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This weekend, we made green chile-crusted flank steak with chimichurri, garlicky smashed potatoes, and Mexican street corn.
Green chile-crusted flank steak with chimichurri, garlicky smashed potatoes, and Mexican street corn.
When I enjoy a meal out at a restaurant, I often like to recreate it at home. Last week, Alexis and I went out to dinner with our older son, his girlfriend, and some friends at Point B on their opening day. We saw that they offered all sorts of boards (charcuterie and otherwise), so we were excited to try them out.
There I got the steak with chimichurri, smashed potatoes, and elote. The steak was tender and it was tasty with the chimi. The potatoes were nicely roasted medallions. I'm always a sucker for elote. The place has a ton of potential, and we are looking forward to going back to try out their boards.
I thought it might be hanger steak. The waiter asked and was told it was flank steak, but I'm pretty sure it was a hanger. The shape was nothing like a flank unless it was a super thick one cut in steaks lengthwise. That said, I love flank steak, so that's what I used when I did my spin on this meal.
I dry-brined the flank steak with my Green Chile Steak Seasoning recipe and then grilled it on a griddle on the grill to get that broad, crispy crust. The kosher salt, black pepper, garlic, shallot, green chile, cumin, and coriander give it a deep flavor. If you don't feel like making the rub, pick up a jar of Albukirky's Green Chile Seasoning, it's fantastic stuff. I used a variation of Steven Raichlen's The Real Chimichurri because I like my chimi to be more like a light dressing than a thick condiment.
1 tablespoon NMT Green Chile Steak Seasoning or Albukirky's Green Chile Seasoning
1 tablespoon beef tallow or other high-temperature cooking oil
chimichurri
Instructions
Dry-brine the steak [optional]. Lightly coat the steak with the oil and season with about half of the green chile recipe. Place it on a rack, loosely cover in foil, and place it in the fridge for 6-8 hours. Remove from refrigeration about 1 hour before grilling.
Preheat a grill to 450°f and place a griddle or plancha on the grill about 5 minutes before grilling.
Grill the steak. Reseason the steak with the remaining seasoning (or season it if you skipped step 1). Oil the griddle with the beef tallow and griddle cook the steak until it is 125-127°f internal, about 3-4 minutes per side.
Rest the steak. Put the steak on a rack and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve. Thinly slice the steak against the grain (grain runs lengthwise, so cut sideways) and top with the chimichurri.
Prep Time: 00 hrs. 15 mins.
Cook time: 00 hrs. 15 mins.
Total time: 30 mins.
Tags: steak, griddle
My weapon of choice for this cook was the reliable, durable, and low-maintenance PK Grill TX with a charcoal basket full of Jealous Devil lump charcoal.
Flank steak seasoned and ready to go. If you can, use the dry-brine technique. It gives it a depth of flavor and helps the meat moisture during cooking [Lopez-Alt 579]
I use my Thermapen IR to read the temperature of my griddle instead of guessing whether it is hot enough to start. The ultra-fast food thermometer also has a built-in non-contact surface thermometer for measuring cooking surfaces. I want a temp of 450-500°f for a raw steak or 600°f plus for a steak that has already been cooked sous vide. Thermapen IR [Affiliate Link]
Beef tallow melting on the griddle. This griddle plate is leftover from an older grill, but it is my favorite griddle for my PK Grill. It also fits the Adjustable Rig for my large Big Green Eggs perfectly, so it gets a lot of use.
Timing for the cook is a bit faster than it would be if cooking on grates. I start 4 minutes on the first side to get a good crust, flip and then go until the steak hits my desired internal temp of 125-127°f . Featured: Thermoworks TimeStick [Affitliate Link]
Scoring - In this picture, you can see where I scored (lightly drag a knife tip across) the meat both ways. This maximizes surface area, allowing for more seasoning, and it gives you more of the crispy edges when cooked.
This griddle has seen some hours on the grill, but that's the beauty of cast iron, it lasts forever when maintained.
I went with a griddle or plancha instead of grilling on the grates because full-surface contact with the hot cast iron gives the maximum amount of crust, meaning the maximum amount of flavor.
My favorite tool for cleaning a cast-iron griddle is a taping knife like this, that you can pick up at your hardware store. It scrapes the surface clean in a snap, especially when hot. After griddle cooking the steak, I scraped the griddle before cooking the smashed potatoes. Taping Knife [Amazon Affiliate Link]
I always rest my steaks on a rack. If you put it on a flat surface, it traps the heat, which steams the meat and causes it to release more juices. This doesn't happen on a rack.
When checking internal temperatures, it is important to get your probe tip in the center mass of the meat.
The trick to tender flank steak comes down to two things - not cooking it over medium-rare and thinly slicing across the grain. Wait, three things, you need a sharp knife as well.
I used Raichlen's The Real Chimichurri and I like to use a knife instead of a food processor because I like my chimi to be more like a dressing than a paste.
The pungent acidic flavor of chimichurri makes it an ideal complement to thinly sliced beef.
