How to Cook and Slice the Marinated Skirt Steak at Costco {Arrachera from RYC Foods}

The marinated skirt steak at Costco, also known as Arrachera, is my son’s favorite steak and is easy to grill.  The steak, from the RYC Food brand, is surprisingly tender and has a lot of great flavor.

Package Contents

The marinated skirt steak comes from the RYC Foods brand which is based in San Antonio, Texas.  The package usually contains two long pieces of skirt steak, each weighing around two pounds.

The steak has been marinated in a mix of Southwestern flavors without being overly salty.  You are going to get a LOT more flavor from this steak than you will from a tri tip or picanha.

More importantly, the steak has been tenderized by the use of the enzyme found in papaya so it will be much more tender than a flank steak, sirloin or strip steak.

If you are a fan of steaks that have bold flavors and are extremely tender then you will enjoy this steak!

Cooking Instructions

The hardest part about cooking a steak is getting it to the desired level of doneness without over-cooking.  This trick is even harder to pull off with a thin steak like skirt.

The good news is that you do not have to worry about over-cooking this steak as that is exactly what Costco says you should do!  The label for this steak says that for food safety reasons it should be cooked to 160F which is well past the typically desired Medium Rare target of 135F.

Don’t worry about taking this steak up to Well Done territory as there is so much marinade and tenderizer in the steak that it always stays very juicy and tender.

My preferred way of cooking the steak is to heat up my Weber Traveler gas grill on High and let it preheat for 15 minutes to get the cast iron grates nice and hot.

Once the grill has been preheated I put the steaks on the grill and let them cook for five minutes per side or until they reach an internal temperature of 160F.

You can do the same thing in the oven using your broiler if desired.

How to Slice and Serve

The most important thing about serving skirt steak is to slice the meat against the grain and that is NOT intuitive with this cut of meat.

When they steak comes off the grill the immediate temptation is to cut into thin slices from the sides going from “East to West”.  If you go this route then you will be slicing WITH the grain and the steak will be chewy.

Instead, cut each arrachera into three portions and then rotate the portions so that you are making slices from either the bottom or top of the steak. Cutting from “North to South” will be creating slices that are against the grain which will increase the tenderness.

I love serving the slices in tacos or along with some grilled peppers and onions for an easy twist on fajitas.

You get about four pounds of steak per package so, depending on your side dishes, you should be able to feed six people.