The Best Flank Steak Sandwich Ever

I've been promising this one to Chris for quite a while, and to thank him for graciously being my first Q and A guest, I now present, The Best Flank Steak Sandwich Ever! Or at least what I can remember of the recipe.

What you need.

1 Flank Steak
3/4 cup of Coke™
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves of minced garlic
Good pinch of red chili flakes

How to make it.

First... take everything but the flank steak and mix it together in a large freezer bag. Why a large freezer bag? I'm just trying to save you on the clean up.

Next... Take the flank steak and put it in the bag with the marinade. Try to get most of the air out of the bag, then seal it up and give it a little shake so that the meat is covered with the marinade. Toss that in the fridge for an hour or two. You can let it marinate overnight, the longer it marinates the more tender it gets...But who has that kind of time and foresight.

Once the meat is done marinating, fire up the barbecue, and let it preheat to about 350-400. If you have two burners turn one off after preheating and place the steak on the side with the burner off. If you only have a single burner you may want to turn it down to a medium heat.

Before closing the lid.. baste the top of the steak with the marinade. Discard the rest of the marinade... you don't want to put it on the cooked side, otherwise you're asking for trouble. Let it cook for roughly 8 to 10 minutes on one side. Flip it and cook the other side until the meat springs back when you push on it – another 8 minutes I guess. These times are all sort of relative to your particular barbecue. If in doubt, use a meat thermometer and aim for the rare to medium temperature.

Once the meat is done, put it on a plate and cover with foil to keep the heat in. Let it sit for 5 to 7 minutes. it will continue to cook and the meat will retain it's juice despite all the juice you see when you pull the foil off. Plenty of juice to go around.

Now, here's where you really need to pay attention. Flank steak is tough... that is, unless you know how to cut it. If you look at the meat it has a grain running the length it. What you want to do is cut across that grain on an angle. See the example below.



Beauty!

I like eating this on a nice whole wheat or multigrain bun. Just pile slices of this on the bun and top it with whatever you like. I would suggest some tomato, boston lettuce, maybe a slice of avocado, and a spicy mayo made with light Hellman's and Frank's Red Hot Sauce mixed together.

What so great about it?

Kids, best of all it's economical. An average sized flank steak is in the range of 12 to 14 dollars. I know... it sounds like a lot of money, but you can probably get 4-5 sandwiches and then some out of it. Flank steak used to be cheaper because it was a tough piece of meat, but once people figured out how to make it tender the price started to rise. All in all it's still a pretty good deal.

It's also a lean cut of meat with very little fat on it and eating it in thin slices piled up on a sandwich gives you the illusion of eating more than you think you are.

What about a side dish?

I would pair this up with perhaps some baked sweet potato fries, or a sweet potato salad dressed with vinaigrettete rather than a creamy dressing. Or hey... how about a nice fresh salad. Beverage wise I am looking at nice crisp reisling, or maybe honey brown ale... Hmmm maybe an iced tea.

And that's it! Stuff yourself silly... silly.