I visited Bozeman, Montana to see old friends and they took me to a nearby restaurant called The Mint | The Mint (mintcafebar.com). We ordered their Ribeye with a side of their chimichurri sauce. I continued to dream about this dish every night and finally found a simple recipe to curb the cravings! The best thing about this recipe is that it makes perfect carne asada tacos the next day!!! Convertible recipes are just what we need for these busy work weeks! We love a simple weeknight Dinner Recipe that can be transformed.

WHY WE CALL THIS RECIPE A MUST HAVE:

> The Marinade – This steak marinade is extremely simple and only involves a couple staple pantry ingredients. Be sure to let it sit, you always want the marinade to not only tenderize meat but to also come up to room temperature prior to grilling or searing up in a cast iron skillet. 

> The Sauce – Even if you aren’t a huge fan of sauce you might find yourself setting that horseradish off to the side once you get a taste of this! A bit of spice, fresh herbs, bursts of refreshing crunch from the onion and lastly the acid from the Red Wine Vinegar all pair well to again tenderize your meat selection and bring out the flavor of the dish. It’s the perfect accent to your steak. Based on your personal comfort level you can also increase the heat to be as little or as much as you like. 

> It’s Great for Guests – This cut of steak is great for sharing and easy to whip on the grill. It is universally loved and will wow your guests every time you serve it. Not to mention this is a cost efficient meal to make for large gatherings and is great for leftovers like carne asada tacos. 

> Cut against the grain! Be sure on this flank steak or any that you always cut against the grain to preserve the juices and lock in your flavor. This is always the best way to serve as well, since this ensures that it makes for the perfect bite. Not too chewy and easy to digest. 

Let us know your thoughts on this recipe within the comments section below. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

THE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 ½ pounds flank steak

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

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk together marinade ingredients. Combine marinade and steak in a large ziplock bag. Seal and chill for 30 minutes, or up to overnight.
2. Combine all chimichurri ingredients in a blender or food processor, and pulse until smooth. (If you are looking for more of a rustic feel you can just roughly chop these ingredients and mix together)
3. Preheat an oiled skillet or grill to medium-high heat. Sear steak for 6-8 minutes on each side until heavily browned on the outside and slightly pink in the middle.
4. Thinly slice steak across the grain and serve with chimichurri sauce on top.

TIPS & TRICKS:

• When grilling/searing your steak, you want to watch for a blackened outside and a juicy, barely-pink (but not too red) center. The other really important step is to cook 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.

• LET IT REST!!! Be sure to let the steak rest for about 5 minutes or so on a cutting board (so when you cut it the juices don’t run out and will stay intact), and then cut across the grain in very thin strips.

• 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 flank steak.

INSPO: Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – Creme De La Crumb (lecremedelacrumb.com)

Don’t forget to pair this with our Smokey Mezcal Paloma.