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Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With 'Mexican Flag' Skewers

By Nicholas Rizzi | May 2, 2014 6:33am
 A dish of skewers of chicken and beef that features all the colors of the Mexican flag.
Mexican Flag Recipe from Burrito Bar
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WEST BRIGHTON — Cinco de Mayo is only a weekend away and for those looking to cook up a celebration of Mexican heritage, DNAinfo New York can help.

We've collected recipes from some of the best Mexican restaurants across the five boroughs, presenting a dish each day that you can prepare for Cinco de Mayo weekend — from traditional guacamole to "Flan Imposible."

What better way to celebrate the holiday than with a dish of tasty skewers of chicken and beef called "The Mexican Flag"?

The recipe was cooked up by head chef at the Burrito Bar at 585 Forest Ave., which is celebrating its 19th anniversary this year. The menu features beef and chicken skewers that are marinated overnight in spices and served over rice with guacamole and sour cream.

"We try to incorporate all the colors of the flag," said Kim Beckett, owner of the West Brighton spot that has dishes named after Grateful Dead tunes.

The majority of the work for the dish is done the night before and just needs to be grilled the day of the party to enjoy.

While Beckett makes the salsas in-house, she said any jarred salsa from the international section of the supermarket will work. If you want the real thing without making your own, Beckett also sells salsa verde and salsa rojas to customers who call in and ask for it.

Mexican spice blends are available at the supermarket, but they can also be made at home using many of the spices you probably already have in your spice rack.

The Mexican Flag recipe makes one beef skewer and one chicken skewer, but can easily be scaled to serve more people.

To wash down the dish, try a margarita recipe from Beckett that's easy to make and uses fresh squeezed lime juice — which may be slightly more costly than usual due to the lime shortage. But the extra pennies are worth the investment.

"It's easy to make a good margarita," Beckett said. "It's hard to make a bad one."

Mexican Flag

INGREDIENTS:

2 average-sized chicken breasts
2 pieces of skirt steak
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 onion
olive oil
salsa rojas (to taste)
salsa verde (to taste)
1/2 to 1 cup cooked rice per person
guacamole (to taste)
sour cream (to taste)
Mexican spice blend (typically including garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper and oregano and other spices)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut chicken, steak, peppers and onion into one-inch cubes and put them on skewers, alternating between meat, pepper and onion.

2. Use one cup of olive oil for each tablespoon of spice blend. Make enough of this marinade so that all of the meat is covered. Mix together and put skewers in. Leave overnight to marinate in refrigerator.

3. Take out skewers the next day and grill to taste.

4. Make a bed of rice on the plate. Put meat and veggie skewers on top and drizzle both salsas over the whole thing.

5. Serve with sour cream and guacamole.

Margarita

INGREDIENTS:

1 and a half ounces of good quality tequila
1 ounce of triple sec
1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce of simple syrup (sugar and water cooked until dissolved)

DIRECTIONS:

Put ingredients into shaker with ice and shake. Serve in cocktail glass with or without ice.