This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of We Love Fire. Spring has sprung and it’s time to brush the dust off those grills! I use my grill all year long making this easy juicy lucy burger, these steak shish kebabs, and this amazingly flavorful marinated filet mignon. I love using my grill for so many reasons. For one, I don’t heat up the entire house while cooking and two, grilling is less mess. And the flavor. Grilling meat produces some of the most flavorful and satisfying meals. Especially when it comes to grilling steak.
🤷 What Is Flank Steak?
Beef flank steak is a versatile cut of meat and can be cooked many ways such grilled, slow cooked, or braised. You can also smoke flank steak. Because it’s such a tough cut of meat, it benefits from being cooked either hot and fast or long and slow on lower heat. If beef flank is overcooked, it can be tough and hard to chew. Beef flank comes from the abdominal muscles and lower chest of the cow. Flank is a boneless lean cut and contains minimal fat, yet is incredibly flavorful with a nice beefy taste. It’s deep red in color and consists of long muscle fibers. A thin cut of meat, the muscle fibers runs in a single direction which makes flank the perfect cut of beef for marinating and grilling. When it’s grilled to a medium-rare and cut against the grain, it’s amazingly tender and tastes amazing!
🛒 Ingredients You’ll Need
Flank steak is one of the best cuts of beef to take in the flavors of the ingredients it’s paired with. Marinating your steak is a MUST if you want a flavorful and tender outcome. I use an easy flank steak marinade that consists of the 5 key elements that helps tenderize the meat and puts the flavor meter over the top! I use soy sauce for the salt element and thinly sliced sweet onions for the sugar component. Olive oil is not only a flavor carrier but it is also used to help emulsify all the ingredients into a thick sauce that covers the meat. Fresh squeezed lime juice serves as the acidic ingredient that helps boost the flavors while also breaking down the tough fibers. Smoked paprika, cumin, garlic, and cilantro are used as seasonings to provide that extra layer of flavor. I always serve a Mexican corn salad recipe with this beef flank because it’s fresh, flavorful, and the perfect side dish for pairing. It consists of fresh sweet corn mixed with finely chopped avocado, tomato, bell peppers, onion, and cilantro. I then season it with cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper and top it off with soft crumbles of Cotija cheese.
📋 Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions
Marinating and then grilling is one of the easiest and most flavorful ways to prepare flank steak. Start by combining all the marinade ingredients. Make sure you chop the cilantro and thinly slice the onions. Place the raw meat in either a gallon Ziplock bag or a container with a lid. Allow it to marinate for at least 2 hours before grilling. Just before placing the meat on the grill, make the corn salad recipe. Chop the red and green peppers, dice the tomato and red onion and then combine all the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix well to combine, cover, and store the corn salad in the refrigerator until the steak is ready. Once it has finished marinating, remove the container from the refrigerator and start the grill, turning it to high heat. The goal is to get the grill very hot, somewhere around 400°F degrees. From there, remove the meat from the marinade and place it directly on the grill grates. Grill the meat for 5-6 minutes on each side to get a medium-rare doneness or until it reaches an internal temperature of 130°F. Remove it from the grill when it reaches 130°F because the internal temperature will continue to rise up to 5 degrees after the meat has been removed from the grill. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing against the grain into thin slices. Remove the bowl of Mexican corn salad out of the refrigerator and spoon it across the meat. Squeeze fresh lime juice on top and add extra crumbles of Cotija cheese. I don’t know about you, but I love a versatile recipe. And I’m loving what I can do with this one! You have the option to keep it fancy and serve it with this homemade guacamole and this easy to make Instant Pot Mexican rice or dice up the flank meat and make tacos! I’ve also served this recipe as an appetizer.
🔪 How To Cut Steak Against The Grain
Cutting steak against the grain is the key to ensuring it’s tender, especially when you are dealing with a tougher cut of meat. But what does cutting against the grain mean? Flank steak consists of long muscle fibers that run in the same direction. Those long fibers are referred to as “the grain of the meat”. The goal is to cut the grains into shorter pieces and you do that by cutting in the opposite direction of the way the grains run. This will make it so much easier to chew. To cut against the grain, cut the meat with a chef’s knife at a 45° angle (also called “on the bias”) to the cutting board. Don’t cut the meat straight up and down because it increases the surface area of the slices making it too thick harder to chew. When you cut at an angle, it helps break down the muscle fibers and it’s easier to cut the meat into thinner slices. You want very thin slices, about ¼ inch. The thinner the meat is cut, the easier it will be to chew.
🌡️ How To Reheat Steak
It’s important to know how to properly reheat leftover steak so it doesn’t dry out and taste bad. One of the best methods for reheating steak is to slowly warm it in the oven and then finish it off with a hot sear in a skillet on the stovetop. To do this, place the leftover meat in an oven safe dish and warm it in a preheated 250°F oven. After 15-20 minutes, sear over high heat with a small amount of olive oil for 1-2 minutes per side. Reheating steak in the microwave typically dries it out but you can easily avoid that using this technique. Place the leftovers in a microwave safe dish. Add 2-3 Tablespoons of beef broth over the meat so it maintains the moisture level. Set the microwave to medium heat and cook at 20-second intervals. Ensure you turn the dish at each interval until it is warm.
🙋🏼 Frequently Asked Questions
💭 Expert Tips
Use different cuts of beef for this recipe such as flat iron or skirt steak.To manage the internal temperature of the meat, use an instant read digital thermometer. This will ensure you don’t undercook or overcook the meat. Letting it rest after removing it from the grill is important to ensure the meat maintains all that juiciness.When making the Mexican corn salad, I use raw corn on the cob because it’s so fresh and sweet. Simply rinse the corn and start slicing it off the cob into a bowl. It’s safe to eat raw corn directly off the cob.Skip the bottled lime juice and jarred minced garlic. Using fresh ingredients will provide the best flavor.
🍽️ More Steak Recipes You’ll Love
There is nothing better than a perfectly cooked steak. This smoked prime rib is lathered in a homemade compound butter that helps form the most delicious outer bark. We’re talking the perfect prime rib with amazing flavor in every bite! This ribeye steak covered in a creamy balsamic mushroom sauce is irresistible and great when you want to step things up a bit!
Update Notes: This post was originally published in April 2019. It was re-published with updated step-by-step instructions, pictures, and tips in April 2022.
Know your cuts―Check out at-a-glance steak cut profiles with defining characteristics and ideal cooking methods for various cuts of beef, from flat iron to flank. And, learn the difference between Prime, Choice, and Select grades.Prep and store―Find out how to store and prepare the meat before cooking, and discover the best ways to preserve and reheat those delicious leftovers.Talk like a butcher―Learn how to shop for meat, understand different grades of beef, and decipher vocabulary like dry aging and grain-fed vs. grass-fed beef.
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