This delicious chimichurri sauce is perfect for tenderizing lean and healthy flank steak this summer and is a perfect easy grilling recipe.

Summer & grilling go hand in hand and this year we have been thrilled to be playing with our brand new gas grill. I've been firing up recipe after recipe as I learn how to use it and Tim has been thrilled with the variety of meats and seafood that have been hitting our dinner table. When our local grocery store Harris Teeter approached me about creating a recipe featuring their very tender beef, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: chimichurri steak!!
Fantastic meat like this doesn't require marinading--we'd normally just season the steak and pop it on the grill--but my herb garden was literally exploding with cilantro and this recipe makes great use of it in large quantities. You just puree everything up in a food processor and let it mingle in the fridge until you're ready to grill. Chimichurri sauce couldn't be easier or fresher tasting.
Ingredients
The entire marinade is made in the bowl of a food processor so it is very simple.
All you'll need is:
- Jalapeño pepper, stem trimmed off, cut into large chunks
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh cilantro, washed and dried
- Fresh parsley, washed and dried
- Lime
- Dried oregano
- Red wine vinegar
- Olive oil
The fresh herbs are essential, it will not work to try to substitute with dried herbs because the greens are what make up the bulk of the sauce.
Marinate the Steak
My advice is to be sure to reserve half of the marinade for extra drizzles over your dish later. It works great stirred into simple white rice or over fresh tomatoes. We happily slather it on just about anything.
Take the other half of the marinade and coat the raw beef in it. Let it sit for 2 hours or up to 24 hours before using.
Grill the Steak
We find it easiest to string all-beef kabobs on skewers for grilling. When the meat is cut into even pieces, it all cooks at about the same time.
If you want grilled vegetables, thread those onto separate skewers from the beef.
Serving Suggestions
Serve the chimichurri steak over a bed of jasmine rice or alongside roasted sweet potatoes.
You can use thinly sliced pieces of meat to make chimichurri steak sandwiches--the marinade also works great as a sauce with toasted crusty bread.
📖 Recipe
Chimichurri Sauce for Steak
Ingredients
- 2 pounds very tender beef tenderloin cut into large cubes or 1 flank steak left whole
- 1 jalapeño pepper stem trimmed off, cut into large chunks
- 6 - 8 cloves of fresh garlic
- 2 bunches cilantro washed and dried
- 2 bunches parsley washed and dried
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- ¾ cup red wine vinegar
- ¾ cup olive oil
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Cut the beef tenderloins into large cubes and place them in a large bowl or plastic zip top bag. If using a flank steak, just add the whole steak to the bowl.
- Add the jalapeño and garlic cloves to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse the machine until the peppers are minced.
- Wash and dry the cilantro and parsley. Slowly add one bunch of the fresh herbs at a time to the food processor and roughly chop them.
- Be careful not to jam the blade by overfilling it, work in small batches adding more once the previous bunch is chopped up.
- Add the lime juice and oregano to the food processor bowl. With the blade running, slowly pour in the red wine vinegar and then the olive oil. Add salt & pepper to taste.
- Combine the steak meat and half of the marinade. Let it chill in the fridge for an hour or longer.
- When you are ready to grill, drain off the excess marinade and thread the steak onto pre-soaked skewers.
- Turn the skewers to get grill marks on all sides for a total of about 10 minutes or until the steak is done medium-well.
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Amy
are you sure that shouldn't be one quarter cup of the red wine vinegar? I just made it in the vinegar is very overwhelming. Other recipes seem to have one quarter cup of the vinegar to the 3/4 cup of the olive oil
Jamie (Mama.Mommy.Mom.)
This looks absolutely amazing! I can't wait to try it!