Grilled Marinated Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Your family and guests will love this grilled marinated steak with chimichurri sauce recipe. It's easy to make, cooks fast, and tastes great. The chimichurri sauce is a little different spin on steak than what I normally do, so that makes it fun.

This chimichurri sauce recipe is something I've been working to perfect for a while now. Each time it gets a little better. What I really love about this is that the flavors and the consistency work really well with the texture of the steak. And, this is a nice change up to the normal "steak seasoning" that I tend to use over and over (because I can get lazy sometimes).

A Note About the Recipe(s):

I am working on dropping some weight, and am currently counting calories and macro intake. The reason why is that I want to compete in a weightlifting tournament later this year and would like to do that at a lighter weight. So understanding what I'm eating is important to me.

I decided to make TWO printable recipes for this post. One for the steak and one for the chimichurri sauce.

The reason behind this madness is that the sauce is added in amounts based on one's personal taste. Some may smother all the meat with it, and some may put just a dollop on the plate (like my daughter, Olivia). Having the recipes, and nutritional information, separate allows me to better calculate my servings and calorie counts.

So onward...

About Chimichurri and What it is

I love to say the word “chimichurri” because it sounds exactly like what it is in texture, color, and flavor. Chimichurri is an uncooked sauce consisting of parsley, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, dried oregano, and small fresh red chilies (ripe jalapenos), all mixed together in a vibrant green herbaceous condiment. It goes exceptionally well with grilled meats.

Although the recipe's origin, and even the name chimichurri, is not really clear, it was most likely invented by the cowboys (gauchos) of the high cattle plains of Argentina. Argentina has a long and vast history of cattle raising, with large tracts of land dedicated to ranching. At night, the gauchos would sit around the campfire, grilling meat for dinner and adding chimichurri sauce as they ate. Except for olive oil, which they carried in their saddle bags, most chimichurri ingredients were wild and easily foraged. The world later discovered that this very simple-to-prepare and delicious sauce is the perfect accompaniment to grilled meats.

To be fair, there are many unproven versions of how the sauce and name came about, and all claim to be correct, but we’ll let the food historians worry about that. We’re just thankful that the gauchos really know how to cook beef.

Types of Steak and Beef Used for Grilled Marinated Steak with Chimichurri Sauce Recipe

You can use a variety of cuts of meat for this recipe. Just go with what is available from your local grocery store. I am using flap meat (ala carne asada meat).

You can substitute other cuts of meat for flap meat, but you don’t need to be a butcher to know where similar cuts of meat are located on a side of beef. While they might not all come from the same part of the cow, that really doesn’t matter. Just look for other cuts that are long and thin and have similar grain and texture.

A few interchangeable examples are skirt steak, flank steak, hanger steak, and flat iron steak.

Flap Meat with Chimichurri Sauce

You probably know it as carne asada meat, found in most taco shops. But this fabulously flavorful and economical cut of meat can easily be found at your local grocery store.

For this recipe, I grill the beef on a high heat (about 400 degrees), which I find is hot enough to get a good sear on the outside and leave some pink in the middle. I shoot for a medium-rare cook before I take it off the grill. The meat will rest for about 10 minutes after, and continue to cook a little.

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A Few Tips for Cooking the Beef

• Let the meat sit in the marinade – Because of the porousness of the thin flap meat, the marinade has a great chance to really enhance the flavor and texture of the meat. So go ahead and let it sit in the marinade for a while. If you have the time and your family and guests are not after you to get grilling, let the flap meat marinade for up to two hours. Or - just let it marinate while you prep the chimichurri sauce (this is what I did last night when I made it).

• If using charcoal, use a charcoal chimney starter – As we are going to grill our marinated flap meat, we need intense heat to quickly grill this thin piece of beef. And nothing does the job better than a charcoal chimney starter for preparing your coals. Simply fill the chimney with charcoal briquettes, put newspaper in the bottom, light the newspaper, and in 15 minutes, your hot coals are ready to go; no lighter fluid to ruin the taste of our steak.
  
• If using a gas grill, preheat to about 450-500 - Then place the meat, fat side down, and reduce the heat. Placing the meat on the grill at high heat gives it a really nice sear (see first image below). Once the meat is on the grill, turn down the heat so that you're cooking in the 350-400 degree range. Turn the meat over after about 5 minutes so that the fat side is up.

More Notes on Cooking the Meat

• Grill the meat quickly – Remember, this is a thin piece of meat, not a 2-inch thick porterhouse. It will cook extremely quickly.

• Let the meat rest – This is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your flap meat will be tender and juicy in the middle. Let the meat rest on your cutting board for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it. This allows the juices to redistribute inside the meat. If you cut the meat too soon, all the delicious juice will just run onto your cutting board, leaving your hard-earned grilled flap meat dry and chewy.

• Cut against the grain – The grain in the flap meat is very easy to see. In order to get very tender and moist slices of meat, be sure to cut ACROSS the grain. Find the grain and slice at a 90-degree angle across the grain. Your sliced pieces of meat should look like an accordion. If you cut with the grain, you will produce a tough, chewy, somewhat tasteless piece of meat. And we don’t want that!

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Ingredients and Directions for Making the Beef Marinade

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder 
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 pounds flap meat or similar cut of beef

Combine all marinade ingredients together and mix well. Place the flap meat in a shallow baking dish and cover it with the marinade, making sure that all surfaces of the meat are covered. Marinate for up to two hours.

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Ingredients and Directions for Making the Chimichurri Sauce

• ¾ cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (about 1 bunch)
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 small fresh red or green jalapenos, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Combine all chimichurri sauce ingredients together and mix well.

Notes on Making the Chimichurri Sauce

Parsley - Use flat leaf parsley. However, if your store is out then you can use curly parsley. I had to do this when I made it last. It's good, but curly parsley is a little "tougher" than flat leaf.

You'll be using one cup of finely chopped parsley. One cup of finely chopped parsley is a little less than a bunch (see image below). I pressed down relatively firmly to pack the parsley in the cup. Keep the rest of the chopped parsley on hand though - in case you want to add it to your bowl of sauce (for a thicker sauce).

Parsley Stems - Just remove the big coarse stems. You don't have to remove the little stems where the leaves are.

Jalapeno Peppers - Besides adding just a tiny bit of heat to the sauce, the peppers add a nice crunch which contrasts with the soft texture of the steak. Adds a little variety to the texture of the dish overall.

If your store has them, go with red. Red is a little hotter than green, but adds a nice visual contrast within the green parsley and oil. If you do find red (hard to find at my store), you might reduce or omit the red pepper flakes if you're heat sensitive.  The green jalapenos, after you've seeded them, have very little heat. My daughter Olivia didn't even notice that they were in there.

Use Gloves - When dicing or chopping jalapenos (or any hot pepper), you should use gloves. I have some medical exam gloves on hand for just this purpose. Without gloves, the oils from the pepper permeates your skin, and stays there. And it doesn't wash off easily with water. Without gloves, the next time you go to scratch your eye or any private parts, you'll KNOW that you handled hot peppers! OUCH! The gloves will save you from this (speaking from experience).

Saucing the meat - I prefer to use a slotted spoon when I put the sauce on top of the meat. This allows me to control how much oil I put on the meat (I like a less oily mixture).

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Directions for Grilling and Finishing the Beef

1. Grill the flap meat – Remove the flap meat from the marinade. Place it on either a gas or charcoal grill over intense high heat and grill roughly 5 – 8 minutes per side, flipping often. Be sure to grill the meat long enough to create a crusty black char without burning it.

2. Let the meat rest  - Allow the meat to rest on your cutting board for at least 10 minutes.

3. Cut against the grain – Be sure to slice the pieces of meat at a 90-degree angle against the grain.

4. Serve with the chimichurri sauce – Generously slather the slices of meat with the chimichurri sauce.

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More Grilling Ideas

Looking for something different to do with your flap steak? Try the Jamaican Jerk Mop sauce. Originally made for ribs, it would taste great with this cut of meat.

Grilled chicken with smoky chimichurri sauce

Side Dishes that Pair well

Grilled Mexican street corn

Baked beans

Corn on the cob

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Steak and Marinade Recipe

IMPORTANT: As I mentioned at the top of this post, I created separate recipes for the beef & marinade and the chimichurri sauce. I did that for calorie-counters like me : ). So make sure to print or save both recipes!

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