Easy Argentinean marinated flank steak with chimichurri sauce is bursting with bold savory flavors and just a hint of heat. This quick-seared steak is so tender and juicy it will melt in your mouth.
About six months ago I visited Austin TX for the second of two times in my life. The first visit was when I was a fresh man in high school and I spent 8 days seeing all that the city had to offer, visiting the capital, swimming in the humid Summertime heat, and discovering that down there high school football fields are as big as college fields up north. Texas take football seriously, which is probably which I felt right at home.
The second trip, last November, was for work. I spent three days eating my way around town including the best donut I’ve ever had in my life at Gourdoughs (don’t worry, I have plans to recreate that sugary overload dream here pretty soon) and my first encounter with flank steak mingled with chimichurri sauce. My friend and fellow blogger Chelsea ordered a flank steak at dinner one night and let me sneak a few bites off of her plate.
That steak melted in my mouth. That juicylicious steak, combined with the tangy garlic chimichurri sauce has been on my mind ever since and a little while back I started working on a recipe to make it happen at home.
The key is a good marinade – simple, with just a couple of pantry staple ingredients – for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours or overnight. The other really important step is to good the steak quickly at a high temperature. If you cook it too long it will get tough and lose that melt-in-your-mouth quality.
Watch for a blackened outside and a juicy barely-pink (but not red) center. As soon as the pink starts to disappear, your steak is ready. Let it rest for five minutes or so on a cutting board so the juices don’t run out everywhere, then cut across the grain in very thin strips.
Tip: if you don’t know what it means to cut “across the grain”, it’s easy as can be. Just look at the steak and you will see that it has parallel lines running in one direction – cut across the lines, in the opposite direction. This is called cutting across the grain. It makes a huge difference in how tender your meat will be when you eat it and trust me, you can definitely tell the difference when you’re chewing juicy and super tender steak instead of chewy tough steak.
Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Easy Argentinean marinated flank steak with chimichurri sauce is bursting with bold savory flavors and just a hint of heat.
Author: Tiffany
Recipe type: Main Dish / Dinner
Cuisine: Argentinian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
marinade
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- juice of 1 lime
chimichurri sauce
- ½ cup cilantro
- ½ cup parsley
- ½ onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- ½ teaspoon Italian blend seasoning
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Whisk together marinade ingredients. Combine marinade and steak in a large ziplock bag. Seal and chill for 30 minutes, or up to overnight.
- Combine all chimichurri ingredients in a blender or food processor, and pulse until smooth.
- Preheat a an oiled skillet or grill to meidum-high heat. Sear steak for 6-8 minutes on each side until heavily browned on the outside and slightly pink in the middle.
- Thinly slice steak across the grain and serve with chimichurri sauce on top.
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