favorites: half wet, half dry. We use a light shake of dry rub together with a splash of soy sauce. We usually marinate the steak before we start the charcoal, for about 15 minutes total. The soy sauce helps the flavor get into the meat quickly in that short window, and the dry rub gives it a more varied flavor.

Let the steak sit at room temperature while it marinates.

Preparing the charcoal

We used a large charcoal chimney, filled it, lit it, and waited until the top coals were covered in white ash. That took about 15 minutes. Dump the charcoal into the grill, close the lid for about 3 minutes, and clean the grate.

If your grill is adjustable, set the grate as close to the coals as possible and leave all the vents open for maximum airflow. Keep the lid off for the entire cook.

Grilling: why we only flip once

Some recipes, like Kingsford’s grilled skirt steak, suggest flipping frequently to help build a better crust. That’s a method you could try out. In our tests, though, flipping only once worked better, and it makes sure the steak doesn’t get overcooked.

Our method is pretty simple. Spray the skirt steak with avocado oil, place it directly over the coals, and cook over direct heat only. Our grill was running at about 300°F. Watch the color change on the raw top side. In our case that took about 6 minutes. Then flip just once. The second side only needs about 2 minutes to pick up good grill marks, and it’s done.

This lets you judge doneness by watching the raw side change color instead of relying on a thermometer. For a thicker cut, you could slide the thermometer in horizontally. Skirt steak can be very thin, though, and when you poke a thermometer in, it’s hard to tell the actual center temperature. Watching the raw side gives you a better read on how done the steak is.

When you flip, the rendered fat and juices on top drip onto the hot charcoal and create a burst of flame. That heat sears the outside fast. You get nice grill marks and some of that flame-grilled flavor, and because the cook time is shorter, the inside stays juicy.

We found this method by accident. There was one time I couldn’t find the tongs, and the steak sat on the grill for about 6 minutes. It turned out to be the better way.

Take the steak off and wrap it in foil to rest for 10 minutes. By the end of the rest, you’ll have a nice medium steak.

When you slice it, make sure to cut against the grain. Voilà, that’s a nice medium skirt steak.

Lesson learned: don’t skimp on charcoal

We also want to share a lesson we learned from a failure: make sure you have enough heat.

Since the cook is so short, one time we only filled a small charcoal chimney halfway. It didn’t give us enough heat, and the grill stayed below 200°F. To make it worse, we closed the lid to try to protect that weak bed of coals. The steak ended up overcooked on one side while the other side never developed a crust.

So don’t try to save charcoal. Fill the chimney all the way and aim for 300°F or above. To avoid wasting the extra charcoal, plan a few other things to cook once the steak is done.

That raises another question: what do you do with all that leftover hot charcoal?

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What to do with the leftover charcoal

Option 1: Cook some side veggies

With the coals still burning hot, here are a few sides we like to make.

Start with quick-cooking veggies. Heat a cast iron pan, oil it, add the veggies, close the lid, stir once, and season at the end. We’ve done Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. Even frozen broccoli works.

Once those are done, the heat is still going, so we add veggies that need a longer cook. Here we used corn in the husk and sweet potatoes wrapped in foil so they don’t burn. You can pretty much leave them in the grill while the heat slowly dies down, rotating them every 30 minutes or so. They make a nice late-night snack.

Option 2: Save the steak for last

If you’re cooking other proteins the same day, build up a pile of unlit charcoal and plan to cook the skirt steak last. By the time the other cooking is done, the charcoal heat will be well established, and the steak makes a great addition to a surf-and-turf dinner.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! We hope you enjoy this one, and let us know how your steak turns out.