How to Make Grill-Smoked Herb-Rubbed Flat Iron Steaks

[Music]today we’re talking about a steak thatwe’ve never cooked on the show before aFlatiron steak now Flatiron steakshaven’t always been popular but back in1999 beef producers did a study toidentify undervalued cuts turns outpeople weren’t cooking the Flatiron sothey gave it some well-deserved PR andtoday Dan’s gonna give this steak aproper test kitchen debut I’m so excitedwe’re doing the Flatiron it’s a greatsteak and what’s really interesting isactually comes from the chuck we don’tget a lot of steaks from there no it’sreally more for braising like pot roastor stew me exactly and those meats arenice because they have tons of beefyflavor but they’re usually pretty toughand they take a long time to cook what’sinteresting is the Flatiron has thatgreat beefy flavor but it’s more tenderso we can cook it like a steak we canactually do something really interestingwith it and that is smoked yet okay notmany recipes out there smoked a steakusually think of smoked food you thinkof ribs or maybe even a brisket andthose are really fatty cuts and they canreally hold up to a lot of smoke butthis is beefy enough and flavorfulenough that we can really do it withthis and so I have four Flatiron steakswhat I’m gonna do is transfer it over tothis wire rack here and you can see theyhave good marbling all these nice littlewhite patches in there I’m gonna Patthem dry we don’t want too much extramoisture on there now I’m gonna seasonthem with a tablespoon of kosher saltand that’s gonna do a couple of thingsone is it’s gonna draw some moisture outto the surface of the steak within about45 minutes that moisture is gonna startgoing back in so it’s like aconcentrated brine on the outside andit’s gonna keep them nice and juicy nowthat looks like a lot of salt this iskosher salt right and so it doesn’t packas densely as table salt does so thiswere all tables well that would be a lotall right so we’re gonna set these asideand they’re gonna hang out for an hourabout 30 minutes into it we can go andset our grill up so it’s not reallywasted time next up we’re actually gonnawork on a spice rub so you have a ton ofsmoke flavor it can really stand up to alot of spice and I’m gonna do it all ina coffee grinder that we’ve designatedrelateed have spicy coffee we could makea coffee rub I guess but we’re not gonnado that today so we’ve got 2 teaspoonsof dried thyme here teaspoon of driedrosemary 3/4 of teaspoon of fennel seedmm-hmm one of my favoritesthen we’ve got a half a teaspoon ofblack peppercorns and a quarter teaspoonof crushed red pepper flakes Oh buddy alittle bit of heat not too much but alittle bit I’m gonna dothe spice grinder shake you’re gonnashake it I’m gonna shake all right giveit a nice rap on the counter make surethat stuff falls in from the cap oh thatis niceit’s not like a spicy paste it’s like anherb rub that’s right so now we gottafocus on the smoke we’re gonna have acup of woodchips here this is Hickoryyou could use any other hardwood thatyou really like to smoke with this is a12 by 16 sheet of foil I’m gonna makethat ruff 8 by 4 and 1/2 inch rectanglein the middle here is kind of my guideso then just kind of fold this like abusiness letter so you come up like thatand then another third over the top thisway and then I’m gonna come in and justdo a couple folds on the side to bringit together so the final thing we’regonna be very particular about with thiswood packet is the slits that we make init so we’re gonna do two two inch slitsin the top here air flow is everythingwhen it comes to smoking if this weren’topen packet we’d have tons of air comingin and they would actually combust theycatch on fire it’s not the smoke thatwe’re looking for so this is just enoughair coming in that they’re gonna smolderwe’re gonna get good smoke right awayit’s gonna last the whole cook all rightme a few more minutes on that and thenwe’ll head out to the grill sounds goodso Julia this has been heating for about30 minutes and you can see the top ofthe coals and this is 6 quarts of coalshas started to ash over so it’s time todump it out I’m actually gonna dump iton just half of the grill so we’re gonnamake a pretty hot fire set off grillfire we call it exactly so we have our 1cup of wood chips that we wrapped in ournice perfect little foil packet sothat’s gonna go right on top of the hotcoals and then the grate and goes on topwe’re gonna pop on the lid let this heatfor about five minutes it’s gonna heatup those grates so they’re a lot easierto clean oh it smells good does smellgood so just use my grill brush and goback and forth and then I’ve got a wadof paper towels here and when you usethis oil to really make it nice andnonstick so now it’s time for our lovelysteaks we have our beautiful spice planthat we made inside we’re gonna put onhalf on the top side here so try and geta nice even sprinkle do you test for thewind before you spring yes you have toso I’m gonna use my fingers and justpress that rub right into the meat helpit adhere exactly we wanted to stickreally nicelyand to that end we’re also going to usea little bit of nonstick cooking sprayit’s also gonna help these spices bloomin the heat of the grill flip it overand I’ll do the same on the second sidenow we can get them on the grill we’regonna cook these pretty traditionallyover the hot side we’re not doing a slowand low method like we do with barbecuethey’re gonna cook through prettyquickly they will yep and so you want toput any thinner parts can go over thefoil packet it’s gonna be a little bitcooler right there would you mindpassing me those lemons those are gonnago on to some nice grilled lemons aregonna add so much to this Oh grilledlemons are one of my favorite wheneveryou have a grill just throw a couplelemons on there makes the bestvinaigrettes okay so our lid goes on andit’s really important to make sure thatthis vent is over the charcoal and thesmoke it’s gonna really pull it up andreally flavor the steaks nicely so we’regonna cook these on this way about fourto six minutes aside we’re gonna fliphalfway through we’re also gonna knockthose lemons over on the other side sothey get really good flavor we’relooking for about a hundred and thirtydegrees internal temperature all rightso for most steaks cooking to 120 or 125that’s medium-rare we’ll give you thejuiciest most tender results but thereare a few exceptions including flanksteak steak tips and of course theFlatiron steak it all comes down tomuscle fibers cuts like a flame andy’all have relatively thin muscle fiberswhile a Flatiron steak has wider longermuscle fibers when you cook a steak themuscle fibers in the beef shrinking withresulting in a separation that makesthem easier to chew for the thin fibergleamin y’all the amount of shrinkingand tenderizing that occurs at 125degrees is sufficient for the widerlonger muscle fibers of the Flatironsteak we need to cook it a little longerso they shrink further before they’reacceptable tender a Flatiron steak hitsits sweet spot between 130 and 135degrees so this thing’s been cooking forabout 12 minutes total really smoking itis right I flipped them half way throughthose are looking good so I’m gonna lookfor about 130 to 135 degrees hereperfect transfer my steaks over to ourwire rack here oh those look goodand we cannot forget the nice grilledlemons and as a look at those I’m gonnatent our steaks with foil here let’sbring them inside and we’re close toeatin sounds good so these guys haverested for about 10 minutes and it’simportant to let them rest we cook themto a slightly higher temperature that130-135 we want to let them rest longenough that the juices stay in the meatvery very important ready to take a lookyeah see where we got here oh they’rebeautiful all right so let’s pop one ofthese over here now usually when weslice steak we’re very careful to sliceit against the grain but I have to sayit’s kind of hard to see on this guyit’s a little bit hard to see you reallydo want to find it on these steaksbecause they’re cut from the shoulderthey’re you know they’re not quite astender say a ribeye so you want to findthat and we’re gonna slice really thinacross the grain there that is cookedperfectly that’s beautifulwhich like a squeeze of grilled lemon Ilove grilled lemons I know mmm it’sbeefy then it’s smoky and then you getthe herb rub and the lemon juice oh whata nice combination of flavors this is astender as I’d say a New York Strip stickand it does have the beefiness of thecuts that we find in the shoulder mm-hmmbut the tenderness of a steak a greatdebut thank you very muchthis Flatiron steak recipe starts byseasoning the meat and salt and lettingit sit for an hour set up a very hotgrill add a woodchip packet for smokeand rub the steaks for the homemade herbpeppercorn rubcook the steaks right over the coalsuntil they register a hundred and thirtydegrees served with lemon wedges andthere you have it from America’s TestKitchen to your kitchenour very first recipe for grill smokedherb rubbed Flatiron steaks thanks forwatching America’s Test Kitchen what youthink we’ll leave a comment and let usknow which recipes you’re excited tomake or you can just say hello you canfind links to today’s recipes andreviews in the video description anddon’t forget to subscribe to our Channelsee you later I’ll see you later