A couple months ago the local Winco grocery store had whole beef tenderloins on sale for $3.99 a pound.   I was a little skeptical of beef tenderloin at that price, but the meat looked pretty decent so I bought one of the cryopaks.  I took it home and immediately cut one up and grilled some tenderloin to test the quality.  It was good enough that I went back to the store and bought four more.   So the freezer has plenty of nice tender beef in it.

Grilled beef tenderloin tacos was on the menu tonight.  I picked up some great tortillas at the local Bel Air grocery store.  These great tortillas from La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa have a fantastic flavor.  The green chili tortillas, which oddly enough aren’t listed on the companies website, have just enough green chili flavor to enhance the meat without overpowering everything else.  The combination of corn and wheat gluten gave the tortillas a nice texture.  They grilled/heated up great on the grill grates of my Weber kettle.  Unlike most commercially produced tortillas these are “hand made style” and are thick enough that you don’t need two tortillas to hold your taco fillings.

I seasoned the beef tenderloin with Fajita Seasoning from Lantana of Texas.  I received this seasoning in a BBQ trade with a fellow member of the BBQ Brethren.  I have not been able to locate any information about the company on the internet.  There are some listings for places that sell it, but nothing on the actually company.

Anyway, the seasoning is good but nothing really special.  You can probably find a fajita seasoning in your local store that is just as good and won’t have to worry about tracking it down and paying a shipping fee.

I left the seasoning on the meet for about 30 minutes while the charcoal was being lit in the chimney.  Once the charcoal was in the kettle and ashed over I grilled the tenderloin pieces for a couple of minutes on each side and them moved them to indirect until they were medium rare.

I heated the tortillas right on the Weber kettle while the meat was resting.  They didn’t dry out or curl on the ends like a lot of cheaper commercial tortillas will.  The tortillas from La Tortilla Factory are great.  At $2.5o for 8 tortillas they are a tad pricey and I doubt I’d use them for normal everyday tacos but when you’re breaking out the beef tenderloin a few extra pennies for a quality tortilla is worth it.

Just a simple taco with meat, avocado, tomato and cilantro.  These were outstanding tacos.  Tender and full of great flavor.  Here’s a couple shots of dinner with a River City Root Beer from Vine Park Brewing Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

What’s really funny about the root beer is that I live near Sacramento, California.  Sacramento is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers and is known as River City.  I thought I was buying a local product, only to get it home and find out it’s from Minnesota.

Another shot of the final plated meal.

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