Americans are obsessed with grilling, and here to help master the backyard grill is New Orleans chef, David Guas, award-winning cookbook author, restaurant chef and host of Travel Channel’s high-heat, high-stakes grilling competition show, “American Grilled.”
His new book, Grill Nation: 200 Surefire Recipes, Tips, and Techniques to Grill Like a Pro is endorsed by my friend, Dr. BBQ Ray Lampe, who says, “David takes on outdoor grilling and we all want a seat at the table. I offer his Grilled Peach BBQ Sauce, Creole-Coffee Rubbed Cowboy Cut Bone-In Rib Eye and Grilled NOLA BBQ Shrimp as evidence that life just got a little better for all of us.”
While Chef David is from Louisiana, the recipes represent a worldwide sampling of flavors, from Korean Flank Steak, Grilled Lamb with Mint Chimichurri, to Caribbean Shrimp Kabobs and Charred Eggplant with Miso Dressing.
His recipes are simple, most of them no more than a handful of ingredients and 3 steps. Our favorite is this Vietnamese BBQ Tacos recipe. David loves this as a fun party meal, complete with a “toppings bar” of Vietnamese dipping sauce, shaved red onions, pickled cucumbers and wedges of fresh lime.
The marinade is made of classic Vietnamese flavors: fish sauce, ginger, garlic and sugar. All easy-to-find ingredients at your grocery store.
Vietnamese BBQ Tacos
The marinade is whisked together in a bowl, then added to a zip-lock bag with strip, flank, flat iron or skirt steak.
Get your grill ready on medium-high, and grill the steaks 7-8 minutes per side, depending on thickness and desired degree of doneness. I prefer medium-rare skirt steak, which is thinner – so 5-6 minutes per side works well.
Cover the steaks with tin foil to let rest for a few minutes (while you get your Vietnamese BBQ Taco topping bar ready). Then slice ACROSS the grain if using skirt or flank steak.
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Vietnamese BBQ Taco Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 2/2 pounds steak (flank, skirt, flat iron or NY strip)
FOR THE TOPPING BAR
- 24 24 (8-inch) soft taco-sized flour tortillas
- 1 1 lime, cut into wedges
- 1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced
- 1/2 cucumber, very thinly sliced
- 1 cup match-stick cut carrots
- handful fresh cilantro leaves and mint leaves, roughly chopped
FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 serrano pepper or Thai chile pepper, seeded and sliced
Instructions
- To make the marinade, whisk together the fish sauce and the next 7 ingredients in a bowl. Place steaks in gallon-sized zip-top bag, pour in the marinade. Squeeze out the air, massage bag a bit to distribute the marinade. Refrigerate for up to overnight.
- To make the dipping sauce, whisk together the ingredients in a bowl, or add them to a mason jar, cover and shake.
- When ready to cook, preheat grill to 350F-400F (medium-high). Remove steaks from marinade, discard marinade. Grill steaks 6-8 minutes per side, or until desired degree of doneness, turning every 3-5 minutes; remove from grill and cover loosely for 10 minutes. Cut steaks across the grain into thin strips.
- Serve with the carrots, red onions, cilantro, mint, cucumber, lime wedges and warmed tortillas.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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I will be trying these this weekend. We both love tacos . I am wondering if you have a Fish Taco recipe with a Chutney or Sauce of some type.
Hey.,I have used a lot of your recipes and have found them to be very interesting, but everyone’s taste is different adapt the recipe to your taste. your recipes are the bomb. 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂 Jaden
Great Asian flavors! Im thrilled by the idea of tacos and steaks. There is something in smoky flavors and tacos that make them irresistible. I love it!
I have used a lot of your recipes and have found them to be very interesting, but everyone’s taste is different adapt the recipe to your taste. your recipes are the bomb.
Tried this the other day and loved it.
During assembly, we threw in some nice chopped peanuts and it was great. Instead of adding a fresh chili to the sauce, since my father has an aversion to such things, we used a bottle of sriracha on the table and it made a really excellent substitute.
A top notch recipe indeed!
Thank you so much!
Oh my these Vietnamese BBQ Tacos look so inviting. I can’t wait to making these. Love the Asian flavors and the concept of easy to do tacos. Thanks for sharing, Jaden! And thank you for the recipe, Chef David !
Happy birthday to you . I’ll try some I love tacos thank you shared recipe
We do love grilling but I’m kinda sad that we haven’t gotten to do as much as we would have liked this summer! We will have to give these a try though before we shut the grill down for the summer (I’m not ready in the least bit to do that though!). Oh and I’m totally diggin those Pit Mitts!
You just combined my 2 favorite, grilling and taco’s!! These look absolutely fabulous. My kids would devour these and that’s the ticket to win folks! If my kids eat it, I’m a happy woman and like I tell my husband….a happy wife is a happy life =)
Neither you nor your children would eat this excellent dish as written, because you extremely dislike Cilantro! Pith!
I love cilantro. Not sure why you said that?