This fantastic Carne Asada Sandwich is carne asada piled over toasty bread with a smokey chipotle aioli, charred red onions, tomatoes, and sliced avocados.
Since I posted my (absolute favorite) Carne Asada Recipe last year, I’ve given you a bunch of ways to use it, in Carne Asada Burrito Bowls , Carne Asada Tacos , Steak Fajitas , Carne Asada Fries , and Carne Asada Salad .
Today, I have a whole new and delicious way for you to use that carne asada, Carne Asada Sandwiches.
An Irresistible Carne Asada Sandwich
The secret to a great carne asada sandwich is starting with a great carne asada recipe. And if you’ve already tried mine, you know that it’s incredibly tangy, flavorful, and amazing however you use it.
For today’s sandwiches, we’re going to pile it on toasty bread with a smokey chipotle aioli, charred red onions, tomatoes, and sliced avocados for a little extra fatty richness.
These sandwiches are fantastic, filling, and (as long as you remember to start marinating your meat the night before) very fast to put together.
The carne asada only takes about 10-12 minutes to cook, and you can prep the rest of your sandwich ingredients while it’s in the oven, so from the time you pull your marinated meat out of the fridge, you can be eating in about 20 minutes.
Just steer clear of really crusty, chewy breads, as they’ll make your sandwich too difficult to eat and tend to overwhelm the other ingredients.
More Delicious Hot Sandwich Recipes
- Chicken Fajita Sandwiches
- Pesto Chicken Sandwich
- The Best Meatball Sandwich
Recipe Notes and Tips
- This recipe calls for broiling your carne asada and onions together. If you’re making the sandwich with leftover carne asada, you can still broil your onions. Just cook them according to the instructions in the recipe, and pull them from the oven when they’re lightly charred and cooked to your desired level of doneness.
- Need some sides for your sandwiches? Try simple Microwave Corn on the Cob (my favorite way to cook corn on the cob) or Butter and Garlic Green Beans .
- If you don’t have the chipotle powder called for in the aioli recipe, you can omit it. Your chipotle aioli will instead be garlic aioli , but it will still be delicious.
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ Liquid measuring cup optional, but nice to have
- ▢ Instant-read thermometer optional, but nice to have
- ▢ Foil optional, but nice to have
Carne Asada Marinade
- ▢ 1/2 cup orange juice bottled is fine
- ▢ 1/2 cup soy sauce low-sodium is fine
- ▢ 1/4 cup lemon juice bottled is fine
- ▢ 1/4 cup olive oil
- ▢ 2 tablespoons lime juice bottled is fine
- ▢ 2 cloves garlic pressed or diced
- ▢ 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ▢ 1 teaspoon paprika
- ▢ 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ▢ 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chili pepper OR 1 teaspoon finely chopped, canned chipotle pepper optional
- ▢ 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro chopped, about 3/4-1 cup very loosely packed
Carne Asada and Red Onion
- ▢ 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flap meat skirt or flank steak can also be used
- ▢ 1/2 red onion sliced into 1/4-inch rounds, do not separate into individual rings
Chipotle Aioli
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 112 g) mayonnaise
- ▢ 2 cloves garlic pressed
- ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice bottled is fine
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Sandwiches
- ▢ Mayonnaise
- ▢ 4 soft kaiser rolls or other soft rolls, sliced in half
- ▢ 1 large tomato sliced
- ▢ 1/2 avocado sliced
Instructions
Carne Asada and Onions
- Combine and stir together all marinade ingredients. Transfer meat into a large plastic bag or container and pour marinade over the top. Marinate for at least 4 hours, up to about 24, flipping the meat once halfway through.
- Adjust top rack of your oven to about 4 inches below the broiler. Heat broiler on high. Place meat on a foil-lined heavy-duty baking sheet or broiling pan. Place onion rounds on the tray around the meat wherever they will fit.
- Broil 4 to 6 minutes per side, flipping both the meat and the onions. Pull at 135°F for medium-rare, 145°F for medium. If onions have not yet reached your desired level of doneness, you can transfer the meat to a cutting board and return onions to the oven.
- Once onions are done, slice the rounds in half, separate the slices, and toss them in the pan juices. Allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes before slicing across the grain into strips.
Chipotle Aioli
- While your meat and onions cook, combine all aioli ingredients in a small bowl and stir together.
Assemble Sandwiches
- Spread a very thin layer of mayonnaise over the cut sides of each roll and place rolls on a baking sheet under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes until warmed and lightly toasted. DO NOT at any point walk away from the bread under the broiler. It can burn very, very quickly.
- Spread chipotle aioli over the toasted rolls and top with sliced carne asada, tomato, onions, and avocado. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Making Fajita Vegetables is a great way to use up leftover onion and bell pepper halves, and they’re handy to have in the fridge to toss into a salad or burrito or liven up a plate of scrambled eggs.
I’ve been a little fajita obsessed lately and have added a bunch of fajita recipes to the site over the last few months, including Steak Fajitas , Easy Chicken Fajitas , and Chicken Fajita Sandwiches .
And today I have one more fajita recipe for you: Fajita Vegetables. Making a batch of fajita veggies has become one of my favorite ways to use up leftover onion and bell pepper halves, and they’re so handy to have in the fridge to toss into a salad or burrito or liven up a plate of scrambled eggs.
How to Make Fajita Vegetables
- If you’re using leftover bell peppers and onions you’ve used part of in other recipes, not a problem. You can cook almost any amount of veggies this way. Just use a ratio of approximately twice the peppers to onions. This doesn’t have to be exact, it’s just a good ratio to shoot for so onions don’t completely take over the flavor.
Start with a nice large pan. You’re probably going to have to crowd the pan a little, but the bigger, the better. Heat a little vegetable oil over medium-high heat and once it’s hot, add the peppers and onions.
Add veggie fajitas seasoning: salt, pepper, chili powder, and cumin, and toss to coat.
- After you toss the veggies a few times, let them sit so they develop some of those browned edges before tossing again. Repeat until veggies are tender-crisp.
For softer vegetables: Once the vegetables have browned a bit, turn heat down as necessary to keep them from burning, and continue to cook until they reach your desired level of doneness.
For very soft vegetables: If you like your fajita veggies with little-to-no bite, add about 1/4 cup of water to the pan once they’ve started to brown. Cook the veggies, stirring often, until water has evaporated and veggies are soft, adding more water by the tablespoon if necessary.
What to Do With Fajita Veggies
Fajita veggies are good for so much more than just adding chicken or beef and wrapping in a tortilla (though they’re great for that too).
- Chop roughly and add warmed veggies to omelets or scramble them with eggs and top with cheese.
- Add them to salads , burritos , burrito bowls , and quesadillas
- Use them as a topping on your hot dogs and sausages (if you’ve never tried it, this is sooooo good!)
You Might Also Enjoy
- Barbacoa Tacos
- Easy Carne Asada
- Homemade Carnitas
- Barbacoa
Ingredients
- ▢ 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ▢ 1/2 large onion sliced
- ▢ 2 bell peppers any color sliced
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add onion and bell pepper slices. Sprinkle spices over the top and generously salt and pepper.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 8 minutes, until edges are browned and vegetables are tender-crisp.
- For softer vegetables, once the veggies have browned a bit, turn heat down to medium to keep them from burning, and continue to cook until they reach your desired level of doneness.
- For veggies with no bite, add about 1/4 cup of water to the pan once they’ve started to brown. Cook the veggies, stirring often, until water has evaporated and veggies are soft, adding more water by the tablespoon if necessary.
This S’mores Cookie recipe takes a giant chocolate chip cookie and stuffs it full of melty milk chocolate, gooey marshmallows, and a bit of graham cracker crunch.
I have a really fun, really decadent dessert recipe for you today, a giant S’mores Cookie.
Gooey S’mores Cookie for Two
For this recipe, I took my Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and stuffed a s’more inside because sometimes you just need more good things in the world.
The result is an already outrageously good cookie that is now filled with melty milk chocolate, gooey marshmallows, and a bit of graham cracker crunch. (It’s kind of spectacular.)
The baked cookie’s about six-inches across, so it’s definitely built for sharing. It generously serves two, but for smaller kids or adults with less of a sweet tooth, you could probably get three servings out of it.
How do you make a s’mores cookie?
Start with your cookie dough base, and then take slightly less than half the dough and form it into a disk about 2 1/2-inches across.
Place half a graham cracker on top followed by chocolate and either a handful of mini marshmallows or a regular-sized marshmallow cut in half lengthwise, arranged with the cut-sides on the chocolate.
A Note on Chocolate: I specifically call for Hershey’s chocolate pieces in these cookies because I consider it part of that classic S’mores flavor, but you can use whatever chocolate bar you prefer. I imagine a peanut butter cup would be amazing or a caramel or raspberry jam-filled chocolate square…
- Finally, take the rest of the cookie dough, shape it into a second disk, and press it over the top of the s’more, smooshing down the sides so the graham cracker and chocolate are covered. Then bake and eat. (Also don’t forget to share!)
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookie for Two
- Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Small-batch Buckeye Brownie Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Tips and Recipe Notes
- To avoid having to split a whole egg, this cookie is made with a single egg yolk. If you are sensitive to the taste of egg yolk in baked goods, you can replace the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of a whisked whole egg.
- Sometimes people use an entire egg when a recipe calls for just a yolk or an egg white, and sometimes it works fine. DO NOT do that with this recipe. It will be far too much liquid and you will end up with a cookie puddle.
- For ideas on what to do with the leftover egg white, check out my post What to Do With Leftover Egg Whites .
Ingredients
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 28g ) butter melted and slightly cooled
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25g ) brown sugar
- ▢ 1 heaping tablespoon ( 18g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1 large egg yolk OR 1 tablespoon whisked whole egg
- ▢ 1/3 cup ( 40g ) all-purpose flour measured by weight or using the spoon and sweep method*
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt if using salted butter, cut salt by half
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 1.5oz ) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ▢ 1/2 graham cracker
- ▢ 3 pieces/segments of a Hershey’s bar or chocolate of choice
- ▢ 9 mini marshmallows or 1 full-size marshmallow cut in half lengthwise
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together melted and slightly cooled butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add vanilla extract and egg yolk, and mix well.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and use a spoon to stir until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Scoop out slightly less than half the dough and shape into a disk about 2 1/2 inches across (about the width of a graham cracker). Place disk on prepared baking sheet.
- Set graham cracker half on top of the dough, followed by chocolate pieces and then marshmallows.
- Shape remaining dough into a disk and press it over the top of the marshmallows. Smoosh the dough down so the chocolate and graham crackers are completely covered.
- Bake for 11 to 14 minutes, until the top of the cookie looks mostly set and edges are just starting to brown. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
Carne Asada Sandwich
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- Liquid measuring cup optional, but nice to have
- Instant-read thermometer optional, but nice to have
- Foil optional, but nice to have
Carne Asada Marinade
- 1/2 cup orange juice bottled is fine
- 1/2 cup soy sauce low-sodium is fine
- 1/4 cup lemon juice bottled is fine
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lime juice bottled is fine
- 2 cloves garlic pressed or diced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chili pepper OR 1 teaspoon finely chopped, canned chipotle pepper optional
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro chopped, about 3/4-1 cup very loosely packed
Carne Asada and Red Onion
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flap meat skirt or flank steak can also be used
- 1/2 red onion sliced into 1/4-inch rounds, do not separate into individual rings
Chipotle Aioli
- 1/2 cup ( 112 g) mayonnaise
- 2 cloves garlic pressed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice bottled is fine
- 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Sandwiches
- Mayonnaise
- 4 soft kaiser rolls or other soft rolls, sliced in half
- 1 large tomato sliced
- 1/2 avocado sliced
Instructions
Carne Asada and Onions
- Combine and stir together all marinade ingredients. Transfer meat into a large plastic bag or container and pour marinade over the top. Marinate for at least 4 hours, up to about 24, flipping the meat once halfway through.
- Adjust top rack of your oven to about 4 inches below the broiler. Heat broiler on high. Place meat on a foil-lined heavy-duty baking sheet or broiling pan. Place onion rounds on the tray around the meat wherever they will fit.
- Broil 4 to 6 minutes per side, flipping both the meat and the onions. Pull at 135°F for medium-rare, 145°F for medium. If onions have not yet reached your desired level of doneness, you can transfer the meat to a cutting board and return onions to the oven.
- Once onions are done, slice the rounds in half, separate the slices, and toss them in the pan juices. Allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes before slicing across the grain into strips.
Chipotle Aioli
- While your meat and onions cook, combine all aioli ingredients in a small bowl and stir together.
Assemble Sandwiches
- Spread a very thin layer of mayonnaise over the cut sides of each roll and place rolls on a baking sheet under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes until warmed and lightly toasted. DO NOT at any point walk away from the bread under the broiler. It can burn very, very quickly.
- Spread chipotle aioli over the toasted rolls and top with sliced carne asada, tomato, onions, and avocado. Serve and enjoy!
