Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak. Turn a cheap cut of flat Iron steak into the most tender beef you've ever had with 24 hours of sous vide cooking.
Earlier this year, I had a geeky food talk with David Pietranczyk, PolyScience Culinary's chef, at the IACP Food conference in Chicago. After he demoed a chamber vacuum sealer and a chocolate pop from the anti-griddle, we got down to business and talked sous vide. Chef David knows a LOT about sous vide, and after twenty minutes, I left with my brain overflowing.
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FCC Notice: PolyScience Culinary gave me a Sous Vide immersion circulator to use for this blog posts; this is one of the recipes I used to test it for my review.
One of the things that stuck with me was how chef David tailgates for his hometown Chicago Bears. Twenty-four hours before the game, he starts skirt steaks at home with his sous vide circulator. Early the following day, he transfers them from the sous vide circulator to a beer cooler full of hot water and leaves for Soldier Field. The tailgate gets going in the parking lot, and he waits for his crew to get hungry. Then he pulls the vacuum packs out of the beer cooler, cuts them open, and sears the steaks for two minutes a side on the grill. What better way to ward off the cold Lake Michigan wind than with a steak?
I wanted to test this out with a skirt steak, like chef David recommends, but they're tough to find in my local grocery store. So, I used flat iron steak, my favorite cheap steak. Flat iron steak is from the chuck blade roast in the shoulder of the cow. It grills well on its own, but after a day of tenderizing in the sous vide, it cuts like filet mignon.
I will use this recipe for tailgating - go Browns! - but today, it was a weeknight dinner, sliced and served on top of a baby kale salad. I highly recommend this technique if you can plan ahead enough to throw a steak in the sous vide the night before dinner.
Equipment
Sous vide machine: You need a sous vide immersion circulator and a food storage container (or large pot) that can hold the steak with enough room to circulate the water.
Sous vide bag: You need food-safe plastic bags for sous vide, and you need all the air out of the bag to cook efficiently. The best way to do this is with a vacuum sealer. I use gallon vacuum seal bags. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, you can use freezer Ziploc bags for sous vide. Leave the zip-top of the bag open and slowly lower it into the water bath. The water will push all the air out of the bag as it is lowered. Zip the top of the bag right before it reaches the water level.
Cast-iron pan or heavy-duty skillet: Use a ripping hot cast iron skillet for searing; sear the steak in a preheated skillet for 1 to 2 minutes a side to give it a good crust. (An excellent stainless steel pan, like an All-Clad fry pan, is also good for searing. It doesn't hold quite as much heat as stainless steel, so it doesn't sear as well, but it's close. And stainless steel is a lot easier to maintain.)
Grill: If you want to sear outside - say, you don't want to set off the smoke alarm (again), use a grill, preheated for 15 minutes with all the burners turned to high.
Ingredients
- 1½ pound flat iron steak
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (for searing)
Baby kale salad (Optional)
- Pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 ounces baby kale
- 1 ounce shaved Parmesan
How to Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak
Season and seal the steak
The day before you want to eat, sprinkle the steak evenly with salt and pepper. Put the steak in a large (gallon) vacuum pouch and vacuum seal the bag. (At this point, the vacuum-sealed steaks can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for a few months.)
Sous vide the steak
Set a sous vide to 131°F/55°C for medium rare. (136°F/58°C for medium, 141°F/60.5°C for medium well.) Drop the steaks in the sous vide and cook for at least 16 hours and up to 48 hours. (I go with roughly 24 hours.)
Toss the salad (optional)
Before searing the steak, toss the salad. Whisk the salt, pepper, sherry vinegar, and olive oil in a large bowl, then toss with the baby kale, massaging the dressing into the kale. (Kale is tough and needs a firm rub with the oil.) Sprinkle with the shaved parmesan, toss again, and set aside.
Sear the steak
Remove the steak from the vacuum bag and pat dry with paper towels. Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat until it is ripping hot. Swirl in the vegetable oil, then add the steaks. Don't move the steak until it has a browned crust on the bottom, about two minutes, then flip and brown the other side, about two more minutes.
Slice and serve
Transfer the steak to a cutting board and slice against the grain, on the bias, into ½-inch thin slices. To serve, put a handful of salad on a plate and top it with steak slices. Enjoy!
Storage
An interesting sous vide trick is the cook-chill or cook-freeze method. If you want the tender steak, but don't want to wait for 24 hours, you can sous vide it ahead of time. Sous vide the steak for the listed 24 hours, quickly chill it in an ice bath for an hour, then refrigerate or freeze the steak, all in its original vacuum sealed bag. The steak can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 6 months. To reheat the steak, put the bag in a sous vide water bath set to 131°F (55°C), and reheat for an 1 hour 15 minutes (from the refrigerator) or 1 hour 45 minutes (from the freezer). Take it out of the bag, sear, and serve.
Why go through all that? Because, you can do the 24 hour cook whenever, then freeze the steak and have it ready to reheat in a couple of hours. Or, you can batch cook - do a bunch of individually wrapped steaks, freeze them, and then you can pull them out of the freezer to reheat whenever you are ready.
(Timings for reheating from Douglas Baldwin's excellent Sous Vide Cooking resource.)
Why is my Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak Rubbery?
I got this question in an email, but it didn't come from someone who followed this recipe. They probably cooked it for a shorter time (6 hours or less). The key to this recipe is the long, low, and slow cooking, which breaks down the connective tissues in the flat iron steak. If you cook it for 24 hours, it definitely won't be rubbery!
Tips and Tricks
24 Hour Sous Vide Safety
Food safety rule: Don't sous vide this long at temperatures below 130°F/54.5°C. That's the line for the "Danger Zone." Below that temperature, the bad bugs multiply in the meat. Above that temperature, they are killed off, and the meat is pasteurized during the long cooking time.
Searing the steaks on the grill
I actually sear my steaks on the grill more than I do in a pan. To grill-sear the steak, preheat a grill as hot as you can. (For my Weber Summit, I preheat with all burners set to high for 15 minutes, then turn off half the burners and leave the other half on high for searing.) Sear the steak for 4 minutes, flipping every minute; rotate the steak 90 degrees on the second flip to get a crosshatch of grill marks.
Why Sous Vide Overnight?
So, why sous vide a steak overnight? Because it tenderizes tougher cuts of meat. It's like cooking a pot roast or a low-and-slow barbecue - the extra time breaks down the collagen in the meat, turning it into gelatin. The result turns tough cuts of meat into meltingly tender steaks - they're still solid enough to grill, but they're as tender as a pot roast. (Don't try this with an actual steak cut, like ribeye, New York strip, or tenderloin - they're already tender and will get mushy if you sous vide them this long.)
Adapted from: Sous Vide Skirt Steak, PolyScienceCulinary.com
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Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak (with Baby Kale Salad)
- Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak with Baby Kale Salad. Flat iron steak, tenderized by a 24 hour sous vide cook.
Ingredients
- 1½ pound flat iron steak
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (for searing)
Baby kale salad
- Pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 ounces baby kale
- 1 ounce shaved Parmesan
Instructions
- Season and seal the steaks: The day before you want to eat, sprinkle the steak evenly with salt and pepper. Put the steak in a large (gallon) vacuum pouch and vacuum seal the bag. (At this point, the vacuum-sealed steaks can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for a few months.)
- Sous vide the steaks: Set a sous vide to , 131°F/55°C for medium-rare. (136°F/58°C for medium, 141°F/60.5°C for medium well.) Drop the steaks in the sous vide and cook for at least 16 hours and up to 48 hours. (I go with roughly 24 hours.)
- Toss the salad (optional): Before searing the steak, toss the salad. Whisk the salt, pepper, sherry vinegar, and olive oil in a large bowl, then toss with the baby kale, massaging the dressing into the kale. (Kale is tough and needs a firm rub with the oil.) Sprinkle with the shaved parmesan, toss again, and set aside.
- Sear the steaks: Remove the steak from the vacuum bag and pat dry with paper towels. Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat until it is ripping hot. Swirl in the vegetable oil, then add the steaks. Don't move the steak until it has a browned crust on the bottom, about two minutes, then flip and brown the other side, about two more minutes.
- Slice and serve: Transfer the steak to a cutting board and slice against the grain, on the bias, into ½-inch thin slices. To serve, put a handful of salad on a plate and top it with steak slices. Enjoy!
Notes
Don't want to start the day before? An hour in the Sous Vide water bath is enough to cook the steak to medium. It won't be as tender as the 24 hour version, but flat iron makes a good, inexpensive steak even without the long cooking time.
My local grocery store, Acme, stocks Certified Angus Beef flat iron steaks in cryovac packaging, so I can grab one of these whenever I need them. If you can’t find flat iron steaks, ask your butcher for chuck blade steaks; it’s the same cut, but they’re sliced crosswise instead of along the grain.
This technique works great with skirt steak, as chef David recommends; it’s also good with flank steak, flap steak, or other slightly tough steaks that you cut against the grain to make tender. I wouldn’t use it with loin steaks - New York strip, ribeye, tenderloin - because they don’t have much connective tissue, and would dry out in the long cooking time. For loin steaks, go with a 1 to 4 hour max cooking time in the sous vide.
The cubes you see in the picture are Spanish style fried potatoes. I'm a sucker for a steak and potato dinner, especially if I can convince myself it's healthy by serving a kale salad.
Tools
Sous vide water bath (I used a PolyScience immersion circulator with their polycarbonate tank and custom cut lid.)
Large, heavy frypan (I used my 12 inch All-Clad; cast iron is also good for this.)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Sous Vide
- Cuisine: American
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What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
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MARK Thomas BALDWIN says
Why cook so long when other recipes only call for 2 hrs? 24 just seems like alot
Mike Vrobel says
Why Sous Vide Overnight?
So, why sous vide a steak overnight? Because it tenderizes tougher cuts of meat. It's like cooking a pot roast or a low-and-slow barbecue - the extra time breaks down the collagen in the meat, turning it into gelatin. The result turns tough cuts of meat into meltingly tender steaks - they're still solid enough to grill, but they're as tender as a pot roast. (Don't try this with an actual steak cut, like ribeye, New York strip, or tenderloin - they're already tender and will get mushy if you sous vide them this long.)
Itay says
Wonderful! I cooked a whole blade roast for 24 hours at 131°F and seared it after.
I made a sauce by reducing all the bag juices along with some bourbon & butter.
The meat is delicious and exceptionally tender!
Mike Vrobel says
Thank you!