This past March, Julie from the food blog The Little Kitchen shared a recipe for flank steak with chimichurri butter. As soon as I saw her post I knew I had to make it. In fact, if I remember correctly, I made it for dinner that very night! (PS: Julie is super sweet and cute and I want to take her home in my pocket. And also make her cook dinner for me. Do you mind, Julie?)

So, Julie’s recipe is wonderful. The marinade was perfect and the chimichurri butter was delish! Be warned – the herbed butter packs a lot of flavor, a little bit goes a long way! Please visit Julie’s site to get the recipe for the marinade and for the chimichurri butter. You will not be disappointed.

I used Julie’s recipe for the chimchurri butter to top the steak. I didn’t have the Land O’ Lakes butter/olive oil mixture she made it with, so I used half butter and half olive oil and it came out great!

Today I wanted to highlight the technique Julie used for cooking the flank steak because the steak came out perfectly and the texture was amazing. I know summer has started and we’re all itching to use the grill, but you don’t need the grill for this recipe, which means you can make it any time of year! You do need a grill pan, however. If you don’t have a non-stick grill pan, I recommend it. I love mine and use it all the time to grill chicken!

So, the flank steak. This technique is pretty much foolproof! I just wish I had taken photos of the steak after I cut it so you could see the beautiful color inside, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. It was gorgeous!

Cooking Flank Steak

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

I learned this technique from Julie at The Little Kitchen.

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Marinated Beef Flank Steak
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Grill pan

Instructions

1. Marinate the flank steak at room temperature for about half an hour before cooking. If necessary, cut the steak in half so that the pieces fit in your grill pan. Use your favorite marinade! I loved the marinade that Julie used and shared on The Little Kitchen. Scrumptious!
2. Heat the grill pan on medium high for about 5 minutes.
3. Drizzle the pan with a swig or two of olive or vegetable oil and rotate pan to spread the oil around.
4. Add steak to the pan, sort of moving the steak around for a few seconds at the beginning to spread the oil evenly beneath the surface of the steak.
5. Cook on each side for about 3 minutes. Then, cook on each side for 1 more minute per side.
6. Remove from pan and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting. Cut steak into slices, against the grain, and serve!

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• Chicken Fried Steak
• Cooking a New York Strip Steak
• Cooking the Perfect Steak

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• Calphalon Unison Non-Stick 12-Inch Round Griddle Pan
• Wusthof Classic Chef’s Knife
• Epicurean Kitchen Series Cutting Board

We rarely eat red meat, so when we do, we make sure it is high-quality and delicious. My favorite cut is filet mignon…when cooked correctly, it is just so darn tender and tasty. When Nate’s mom was here last November, she made us a fantastic dinner, which included some filet. While we were debating about how to cook our beautiful hunks of meat, she mentioned that she and my father-in-law had used a technique from America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated that worked beautifully. We dug around the Internet, found the recipe and…

Sorry for the not-so-pretty photos. Truth is I wanted to eat the steak more than I wanted to photograph it! 😉

…PEOPLE. This is the perfect way to cook steak. Seriously. Perfect. It comes out medium-rare and is so juicy and tender. For those of you scared of red/pink in your meat, please believe me when I tell you medium-rare is the way to eat your steak. REALLY. The flavor and texture are so much better than medium or well-done, but it’s still hot and cooked through just enough. The first time I ate a medium-rare steak was at Donovan’s Steak House and I have never eaten it another way since. It’s the only way to go!

So, back to the Cook’s Illustrated technique…you salt and pepper the steak and then bake it in the oven BEFORE searing it on the stove. The reasoning is that your steak will cook evenly throughout and that the final sear will give the steak a nice, caramelized crust. We found another blogger who had used this recipe and he said that it’s been consistent every time. I love reliable recipes like that!

Cooking the Perfect Steak

 

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Method & recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, but I’ve written it out here in my own words, so if something goes wrong blame me.

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Beef

Ingredients

• 2 boneless strip steaks 1½”³ – 1¾”³ thick, about 1 pound each (filet mignon or ribeye may be substituted)
• Salt & Pepper (I like to use coarse versions of both)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil (2 tablespoons for filet mignon)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven.
2. Cut steaks vertically in half so you have four 8-ounce steaks. Let rest outside of the fridge for about 15 minutes. Dry off steaks with a paper towel then pat liberally with salt and pepper. Place steaks on a wire rack on top of a rimmed cookie sheet so steaks are not resting directly on the pan. Insert an instant-read, oven-safe thermometer into one of the steaks, then put steaks in the oven until the internal temperature of the steak reaches 90 – 95 degrees for medium rare (20-25 mins) or 100 to 105 degrees for medium (25-30 mins). GO WITH MEDIUM RARE! 😉
3. Heat oil in a heavy bottom skillet over medium-high heat on your stove. We used one of my copper-core heavy bottom frying pans – I think a cast-iron skillet would be ideal, but mine is buried in storage somewhere. When oil starts to smoke, sear the steak in the pan ~ 2 minutes per side. Sear the edges as well, ~ 1 minute per edge.
4. Place steaks back on rack on cookie sheet, tent with foil and let rest ~ 10 minutes. Eat!

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• Great Technique for Cooking Flank Steak
• Chicken Fried Steak
• Cooking a New York Strip Steak

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• Wusthof Classic Chef’s Knife
• Epicurean Kitchen Series Cutting Board