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