A true Tex-Mex dish from the days of the vaqueros, who made the most of the skirt steaks they got from butchered steers, fajitas were a little-known regional specialty until the last few decades of the twentieth century. Starting in 1969, when a man calling himself the Fajita King began selling skirt-steak tacos at county fairs and rodeos between Austin and San Antonio, they have become one of the most popular dishes on Mexican restaurant menus throughout the country. Fajitas outgrew the taco category in 1982, when George Weidmann, chef at the Austin Hyatt Regency introduced “sizzling fajitas” that came from the kitchen on a platter hot enough to make them sputter all the way to the table—a razzle-dazzle touch that has become a vital part of the presentation.
Fajitas now are available made with chicken, shrimp, and only vegetables, and it has become de rigueur to serve them sizzling on hot metal and accompanied by guacamole, salsa, cheese, and sour cream. Weidmann used sirloin in his breakthrough fajitas, but to the classicist, if it isn’t skirt steak, it isn’t truly a fajita. The logic is etymological: The word fajita is a form of faja, the Spanish word for “belt,” which describes exactly where skirt steak comes from on a carcass.