Skillet Steak Fajitas
Steak strips, three peppers, and an onion in one hot pan. Everything sliced at home.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sirloin steak | 1.5 lb | cut into thin strips at home, packed in a zip bag |
|---|---|---|
| Bell peppers | 3 | orange, yellow, and green, sliced at home |
| White onion | 1 large | sliced |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Taco seasoning | 2 tbsp | |
| Tortillas | 8 | flour or corn |
| Tex Mex shredded cheese | 1 cup | |
| Sour cream | 1/2 cup | |
| Salsa | 1 cup | |
| Avocado | 1 | buy it hard and let it ripen in the car |
| Jalapeno | 1 | sliced thin |
| Cilantro | a handful | |
| Lime | 1 | cut into wedges |
Method
- Get the skillet hot over the fire or a grill grate. Add the oil and let it shimmer.
- Dump in the onion and peppers. Cook eight minutes, stirring now and then, until the edges char and the onion goes soft.
- Push the vegetables to one side. Lay the steak strips in the open half in a single layer and leave them alone for two minutes so they brown.
- Stir the seasoning through everything and cook another three minutes. The steak should still be pink in the middle when you pull the pan.
- Warm the tortillas on the grate for fifteen seconds a side while the pan rests.
- Build them at the table. Cheese, sour cream, salsa, avocado, jalapeno, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.
This is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe. Fresh steak and three bell peppers are heavy and perishable, so it belongs at a site you drove to. What makes it work in camp is that all the knife work happens on a kitchen counter days earlier. At the fire you are moving a spatula and nothing else.
The order matters more than the heat. Peppers and onion go in first because they need real time to soften and char; the steak needs about four minutes total and gets tough past that. Giving the meat a bare, undisturbed patch of hot pan is the difference between browned strips and grey ones swimming in vegetable liquid.
Packing
Slice the steak, peppers, and onion at home and pack each in its own bag. That is the whole prep, and it means camp is just a hot pan. Steak and dairy ride in the cooler bottom on ice; tortillas and seasoning go in the dry box so they do not get soggy.
Variations
- Chicken thighs cut into strips work the same way and cost less.
- Skip the tortillas and serve it over instant rice cooked in the same pot.
- No cooler space for sour cream? Rehydrated powdered sour cream or a squeeze bottle of hot sauce covers it.
https://campfirefoodie.com/skillet-steak-fajitas-easy-camping-recipe