Mexican-Style Grilled Meat Marinade (With a Little Miso)

· 4 min read
beef pork grilling mexican recipes

Every summer I end up with some version of a carne asada marinade in a zip bag in the fridge. It’s the kind of thing you make once, love, and then never write down, so every time you start from scratch and half-remember the proportions. This is me finally writing it down.

The base is a pretty classic bright, citrusy carne asada situation: lime, a little orange juice, a can of Sprite for sugar and mild acidity, a fistful of cilantro, and enough garlic and chiles to make it interesting. The one thing that isn’t traditional is a couple tablespoons of white miso. It sounds out of place, but it’s doing what miso always does: adding a savory, glutamate-rich backbone that makes the whole thing taste deeper and more seasoned without reading as “Japanese.” Think of it the way you’d think of a splash of soy sauce or fish sauce in a marinade that has nothing to do with either cuisine. It just makes meat taste more like meat.

I’ve run this on three very different cuts and they were all great:

  • Skirt steak — the obvious one, and still the best. Fast, hot, sliced thin against the grain.
  • Flanken-cut short ribs — the thin cross-cut ribs you’d normally see in a Korean context. They take the marinade beautifully and cook in a few minutes over high heat.
  • Pork belly — sliced into strips, marinated a little longer, and grilled until the edges crisp. Excellent.

Chicken thighs work too if that’s what you’ve got.

Mexican-Style Grilled Meat Marinade

Servings: 4-6Prep: 15 min + 2-12 hr marinadeCook: 15 min

Makes enough marinade for about 2.5 lbs of meat.

Ingredients

  • 1 can (12 oz) Sprite, or other lemon-lime soda
  • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1/3 cup orange juice
  • 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
  • 2 jalapeños or serranos, chopped (seeds in for heat)
  • 5 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1/2 white onion, quartered
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp white miso
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp dried oregano (Mexican if you have it)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • ~2.5 lbs (1.1 kg) skirt steak, flanken-cut short ribs, pork belly, or chicken thighs

Method

Combine everything except the meat in a blender and pulse until roughly combined. Don’t fully purée it — you want some texture and flecks of cilantro and chile, not a smooth green sauce. Taste it; the miso and soy are doing the salting, so adjust if it needs more.

Put the meat in a zip bag or dish, pour the marinade over, and refrigerate. Timing depends on the cut:

  • Beef (skirt, flanken): 2-8 hours.
  • Pork belly / chicken thighs: 4-12 hours.

Pull the meat 30 minutes before cooking to take the chill off, and get your grill screaming hot. Skirt and flanken want direct high heat, about 3-4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Pork belly strips go a little longer until the edges crisp. Chicken thighs run about 5-6 minutes per side until they hit 165°F.

Rest 5-10 minutes, then slice against the grain. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lime and more cilantro.

Notes

A few things I’ve learned running this over a lot of weekends:

  • Don’t over-marinate the beef. Past about 8 hours the citrus starts to break down the surface and you get a mushy, almost cured texture. Pork and chicken are more forgiving.
  • The Sprite is not just a gimmick. The sugar helps you get real char, and the mild acidity rounds out the lime. You can use any lemon-lime soda.
  • Reserve a little before it touches raw meat if you want a drizzle for serving. Once it’s been in with the meat, cook it or toss it.
  • Want it smokier? Throw a chipotle in adobo into the blender. The smoked paprika and the chipotle play well together.
  • The miso is the secret handshake. Two tablespoons is enough to notice the difference and not enough for anyone to guess what it is.