Jack Daniels Marinated Flank Steak
Summer’s winding down, but here in San Francisco, it’s Indian Summer. The weather is beautiful and the overlap of really great postseason baseball and football season brings up a need for a great steak marinade! There are so many different ways to marinade beef. I wanted to put together a marinade that was made up of things that I already had around the house, and of course, a nice lil Jack Daniels marinade came to mind.
Also, for those of you who want to achieve perfect grill marks, I taught myself to make a gif! James shot some great pix for me to create a lil gif tutorial :) See below!
I decided on a nice flank steak, which when marinaded and sliced really thinly against the grain, is wonderfully tender and flavorful. It’s best to let the meat marinade for a few hours to overnight. You can even use this on pork or chicken..or if you’re a vegetarian, try marinating some portobello mushrooms! Let’s get cookin :)
What You Need:
1 ½ lb flank steak
¼ cup whiskey (I used Jack Daniels)
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup Dijon mustard
¼ cup finely chopped green onion (2-3 stalks)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
Ground black pepper to taste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
What To Do:
Measure up the ingredients used for the marinade. Combine them in a bowl, making sure to dissolve the brown sugar. I find it best, whenever mixing dry and wet ingredients, to always place the dry ingredients into the bowl first, adding liquids slowly. This makes it easier to incorporate the liquids, without chasing clumps. Use this rule of thumb for a bunch of stuff: mixing wasabi & soy sauce, baking, making instant gravy, jello, etc. See my pix below:
Here’s a tip about cooking flank steak. It is one of the cuts of meat that has distinct lines in them. These long lines are fibers running thru the meat, and they are difficult to chew through. If the meat is cut against the grain, it becomes easier to chew and is very tender.
If you take a look at the meat, you can see the long lines running across it. If you slice the steak in the same direction as the lines, you’ll have to chew thru the fibers. When you cut the flank steak, you want to slice the steak across the lines, so that the knife has done all the work for you.
As you can see, I’ve cut this flank steak across the grain, at an angle, and you can see how small the fibers become, dictating how tender the beef will be. :) Yum
Use a sharp knife to score the top of the flank steak, making sure not to cut too deep. This’ll help the marinade penetrate the meat. Place your flank steak into a freezer bag, and pour the marinade over it. Massage the marinade into the meat.
After it’s marinated for a few hours, take it out of the freezer bag with tongs and let it drain a bit in a bowl. Let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Whether you’re using a grill, heavy duty pan, or cast iron skillet/grill, heat it gently up to a medium-high heat. You can drizzle some olive oil on the grill as well. Your grill is ready when you flick water at it and it fizzles away and quickly evaporates.
How do you get perfect crosshatched grill marks? Easy. Place the steak on the grill facing 10:00, searing for 3-4 minutes until good grill marks appear. With tongs, pick up the steak and, keeping it on the same side, turn it to 2:00.
Do the same on the other side for beautiful crosshatches. A perfect medium rare is between 130-140F. You can use your finger or the tongs to press into the center of the steak. It should give a little bit, but spring right back. If it’s too soft or mushy, or feels firm, it’s under/overcooked, respectively.
LET YOUR MEAT REST.
Slice across the grain, at a 45 degree angle.
Glourious! Gobble it up! This would be good with my previous recipe for homemade Chimichurri! :)