Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

When it comes to big money steak cuts like ribeyes, strips, and tenderloins, we rely on precision cooking with sous vide to protect our investment and achieve perfect doneness.Sous vide and other low-and-slow methods are a great way to transform tough cuts—like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-grilled-chuck-steak">chuck</a>—into tender steaks that rival those more expensive options. But there’s a wide world of steak cuts to discover and there are other ways to tenderize tough cuts so they cook up quickly and are supple and succulent—not stiff and chewy. Because it’s already so thin, skirt steak can be misleading. Don’t let the thickness fool you—this steak is a tough cut and if you just slap this meat on the grill, you’ll end up with something tough and unpleasantly chewy. Butterflying the steaks first and then pounding them thin with a meat mallet breaks down those tough muscle fibers and connective tissue.We’re using Grant’s go-to carne asada recipe here to demonstrate how to transform tough cuts into thin, tender steaks that grill up fast with max flavor and great texture. This precisely imprecise method can be put to good use with a variety of flavor pairings and proteins to expand your grilling horizons.

Grill Ultra-Thin Steaks With Max Flavor and Texture