Question about Flank Steak

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rodentraiser

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I have three sauces I use for chicken (teriyaki, hoisin, and balsamic BBQ sauces) and when I make chicken breasts in any of these sauces, I simply put the chicken in a glass baking dish and pour the sauce over them. The chicken bakes done, the sauce caramelizes, and I usually end up with a delicious meal.

Well, now I have another recipe that calls for flank steak and grilling. I don't have a grill, so I was wondering if I can put the steak in a glass dish like I do the chicken, pour the sauce over it, and bake the steak. The sauce has molasses in it, so I think it will caramelize the same way.

The thing is, I've never heard of anyone cooking beef this way. I've heard of sous vide, but I don't think this is exactly a sous vide.

Does anyone think this is going to work?
 
Hi, RR. I wouldn't bake it in a glass dish in the oven. Do you have a metal broiler pan and a broiler setting in your oven? Flank steak is delicious and best cooked at high heat to med rare. Thinly sliced, you'll have some awesome fixin's for tacos, fajitas, and sammies. Yum.
 
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Hi, RR. I wouldn't bake it in a glass dish in the oven. Do you have a metal broiler pan and a broiler setting in your oven? Flank steak is delicious and best cooked at high heat to med rare. Thinly sliced, you'll have some awesome fixin's for tacos, fajitas, and sammies. Yum.

This! Hot and fast to medium rare. Otherwise, you'll have delicious shoe leather.
 
I would cook the steak in a cast iron pan until desired doneness (three minutes per side for medium rare), then slather it with the sauce and put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the sauce is bubbly.
 
Yep, hot and fast to medium rare. The broiler should work fine. Don't bake it.

Cd
 
I have a wire rack that I can put over a cookie sheet. So maybe that's the way to go. I think I'll cook it the way Sir Loin suggests. Hmm...I guess that means I'm going to have to simmer that sauce after the steak has marinated in it until it thickens up then. That's what the recipe calls for anyway.

Thank you, everyone!!! Maybe I won't be eating sauced up tennis shoe after all.
 
Hmm...I guess that means I'm going to have to simmer that sauce after the steak has marinated in it until it thickens up then.
PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!

Set aside about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the sauce before marinating the steak. Discard the marinade and use the reserved sauce as the basting sauce.
 
PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!

Set aside about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the sauce before marinating the steak. Discard the marinade and use the reserved sauce as the basting sauce.

As long as the marinade is cooked well afterward (which is what RR says 2 posts above yours), there is no problem with using what the meat was soaked in. My impression from the OP is that it is a serving sauce, not a basting sauce.

That said I would try to make the sauce in the same pan you cook the steak in to deglaze and get all of that good fond flavor in the sauce.
 
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Simmer that sucker in some beef stock until it will shred and make some Ropa Vieja or Vaca Frita!:yum:
 
As long as the marinade is cooked well afterward (which is what RR says 2 posts above yours), there is no problem with using what the meat was soaked in. My impression from the OP is that it is a serving sauce, not a basting sauce.

That said I would try to make the sauce in the same pan you cook the steak in to deglaze and get all of that good fond flavor in the sauce.
I was wondering why the used marinade wouldn't be fine, if the sauce will be simmered long enough to thicken. I think that should kill any micro-organisms.
 
I was wondering why the used marinade wouldn't be fine, if the sauce will be simmered long enough to thicken. I think that should kill any micro-organisms.

Of course it will. Any nasties that are present in the marinade are also on the meat itself, so if cooking the meat makes it safe, why wouldn't cooking the marinade do the same thing? :chef:
 
Oh oh oh!
And RT, this may sound extremely elementary but when you slice the steak, do so going across rather than with the grain of the meat to insure tenderness, going with the grain will make the meat tough as shoe leather, for sure!
But I'd beat that you know this already ;)
 
Thanks! Chef John covered how to cut the steak in his video.

Several times he's also covered if and how we should use the leftover marinade. The original video has us simmering the sauce for 5 minutes. Plus after the sauce simmers, he uses it to baste the meat over the grill 5 minutes per side, so my thinking is if the meat is basted and then put sauce side down on the grill for 5 minutes, it's probably safe.

When I cook my chicken in their respective sauces, they usually cook in the sauce for 40 minutes to an hour, depending if I'm making legs or breasts and I've never had a problem.

Food Wishes Video Recipes: Beerbecue Beef Flank Steak – You’ll Have Them at “Beer”

So this turned out OK, except I didn't like the sauce.
 
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I have been using marinades as sauces for years. I pull the meat out of the marinade, dump the marinade into a saucier, and bring it to a boil (while stirring, of course). Nothing bad is going to survive boiling temperatures. If you add a thickener, you'll need to bring it to a boil, anyway, although I usually just simmer the marinade without a lid to reduce it.

If I taste my marinade before I use it, and it tastes good, it seems to always taste good as a sauce. Not all marinades taste good on there own. Did you taste the Chef John beer marinade before you used it?

CD
 
Ni, because I hate tasting things before I'm ready to eat them. I have no idea why - it's just something I don't do.
Tasting food as I'm going along is one of the first things I learned after I joined this site. If you don't, you really have no idea what the outcome will be. If you do, you have opportunities to tweak it - add more salt or a spice (not necessarily referring to heat) or herbs, or a splash of vinegar or lemon juice for brightness, or Worcestershire or soy sauce for increased savoriness. I even cook a tablespoon of a sausage mixture to make sure the seasoning is right before I cook the whole batch.

My cooking improved a lot once I started doing that.
 
Ni, because I hate tasting things before I'm ready to eat them. I have no idea why - it's just something I don't do.

Tasting as you go is the only way to really know if you are getting correct seasoning and flavoring in a dish. Granted that not all foods can be tasted as you go, but anything that can be tasted, should be.
 
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