A Fajita Craving
When we’re at Little House in the Rockies, sometimes we have to substitute ingredients and combine things we wouldn’t ordinarily put together. We were in the mood for fajitas on this trip but the country grocery store didn’t have skirt steak, so I impulsively chose an eye of round roast and thought I could make do.
What I didn’t realize, being an eye of round roast newbie, is that it is an extremely lean cut of beef and can therefore be extremely tough. Whoops!
What to do? Change the recipe plan and use the tortillas, jalapeños, avocados, etc. on another night? Or boldly go forth and try to create Faux-Fajitas? (Or should we call them Faux-Jitas?)
Making Do with Eye of Round Roast
I’m sure you’ve guessed which path we chose, Dear Reader. A Google search and some good-looking roasting recipes gave us the confidence that we could do a nice, rare/medium-rare roast and then slice our way to Faux-Jitas.
Here’s our take on it.
Ingredients
- Eye of round roast, about 2 1/2 to 3 lbs.
- 1 tsp. salt (I prefer coarse kosher salt for this type of cooking, but alas, we had only fine – and it was fine)
- 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper or course ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
- Flour tortillas
Optional Garnishes
- Pico de Gallo (click for my recipe)
- Guacamole (click for my quick recipe)
- Grated cheese
- Tabasco
Cooking Instructions
Combine spices in a small bowl, then spread over all sides of the roast. Put the roast on top of a piece of foil in a baking dish. Let it stand at room temperature for an hour, and when there are only 15 minutes left, preheat the oven to 500, making sure that the rack is in the middle of the oven.
Put the roast in quickly on the middle rack and shut the door. Cook the roast for 5 minutes per pound, and then turn off the oven. Keep the roast in the oven for 1 1/2 more hours, and do not open the door. At all. Even if you are tempted. Don’t do it. Just look through the oven door with the light on.
Remove the roast and use a meat thermometer to check the temperature. Use this guide for your desired temperature, or your own preference. Tent the roast about ten minutes for the juices to settle; it will cook a little more while it rests. Slice fairly thin and serve with tortillas and garnishes. I put the slices back into the pan juices and broiled them for about 30 seconds just before serving so they’d be hot.
The Whole Story, In Pictures
We were really, really happy about learning this technique for eye of round roast and will definitely use it again. There’s a lot of beef left and we’re planning a cool meal with the leftovers. Of course you can expect to see a post about it. 🙂
Looks delish!