There aren’t a lot of people named “Meathead” who I would suggest taking advice from. When it comes to grilling meat outdoors this summer, though, I’d listen to Meathead Goldwyn. It’s hard to imagine someone more experienced and knowledgeable than the decorated BBQ Hall of Famer, who has been firing up charcoal and dispensing meaty advice for decades.

His latest cookbook, The Meathead Method, is full of insights and clever tips for cooking meat over fire. Rather than lean on old, conventional barbecue wisdom, the book takes a revisionist approach and uses insights from science, experts, and experience to demonstrate Meathead’s time-honed cooking methods.

Among the book’s many surprises is a grilling method that Meathead called the “afterburner.” The technique uses a tool that many already have lying around their grill in the backyard: the humble chimney charcoal starter.

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Instead of using the chimney to start charcoal that is then spread around on a grill, Meathead keeps the charcoal in the starter and puts a grate atop it for searing meat. The result is a concentrated, almost jet-fueled tool for direct heat that would probably incinerate most thick steaks if you tried to cook them for a conventional amount of time.

For very quick searing, the afterburner is a revelation. Meathead explains that he has used it when finishing cooking sous vide steaks. Because of the long, slow sous vide preparation, the internal temperature of the steaks is already perfect and only need a fast sear to finish cooking the exterior.

This Fourth of July, you may find yourself in need of a powerful, torch-like cooking tool to put a hot, crisp charcoal sear on a piece of meat. Sous vide steaks are hardly the only use.

Meathead’s recipe for afterburner fajitas, below, is an excellent demonstration how, with a thin cut of meat, only a minute or two of cooking over very high heat can deliver the delicious charcoal results you’re looking for.

Afterburner Fajitas

The technique works superbly on sous vide meats and it can even be used on raw meats 1/2 to 1 inch thick. It will burn anything thicker before the center is done. It is ideal for outside skirt steaks, a long, tough muscle rarely more than 3/4 inch thick, the traditional meat for fajitas. The secret is that it puts massive amounts of heat on one surface at a time and cooks it so quickly that the interior doesn’t get too warm. At regular grill temps, the heat progresses through the surface to the interior, and by the time you have a good dark sear on the outside, the inside is overcooked. That’s the problem with fajitas. You have such a tasty piece of meat in the skirt steak, but the center is almost always gray. Nevermore.

MAKES 6 fajitas

TAKES 20 minutes to prep, 3 hours to marinate, 20 minutes to cook and slice

SPECIAL TOOLS Blender or food processor, charcoal chimney and briquets, wire grate to sit on top, cast-iron frying pan, aluminum foil

INGREDIENTS

MARINATED MEAT

2 oranges

2 limes

3 garlic cloves

3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt

1/2 teaspoon fine-grind black pepper

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

11/2 pounds outside skirt steak

FAJITAS

2 medium bell peppers, any color

1 large onion

2 medium tomatoes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, or more as needed

6 tortillas, your choice of flour or corn

1 avocado

ABOUT SKIRT STEAKS. Go for the outside skirt. It comes from the diaphragm between the sixth and twelfth ribs. It is thicker, more tender, and more uniform than the inside skirt. You may have to order it from your butcher because most go to restaurants. It may come with a membrane attached that is easy to remove.

MAKE THE MARINADE. Squeeze the oranges and pour 3/4 cup of the juice into a large bowl. Squeeze the limes and add 3 tablespoons of the juice into the bowl. Peel and press or mince the garlic. Finely chop the chipotles and the cilantro and add them along with the cumin, salt, black pepper, and oil. Puree all this in a blender or food processor. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. Measure out 1/4 cup and put in a small bowl in the fridge for use as a sauce. Return the rest to the large bowl.

MARINATE THE MEAT. Cut the meat with the grain into 6-inch lengths (the white lines in the image below left). Put on some gloves, add the meat to the big bowl with the marinade, and massage it in. Let them get to know each other in the fridge for 1 to 3 hours.

PREP. Slice the peppers in half, rip out the stems and seeds, and cut what’s left into 1/4- inch slices. Cut the top off the onion, peel the onion, cut it in half pole to pole, and then slice it into 1/4-inch half-moons. Cut the tomatoes in half and, over the trash, squeeze out the seeds and gel. Chop what is left into 1/4-inch chunks and put them in a bowl. (Don’t cut the avocado yet or it will turn brown.)

FIRE UP. Put the charcoal chimney on top of the cooking grate on your grill. Fill it halfway with briquets and light it.

COOK THE FAJITA VEGETABLES. When the coals are white and the flame is shooting out of the top, put the cast-iron skillet on the chimney, add the oil, spread it around, and add the bell peppers and onion. Cook just until they soften a bit, but leave some crunch, about 4 minutes. If they scorch a bit, that’s OK. Pour them into a bowl.

WARM THE TORTILLAS. With a paper towel, wipe the oil from the pan, being careful not to burn yourself. Working quickly, place one tortilla at a time in the pan and heat them until they toast slightly on one side. Take them out and stack them on a plate and cover with foil to keep them warm.

COOK THE MEAT. Remove the pan and put a wire grate on the chimney. Remove the meat from the marinade, wipe the excess marinade, put the meat on a plate, and head for the chimney. Grill one chunk at a time. Sear one side quickly, one minute is all, and then flip and sear the other side until it has good color and the interior is 125° to 130°F. Move the cooked meat to a cutting board. Cut across grain into 1/4-inch strips as shown by the black lines in the photo on page 229. Put them in a bowl.

AVOCADO. Carefully run a knife around the avocado, cutting it in half from pole to pole. Twist the halves apart and with a spoon, pop out the seed. Cut the halves again so you have 4 quarters. Scoop the meat of the fruit out of the skins, cut it into 1/4-inch slivers, and put them in a bowl.

SERVE. Now set all the bowls on the table, meat, onions and peppers, tomatoes, and avocados—and don’t forget the sauce in the fridge. Let your guests assemble their fajitas as they wish.

Reprinted with permission from The Meathead Method: A BBQ Hall of Famer's Secrets and Science on BBQ, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking with 114 Recipes By Meathead.

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