Flank Steak Fajita Recipe with Fajita Marinade (So Good!)

These Flank Steak Fajitas have so much flavor thanks to this delicious flank steak fajita marinade. Your family will love filling up their warm tortillas with all of their favorite fajita toppings to build their own custom plates! This recipe for flavorful steak fajitas is super easy thanks to many make ahead tips and tricks to save you time!

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Creating these Flank Steak Fajitas

Fajitas are one of my favorite tasty, but uncomplicated dinners. I usually make chicken fajitas because I always have chicken on had, but over this past weekend I decided to change things up a bit and make them with flank steak.

This year I am planting a few bell pepper plants in my garden. I’m hoping that makes for abundant opportunities for fajitas this summer.

I also love how these Flank Steak Fajitas are great for group social occasions because you can lay all the ingredients out on the counter and allow guests to pick and choose what they like for their plates.

Ingredients in Flank Steak Fajitas

I made this easy fajita recipe using flank steak, peppers, onions, and my current favorite fajita seasoning for veggies and fajita marinade for flank steak. Here’s what you’ll need to make these beef fajitas:

• Ingredients for Flank Steak Fajita Marinade (ingredients and recipes follow this post)
• Flank Steak
• Green Bell Pepper
• Orange, Yellow, and/or Red Bell Peppers
• Red Onion or Yellow Onions
• Salt and Pepper
• Flour or Corn Tortillas

Flank Steak Fajita Marinade

To make this easy recipe for flank steak fajita marinade, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Lime Juice
• Orange Juice
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Avocado Oil*
• Roma Tomato
• Fresh Garlic
• Fresh Cilantro
• Cumin
• Chili Powder
• Salt
• Pepper

*This marinade for fajitas uses Avocado Oil because it has a higher smoke point than Olive Oil, making it idea for grilling.

Seasoning for Fajita Veggies

I don’t really follow a recipe for fajita veggie seasoning, but I like to sprinkle them with a little garlic powder, Mexican oregano, salt, pepper, and a bit of cumin while they’re cooking. Totally optional, though!

For the complete ingredient list and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FREE printable recipe card.

How to Make Flank Steak Fajitas

These flank steak fajitas require a little prep work – you’ll need to prepare the marinade in advance and build at least a couple of hours into your day or start the night before, but much of that is inactive prep while the flank steak marinates.

1. First, combine the ingredients for the flank steak fajita marinade and blend in the blender. 
2. Then, tenderize the meat with a meat mallet.
3. After that, place steak and marinade in a shallow pan or a resealable gallon sized plastic bag, making sure the meat is fully coated, and let marinate for 3 hours or up to overnight.
4. Meanwhile, slice the peppers and onions into strips.
5. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil to the pan. 
6. Add the onions and peppers, cooking until the onions are slightly translucent and the peppers are slightly browned.
7. Heat the grill to high heat and remove the meat from the marinade. Discard marinade leftovers.
8. Grill the flank steak to your desired doneness. I like medium rare.
9. Then, let the meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing – slice against the grain.
10. Fill warm flour tortillas with fajita veggies and choice of toppings.

The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

Tips for Grilling Flank Steak Fajita Meat

If you’ve never made great fajitas before, here are some of my tips for making the best fajita meat:

Pound the flank steak with a meat tenderizer before putting it in the fajita marinade. This will help tenderize the muscle fibers of the steak and you can even out any thicker spots on your cut of beef so it cooks evenly.

Marinate ahead of time. Plan for at least 3 hours for the meat to soak in the fajita marinade. You want the meat to have plenty of time to soak up all the great flavors. Plus, the longer it marinates, the more tender flank steak becomes.

Pat dry with paper towels. If you put wet meat straight on the grill, you will not get nice grill marks or much of a sear. Drying the excess marinade off the fajita beef will help with this.

Get the grill really hot! Preheating the grill is important. Flank steak is a relatively thin cut of beef, especially after tenderizing it with a meat mallet. The grill needs to be nice and hot so the exterior sears quickly on both sides without overcooking the meat.

No grill? No problem! If you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can cook your flank steak fajitas indoor on a cast iron pan. Just make sure you preheat the pan. If you like grill marks, look for a grill pan.

Cut the meat properly. Flank steak for fajitas is best cut against the grain in thin strips. Meat cut with the grain can often be difficult to chew. Cutting fajita meat in thin strips is better for stuffing inside the tortillas.

More Tips for Making Flank Steak Fajitas

• I recommend gently heating the tortillas in a skillet or in the microwave (using one of these tortilla warmers) before assembling the fajitas. This makes them easy to roll and prevents them from cracking.
• I like to use a cast iron skillet when cooking the peppers and onions for this recipe. The great thing about cast iron, is you can cook indoor on the stove, or you can take your cast iron pan out to the grill with you (perfect in the summer when you want to keep the heat out of the kitchen!) If you aren’t familiar with cooking with cast iron, check out my tips for caring for cast iron.
• I like to use at least two colors of bell peppers in this flank steak fajita recipe. Choose whatever colors you like for a variety!

Can I Prep These Flank Steak Fajitas Ahead of Time?

Yes! You can prep the ingredients for this steak fajitas recipe ahead of time. Slice the veggies and prepare any fajita toppings (i.e. make the guac or salsa, grate the cheese, etc.). Here are my make ahead tips:

• The meat can be marinated up to a day before you plan to cook it.
• Alternatively, I like to prepare multiple batches of the marinade and make several bags of meat with marinade and freeze it for a later use. Then, just thaw the meat in the refrigerator starting 2 days ahead and it will marinate as it thaws.
• Cut the onions and peppers up to 2 days ahead and store in the refrigerator.
• Prepare any toppings up to a day ahead and store in the refrigerator – note: Guacamole can turn brown when made ahead, so place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the guac when storing to help minimize this.

Note that once the fajita meat and veggies have been cooked, they’re best enjoyed right away.

The Best Flank Steak Fajita Toppings

Below are some of my family’s favorite fajita toppings to serve with this flank steak fajita recipe:

• Hot sauce
• Fresh Cilantro
• Shredded Lettuce
• Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw
• Basic Guacamole
• Salsa Verde
• Restaurant-Style Salsa or Pico de Gallo
• A Wedge of Lime (see how to squeeze the most juice from your limes)
• Shredded Cheese (feel free to use vegan if you’d like, or omit entirely!)
• Sour Cream (feel free to use vegan if you’d like)

I like to provide a variety of toppings so that everyone can load their tortillas up how they prefer!

How to Make a Gluten-Free Flank Steak Fajita

To make these flank steak fajitas gluten-free, just swap out your favorite gluten-free tortillas in place of the flour tortillas and make sure any pre-packaged toppings are certified gluten-free.

If you use corn tortillas, also double check that they are completely gluten-free as sometimes they may have flour in addition to the corn, or be processed on shared equipment.

What Meat Can I Substitute for Flank Steak in this Fajita Recipe?

If you’re looking for another cut of beef to use when making these fajitas, I recommend skirt steak which also works really well. In fact, skirt steak is often considered the traditional cut of beef to use for fajitas, but I usually find that flank steak is less expensive.

If you don’t want to use beef, you can use this fajita marinade recipe with boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of beef. Make sure to cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F rather than medium rare. Probe Thermometers are great for checking temps!

Regardless of the cut of meat you use, you’ll still want to let the meat rest for 10 minutes after cooking and slice it against the grain for best results.

If you’d prefer a vegetarian fajita recipe, check out my recipe for Vegetarian Fajitas with Mushrooms.

What to Serve with a Flank Steak Fajita Dinner

This recipe for flank steak fajitas pairs well a variety of Mexican side dishes Here are some of my go-to side dish recipes to sere with fajitas:

• For a healthy veggie side dish to go with your fajitas, try this Mexican inspired Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw.
• For rice, try this recipe for Homemade Spanish Rice as a side.
• Refried Beans are another great side dish traditionally served with fajitas.
• If you want a different from traditional type of side dish, you’ll love this recipe for Roasted Poblano Cilantro Quinoa.
• For dessert after fajitas for dinner, try these No Bake Mango Lime Cheesecake with Fruit Salsa.

What are your favorite side dishes to serve with steak fajitas?

How to Store Leftover Steak Fajitas

You can save any leftovers of these easy steak fajitas if you’d like to save them for another meal. They’re best stored in airtight containers in the refrigerator and should be eaten within about 3-4 days. I like to store the leftover fajita meat separately from the fajita vegetables, but that’s just my preference.

If you reheat these flank steak fajitas to serve later, then I recommend reheating the recipe in a skillet rather than microwaving.

What to Do with Leftover Fajita Meat

Got leftover marinated fajita meat from these flank steak fajitas? Here are a couple of suggestions if you don’t want to eat another meal of fajitas:

Try this Fajita Panini using your leftover flank steak! Put the steak with the other toppings in between a tortilla (or bread) and grill on a panini press.

Add some of the leftover meat slices to this Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette for a fun fajita meat taco salad. If you have leftover peppers, you can add those too even though the recipe doesn’t call for them.

Make Nachos! Check out my Ultimate Easy Nacho Recipe and these Zucchini Nachos – both would be great with leftover Fajita meat added.

More Easy Mexican Dinners:

I hope you’ll give these Flank Steak Fajitas a try next time you’re craving Mexican food! If you’re looking for a few more easy Mexican dinner ideas, you’ll see some of our favorites below. As always, feel free to check out the Mexican Food section to see more of those recipes!

Try a fun summer take on tacos with this recipe for Chicken Tacos with Grilled Corn Tomato Salsa.

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken is the perfect shredded chicken recipe for your next Mexican recipe.

In these Chicken, Black Bean, and Spinach Enchiladas, corn tortillas are filled with tender, shredded chicken, black beans, and fresh spinach. Then they’re smothered in both roasted tomatillo salsa and a tangy sour cream sauce. 

Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Chile Gravy Enchilada Sauce is a classic Tex-Mex dish from my childhood. Corn tortillas are stuffed with shredded chicken and smothered in a rich, chili gravy sauce before baked up to perfection with a gooey cheese topping.

Shredded Beef, Black Bean and Quinoa Stuffed Poblanos are a healthier take on Chile Rellenos.

Don’t see what you’re looking for here? You can always head over to check out the recipe index to look for more recipes.

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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Rachael from Set the Table.