Chimichurri Sauce

Steve has a good friend who is in like Flynn with some local cattle producers. He always seems to be coming up with deals on various kinds of meats and seafood and last week called him to see if he’d like to buy some skirt steak. I’m pretty sure Steve had no idea what skirt steak even was but he said yes anyway.

Skirt steak is one of those cuts that I never see at the grocery store. Like never.

Like flank steak it is a lean cut and can be prone to toughness especially if it is not carved correctly, across the grain. It is often used in restaurants for fajitas as it can be cut thinly and is quite flavourful.

Upon bringing home his new prize (modern day hunting?) it was then time to determine what to do with the beast. We decided on grilling it simply and adding my all time favourite steak accoutrement, an Argentinian chimichurri sauce.

Chimichurri sauce is one of those recipes that is mostly made one way. Lots of parsley, garlic, olive oil, wine vinegar, and perhaps some lime juice and hot peppers. Some add spices or other herbs like oregano or basil or my favourite, cilantro, to the mix but at its core it is parsley, garlic, salt, wine vinegar and olive oil.

I happened to have 3 jalapeño chilies in the fridge so to add a little kick I toasted one over a gas burner, removed the seeds and then added parsley, cilantro, garlic a little salt and some olive oil to the food processor and gave it a good pulse (or 10). I love cilantro. It is one of my favourite herbs.

The skirt steak was seasoned with some steak spice and cut into smaller portions to make it easier to handle on the barbecue and also to carve across the grain. After letting the grilled meat rest for a few minutes I cut it crosswise into sections about 5″ long and then turned my knife to cut lengthwise, across the grain of the meat. Tender, and delicious!

Chimichurri Sauce

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

A traditional Argentinian herb sauce, perfect over steak, chicken or even seafood.

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Ingredients

• 1 jalapeño or other small fresh chile if you don't have a chile but still want some heat you can substitute 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 1/2 C fresh parsley packed
• 1/2 C fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves only (or 1Tbsp dried)
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• juice of 1/2 med lime about 1 Tbsp
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C olive oil

Instructions

1. Toast the chile over a gas flame, or roast in 450° oven until beginning to blister and blacken
2. Cut off stem end and split chile lengthwise
3. With a spoon, remove seeds and membrane from chile. Do NOT touch anything else after handling chiles before washing your hands - especially your eyes!
4. Put chile and all other ingredients except oil into a food processor or blender and pulse until uniformly minced
5. Add oil and pulse a few times to incorporate, scraping down sides of bowl a few times if needed. Do not over process, you do not want the sauce to be pureed.
6. Let sit at room temperature for a few hours if possible to blend flavours
7. Serve liberally over grilled meat

Recipe Notes

You can easily remove parsley and cilantro leaves by gathering your herbs in a bunch and slicing off the top of the whole bunch. You'll get part of the stems but for this recipe that is just fine.