Marinated Chimichurri NY Strip

While I love throwing some raw meat on some grates, I often feel the need to spice it up a bit. I was gifted two NY strips right before I was going out of town for work. Unfortunately, I had to freeze them but was looking forward to them when I got back.

No surprise I love a marinated meat – often with Mexican seasonings (see my asada ) – so we’re going Argentinian with this one. Marinated meats, chimichurri topper – let’s go!

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Recipe

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The Prep Table

These were some beautiful USDA Prime cuts, which is why I hated having to freeze them. Just like I was going to cook them, I let them lose that refrigerator temperature a bit, soften them up and then prepped the marinade.

This was going to be a relatively simple marinade. Some salt, some citrus – this will be fun. I’ve been asked in the past if lime juice can be substituted for fresh lime – sure, it can – I just always found it way more concentrated and powerful. If you can, squeeze the lime. Same goes for the garlic – the jarred “emergency” garlic works, but nothing is as good as fresh.

Once I fresh-squeezed the lime, minced the garlic, portioned out the sauce, it was time to let that marinade. As a general rule, I like to marinate overnight, but that wasn’t going to happen today. I got started early in the morning, and I think it was a 4-5hr soak.

I’ll also mentioned I trimmed back that fat on them steak cuts. Knowing I was doing a short marinade time, I wanted to knock back the barrier and let the marinade touch as much of that meat as I could. Throw it in the fridge, and let’s get going with that chimichurri.

Half an onion, a lime or two, an embarrassingly amount of olive oil, and of course the parsley/cilantro to make that sauce. The meat is (should) be tender and adding this to the top should be a killer mix. After portioning them out, introduced them to the food processor and blended the hell out of them.

The smell of this was incredible. So fragrant, so flavorful – I couldn’t wait to eat this up. I put this into a container, put it in the fridge and it was time to wait for that marinade to do it’s work on the meat.

We’ve prepped the meat, we’ve made that chimichurri – Prep Table is complete. Moving on to the process…

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The Process

After a few hours, removed the meat from the ziploc and let it relax on a bed of paper towel. I patted these things dry and let them get to room temperature. Reminder: Always let your meat get to room temperature before a cook – name of the game is an even cook.

Because this was kind of a rushed cook – I wasn’t going to smoke this at all. We were going from board to grates. I was pretty damn hungry – and after making that chimichurri and knowing what was coming – let’s get it at already.

Let me talk a little bit about the RecTeq grilling system. For those in the “Too Long, Didn’t Read” column, pellet grills/smokers are great for those that want a good result in an easy manner. I don’t have to mess with baffles and fuel. An auger feeds the pellets to the fire pot, the fans introduce the air, and everything is regulated. My first smoker was a propane one, and I loved it. My next one will be straight stick smoking, but until then – the pellet works best for me.

Not to mention the “grill” aspect. Having been a firefighter for just shy of a decade, I hate the idea of maximizing heat – in anything. I set the RecTeq Bull to “FUL” and let it roll. I know it gets to 500+ degrees, and I did so. That’s the picture I wanted to share. Combine the RecTeq’s 500+ degrees with the GrillGrates system – we have a hot grill.

Here’s another mini-monologue for y’all. We all know the four flip technique. Get that cross hatch look because it’s great for pictures. If you haven’t already followed me on Instagram (here) , I’m slowly learning it actually is about pictures. And that people don’t swipe to see the rest, but DO THAT FOR MINE. I try to sum up these post as best I can, but the power is in the text.

If you don’t follow Jess Pryles, you’re doing yourselves a disservice. She talks about her JKF method, and I’ve subscribed. I just want an even cook, I’ll flip it a dozen times if I need to (and maybe I did) – Check it out:

You’ll see those cross hatches are gone, and you have a beautiful, juicy, dark product here. Hold up, let me zoom in on that:

We are a heavy medium-rare here. I’d say pushing medium. If you’ve read my last steak posts – or any of them really – you know I push that resting period. DO IT. Let them juices get back to the meat, let it relax before you cut the hell out of it.

We have the cooked meat, the chimichurri ready (again, room temperature), so let’s get it plated.

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The Result

I figured I’d take you step by step in my plating. I don’t know much about what is perfect, what is competition preferred, I just know what looks good to me and how I want it to look. Using my new Victorinox knives (perfection), I sliced an even 1/2″ slice throughout one of the steaks (the other one was saved for lunch).

It already looks like an Instagram worthy picture. But we’re not done. That chimichurri I left set on the counter to get to room temperature, so I wasn’t going heat on the meat, cool on the topper. For those that diagnosed my post, you know I didn’t season the steaks at all. Not a pinch of pepper nor salt. I knew the marinade and the chimichurri was going to speak volumes, I didn’t need anything else.

Okay, we’re knocking it out of the park. Dish has been topped, and I let it set again (we’re talking about 20 minutes total from grill to noodle). In this time, I whipped up a batch of that New Hampshire favorite Knorr product to accompany the dish.

There we go. Finished product, and it taste better than it looks, I promise you. The marinade wasn’t overly powerful, but it definitely tenderized the meat very pleasantly. The chimichurri added a great flavor that kinda stole the show from the meat. It was a beautiful marriage and one that I will make again when I have to impress guests. This was an absolutely great dish.

Knorr was Knorr. Fresh cracked pepper blend on top, but it was the prelim to the main event.

Hope you like that journey. I’ve been slowly catching up on Instagram posting the old smokes, but we’re getting close. And I haven’t forgotten about the last “S” of my three S’s posts – the Sides. I’m going to probably have a boring “cleaning the pellet grill” post soon, because I did some work this winter – and it needs it bad.

See you on the next one!

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The Recipe