Tomato Marinated Grilled Flank Steak - Healthy Seasonal Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to cooking flank steak? ›

Rub a flank steak with olive oil, season it with salt and pepper and slide it onto a foil-lined sheet pan for easy cleanup. Then just broil it until it's medium-rare, 6 to 8 minutes. No flipping needed.

How Long to Marinate Flank Steak. As long as your marinade mixture includes at least one tenderizing ingredient, you should get good results from a 24 to 48-hour soak in it. Soaking the meat beyond 48 hours will just leave the surface too soft and mushy.

If a strong flavor like ginger or teriyaki is what you're going for, then a marinade may be your best bet. However, if you want something that complements your steak with an underlying flavor then a quick rub is the route you should take.

Marinating the steak in salt

Salt not only makes the flank steak taste better, but also helps to tenderize it. Flank steak can be marinated with other ingredients, but if you add only salt and a little pepper, the flavor will also be very good.

No matter the cooking method, with or without a marinade, you should always cut flank steak across the grain for the most delicious results. Slicing flank steak this way cuts through those tough fibers, shortening them to get an easier-to-chew, more tender bite of beef.

Before marinating your meat, prick some holes into the meat with a sharp fork. This will allow the marinade to get deeper into the meat, and faster.

Experts recommend marinating from the night before or very early in the morning, leaving it to rest in the fridge and covering the marinade with clingfilm. Also, keep in mind that cutting the flank steak into steaks should be done before marinating.

Start your marinade with oil

Your marinade should be at least 1/2 oil. The oil helps emulsify the marinade into a thick sauce that coats the meat. It's also a flavor-carrier. And having a coating of an oil-based sauce on your steak before you grill it will help it cook better and more evenly.

How to season steak for the best flavor? ›

There are many spices available for seasoning a steak, with salt and pepper topping the list. However, other spices, like thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, and minced onion, are also good options to enhance your steak's flavor. Or, use a one-and-done approach with Chicago Steak Seasoning.

Even at run of the mill chain steakhouses, they don't marinate steaks. High end steakhouses tend to dry age their beef, usually for 2–4 weeks. This reduces the water content and increases the beefy flavor. Marinating dry aged beef would wash away the flavor characteristics of dry aged beef — an utter waste.

This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.

Most cuts of steak benefit from being salted up to an hour in advance of cooking, but especially tougher cuts. In addition to seasoning the steaks, salt helps break down proteins and make the meat more tender. Liberally salt the steaks up to an hour before cooking, then proceed according to your recipe.

If you're looking for a tender and flavorful way to cook flank steak, consider slow cooking. Slow cooking allows the meat to break down and become melt-in-your-mouth tender while infusing it with rich flavors.

Yes and no. It depends on HOW you cook it, and even then, there are limits. Flank steak, as you probably already know, is one of the tougher, but more flavorful pieces of steak.

Flank steak is on the thinner side, so it doesn't take much time to cook. For medium-rare flank steak cooked under the broiler, it takes about 8-12 minutes, depending on the steak's thickness. If you like your steak cooked to medium or medium-well, use the oven instead of the broiler.

Because flank steak is lean, it can become dry and chewy if overcooked. So go for rare to medium-rare, medium at most. But don't worry if you like your steak more well-done. Flank steak isn't of an even thickness with the ends being quite a bit thinner than the middle.