Skirt Steak in Chimichurri Sauce

LTH,

As Summer closes, I was finally able to make one of my absolute favorite dishes for the season:

Grilled Skirt Steak in Chimichurri Sauce

To make the steak, sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the 2 lbs. of skirt steak and push firmly to hold. Fire up that gas grill to high on all burners and grill for 6-8 minutes per the recipe. However, I must say I probably grilled the steak for only 5 minutes or so due to it being a hot day and the need to account of carry-over cooking due to the high surface-to-mass ratio of skirt steak. I like my skirt steak medium as I find medium-rare makes this cut somewhat more chewy than I care for. I take it off the grill when it's medium rare and let it stand covered for 5-8 minutes to let the juices settle and to allow the cooking to finish. Slice at a 45 degree angle to avoid a chewy cut.

You could also broil the skirt steak if you have no grill or just want to use oven for some reason.

Chimichurri Sauce

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced shallots (about 2 medium) [note: I used a small yellow onion]
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt

Just mix it up when you've added all the ingredients and plop on top of the steak to taste. They didn't have shallots at Harvestime but they do have nice small yellow onions which I used instead.

I purchased the steak for less than $6 a pound at Harvestime grocery on Talman and Lawerence and I had the butcher trim the fat off the steaks. Incidentally, they had both Inner and Outer skirt steak. I don't know what the difference is except that the Outer was two bucks more a pound and had less fat on it - good enough for me.

Anyway, the quality of the skirt steak was very good considering it's a value cut. Now, you can get the most premium cut of skirt steak in the City at Paulina Meat Market on Lincoln just south of Addison but you'll spend over ten to fifteen bucks a pound - ridiculous.

This recipe appeared in the Gourmet of May 2006. But, today I got the recipe off epicurious.com. They seem to credit the Skirt Steak recipe to Bon Appetit - I believe that is an error.

Anyway,

The skirt steak was cooked to perfection, if I do say so myself:mrgreen: . The Chimichurri sauce was wonderful and complimented the skirt steak oh so well. I highly recommend this dish. It's economical and time sensitive. I mean, if you are one lazy bastard, like me , from start to finish might take you 30 minutes, but probably more like 20 for most of you.

Enjoy!

Bster

epicurious.com/Bon Appetit/Gourmet (May 2006)

Bster

Harvestime is also my go to spot for skirt steak. I usually purchase the outer skirts for making carne ala Tampiquena as it is a bit more tender than the inner. If I'm making tacos or tortas I'll buy the inner, and have the counter man butterfly it and run it thru the tenderizer.
Your skirt steak with chimichurri sauce sounds great. I'll have to give it a try.

Not sure what grade skirts your Harvestime sells, haven't been there. Is it prime? 6ish / lb seems a little steep for choice, and I have seen Jewel / Dominick's peddling their select grade skirts for upwards of 6 / lb. If Harvestime is not selling prime, you might wanna check out your local Certisaver grocer. I routinely pay under 3.00 /lb for choice outer skirts. Regular price at my Certisaver for choice grade outer skirts is 3.69 / lb, and sale price has been as low as 2.49 / lb. I have been known to buy 30 lbs or more of the stuff at a time when it's on sale, and my mouth is watering right now just typing about it. Not sure if all of the Certisavers follow the same pricing, but one of their draws is that their meats are generally a grade higher than the Jewel / Dom chains, but they are also much cheaper. Also, if your Harvestime IS selling prime skirts at 6 ish / lb, let me know. I'd be VERY curious to see what other prime grade meats they have, and what their pricing is, especially for some top sirloins.

Seebee
Sorry to say I don't know what grade Harvestimes skirts are. For years they just sold plain old skirt steak in the $3.oo +/- per lb.range and it was just fine . Sometime within the last year they brought in the outer skirts at the $6 mark and I seem to notice a big difference between the two forcing me to buy the outer skirts at the higher price.
As far as prime meat at Harvest Time I don't believe that I have ever seen any. Choice is about as good as it gets there.
HT's prices seem to be rising a bit lately with the influx of new condos in the neighborhood. Which Certisaver store are buying your skirts at?

FWIW, Certisaver is a brand owned by Certified Grocers, which is primarily a food distributor/buying cooperative - unlike Jewel/Dominicks, they don't actually own any grocery stores. They just permit stores that buy a lot of their products to use the Certisaver name. So there can be a great deal of variation in pricing, selection, etc. between various Certisaver stores.

I have been getting them at Fair Share on Roosevelt Road just E of Ridgeland Avenue in Oak Park. Very consistent quality for three years now. I actually was in the area yesterday, and stopped in. They were out of outer skirts, and only had something labeled "skirt steak." I have only bought the ones labeled USDA Choice Outer Skirt Steak. I'll bump this the next time I go and they have them to report a price, but I would highly suggest you shop around for better prices on choice outer skirt. 6 ish /lb seems pretty high to me. Maybe pop in to a Butera, a Tony's, or another Certisaver just to compare. Maybe the quality at Harvest Time is superior.
If it isn't tho, the savings will be worth it.

http://www.fairsharefoods.com/index.htm (their website generally sucks, because it is not updated in a timely fashion)

This has a locator option:
http://www.certisaver.com/

Have my fingers crossed - maybe you find something better than what you're getting at Harvest Time, maybe not. I've been VERY happy with the outer steaks I've been getting.

All,

Gonna make this again tonight one last time since we have an Indian Summer day upon us.

Incidentally, picked up the Outer Skirt Steak from Harvestime Foods again for $5.89/lb. The description says "USDA Choice Arrachera con cuero" - my once near-fluent Spanish has totally left me, I have no idea what this means and was too lazy for a Google. I had the butcher trim the fat and got three+ pounds for $18. That's basically gonna make three huge helpings for $6/each, maybe $7.50 each when considering the very economical cost of the Chimichurri ingredients.

I'm always up for saving a few bucks, but due to my general inclination to stay close to home, gas prices and general like for the Harvestime Outer Skirt Steak...I would probably need another recommendation no further than the half mile from my home Harvestime is at probably $2 or more cheaper a pound and better quality meat to even consider a second trip elsewhere for my skirt steak. Also, Harvestime just has such fresh, large quantity and cheap produce it'd be hard to justify another trip.

Bster

Arrachera is what they call skirt steak at the local mexican grocery store here in Madison (the only place in town that carries skirt steak), and I tried to look it up but could find no meaning. My wife who has taken Spanish didn't know either, and neither did her friend who is pretty fluent.

I cooked up some skirt steak fajitas last week. This version sounds good too, I might need to go pick up some more skirt steak. It has been my favorite cut of beef for the last few months.

Bster wrote:I'm always up for saving a few bucks, but due to my general inclination to stay close to home, gas prices and general like for the Harvestime Outer Skirt Steak...I would probably need another recommendation no further than the half mile from my home Harvestime is at probably $2 or more cheaper a pound and better quality meat to even consider a second trip elsewhere for my skirt steak. Also, Harvestime just has such fresh, large quantity and cheap produce it'd be hard to justify another trip.

Try Cermack Produce on Kedzie just north of Irving. Got some beautiful USDA choice skirt steak last week for $2.99 lb. very decent produce as well.