Steak Soft Tacos with Chipotle-Lime Cilantro Marinade

These steak soft tacos are one of the freshest and easiest dinners I have made in a while. It's as simple as pulling out your food processor, giving your ingredients a whirl, sitting back while the meat soaks up all that flavor, then enjoying a fresh, healthy meal, all while wondering why you ever go out to eat.

Steak Soft Tacos with Chipotle-Lime Cilantro Marinade

The wonderfully raw and fresh taste of the marinade is bursting with flavor and excitement. It doubles as a marinade and a sauce and would also go great on chicken or shrimp.

It's spicy, smokey flavor is balanced by the cooling cilantro and the punch of citrus.

Chipotle-Lime Cilantro Marinade
Zest and juice from two whole limes
1 bunch of cilantro
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1/2 small red onion, roughly chopped
1 small jalepano, seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Put everything in the food processor except for the oil, and pulse a few times. Stream in the oil until everything starts to move together. Taste and adjust the flavor as needed. You will notice that I did not put measurements for the salt, pepper or oil. I don't think it needs much salt because of all the other flavors it has going on. As for the oil, the amount will differ depending on how much juice you get out of your limes. It should look something like this when it is blended together.

Reserve about 1/4th of the marinade for extra sauce for the tacos. Cover and place in the fridge for later.

Chipotle-Lime Cilantro Steak Soft Tacos
2 lbs flank steak or chuck tender steak*
Chipotle-Lime Cilantro marinade
Small tortillas
Fresh lime juice
Cilantro

*I was going to use flank steak but my store was out of it so I used small chuck steaks. Marinade the steak for at about two hours, turning or moving the bag around every 30 minutes or so.
Grill steak to desired doneness, either on a grill pan or on an outdoor grill.

Once the steak is done, remove from grill and cover for a few minutes so the juices can re-distribute in the meat. Then, cut it into slices like fajita meat, or cut it into bite size cubes.

For the tacos, I kept it simple. I didn't add a lot of toppings because frankly, they didn't need them. I just used a little of the reserved marinade as a sauce and top the tacos with extra lime juice and a little fresh cilantro. Perfect!

And just so you know, Hunter Hann doesn't like cliantro, but he kept raving about how much he loved the sauce and how fresh it was. Stick with me kid; I know what I'm talkin' about! :)