First things first:

I am TOTALLY a fair weather Falcons Fan. I fully accept and embrace the title of being a fair weather fan for the sake of Georgia NFL football this ONE TIME in my entire life. I do not own any Falcons gear, and I have never watched a full Falcons game before.

I am unashamed to say that this is a one time thing, as I’m still in the market for an NFL team to pledge my allegiance to. I’m a little late to the game, since I really only every subscribed to SEC college football, and it has taken me this long (and this much heartbreak) to graduate into NFL fandom.

That having been said. Y’ALL, this is amazing! If you’re from the beautiful state of Georgia, you can relate to the confusion and and quiet giddiness at having a Georgia sports team in a Championship game. If you’re not from Georgia, then just imagine alternating years of almosts, intermittent with sport droughts where everyone just does poorly.

If you’re cheering for the Patriots, just go ahead and skip down to the recipe. I have a general idea of the scandal they’ve been a part of over the last few seasons (like I said, NFL football is still pretty new to me). I actually learned about the whole Tom Brady deal when Ben and I taught Sunday School last year and one of our third graders said she was cheering against “Brady Deflate-y.” I’m sure Patriots fans have their theories, but that nickname sealed the deal for me.

Earlier this month when we were in San Diego, we stumbled upon one of the most beautiful and delicious meals we’ve ever encountered: Carne Asada Fries.

A little context if you’ve never had carne asada. Carne Asada is grilled, thinly sliced, marinated beef. It is the barbecue of Latino culture. Instead of ribs and fixings, we eat Asada, rice, beans, tortillas and salsa. Because it’s sliced so thin, the meat itself is pretty inexpensive, but it’s marinade gives it a really full flavor. During the summer time (which is 11 months out of the year in Georgia) my family has Asada A LOT. Like, probably every weekend.

Carne Asada Fries, are a SoCal invention that incorporates Asada, along with some other Latino food staples.

Here’s why you should cook Carne Asada Fries for your Super Bowl party:

• It’s really simple to make. I promise, I promise I’m not just saying this. You can customize this or streamline it as much as you want. You can use frozen fries, store bought guacamole and pico, and you don’t have to marinate your meat for long. On the flip side, you can choose to make everything from scratch as well and it STILL won’t take long.
• It’s easily allergy friendly. There isn’t an ounce of gluten in this recipe, and you can easily create a Carne Asada Fries assembly line so that the vegans in your group (trust me, there’s always at least one) can skip out on the dairy, and still get most of the goods.
• BECAUSE WE NEED TO STOP JUST EATING CHIPS AND SALSA FOR SPORTING EVENTS. Y’all. I’m serious. We had a Super Bowl party last year and we had 9 bags of tortilla chips and ENDLESS containers of salsa. It’s the Super Bowl, NOT your really long wait for food at a busy Mexican restaurant. I’m serious. Chips and Salsa are great, but usually when you eat them, you’re waiting for your meal—for something more dynamic. Carne Asada Fries are what you’ve been waiting for. They’re like really fancy nachos, except instead of chips, you have fries. And who in the world doesn’t like fries more than chips (please consider your answer, as this might be a deal breaker for our friendship)??

Anyway, a few notes…

First of all, let’s talk about Meat:

One of the key things about Asada, is the meat. It should be really, really thin. I’ve found that it’s almost impossible to find what I’m looking for at normal grocery stores or butcher shops. What you want to find, if at all possible, is a Carniceria, or a Latino butcher shop. If you don’t know of one around you, search for one in Yelp. If you still can’t find one, then I would go to a butcher shop and ask for thinly sliced skirt steak. This is what it should look like:

About Mexican Cream:

If you’ve never used it before, Mexican Cream is a slightly more sour and salty version of sour cream. It is also thinner than sour cream, which makes it ideal for sprinkling small amounts of it on different dishes. In Guatemala, we eat it with beans and plantains pretty frequently. We found it’s delish on these fries. One of the things we love about Carne Asada Fries is the marriage of various textures, this cream being one of them. You can typically find it next to the Italian Cheeses at the grocery store. If your grocery store doesn’t carry it, most Latin American stores probably will. Just in case, this is how most of them are packaged:

Assembling The Carne Asada Fries:

You can choose to assemble the fries beforehand as a platter, or to lay it out as a buffet if you have one or more guests with common allergies. Here is how we assemble them to mix together all the different textures:

You can find our recipe for guacamole, here.

I hope y’all enjoy this dish as much as we do!

Rising Up,

Carne Asada Fries

A delicious and easy SoCal dish, similar to steak nachos. Carne Asada fries combine french fries, carne asada, guacamole, pico de gallo, and Mexican cheese.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 2 Bags Frozen Fries whatever cut is your preference
• 3.5 Lbs Skirt Steak
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 2 TBS Lime Juice
• 1.5 TBS Chili Powder
• 1/2 TBS Cumin
• 1 TBS Salt some extra salt for individual seasoning

Pico De Gallo

• 4 Tomatoes Chopped and Seeded
• 1 Onion Chopped
• 1 Handful Cilantro Chopped
• 3 TBS Lime Juice
• 1.5 TBS Salt

Additional Toppings

• 1.5 Cups Guacamole
• 4 Oz Cotija Cheese crumbled
• 2 TBS Mexican Cream

Instructions

 

Fries

• Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Cook fries for 15 minutes, and then broil on high until they are crisp. Set aside.
  

Carne Asada

• In a bowl, mix together olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Add meat and cover with mixture on both sides. Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes. Before cooking, sprinkle both sides of the meat with a little salt. Heat a pan on medium-high heat. Cook the meat for 2 minutes on one side (until meat has a nice sear), and flip. Cook for another minute. Remove from heat and slice into small pieces. Set aside
  

Pico de Gallo

• Combine tomatoes, cilantro, onion, lime, and salt. Adjust salt as needed. Set aside.
  

Assembly

• Assemble as a platter or buffet and serve. Enjoy!
  

Mary-Beth Johnson

Mary-Beth is a creative, food-obsessed, Georgia transplant living Chicago. She is proudly and fiercely Latina, and more specifically Chapina. In her day to day she is a food educator to students around Chicagoland aged 3 to 80+, both virtually and in-person. She is passionate about cultivating the truth that every person has an understanding of food that deserves being brought to the table, and that time in the kitchen can be sacred, passionate, and an act of love for self and others. Outside the kitchen you can find her at the intersections of infertility, chronic illness, and a deep love for the dignity of all humans. She hopes to create a space that is holistic about the role of food in the social, political, relational, and physiological dynamics of our world.