Grilled Flank Steak Chimichurri Pinwheels

To kick off my birthday weekend, my husband and I teamed up to make these flank steak pinwheels rolled around a good slathering of chimichurri inspired by a beautiful recipe from the new "Canal House Cooks Every Day" cookbook. As I still have a lot of chimichurri in my freezer, I figured it would be a delicious substitute for pesto (though I think my Swiss Chard and Brussels Sprout Pesto would be great here as well). 

We served the sliced steak along with roasted red potatoes and green beans (simply toss both with a little butter, olive oil, salt, and pepper and grill in foil packets for about 25 minutes). It's a simple yet impressive meal that's great for a special occasion. 

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/3 lb flank steak

~1/2 cup chimichurri (see recipe)

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat the grill to high heat.
(For our three burner gas grill, we turned all burners to high)

Place the flank steak on a large cutting board with the grain of the meat running vertically.

Using a very sharp knife, butterfly the steak by slicing through the middle of the meat from the right side to the left, stopping about 1/2 inch away from the left side (don't cut all the way through the meat). 

Fold it open like a book, and press flat.

Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and then spread the chimichurri generously over the surface, leaving about 1/2 - 1 inch of space around the edges.

Roll the meat from right to left until it forms a long log, and tie with kitchen twine every inch or two. Rub the exterior of the meat with any chimichurri that squeezes out onto the cutting board.

Grill for about 10 minutes, searing the meat on all sides.

Reduce the heat on the grill such that one side of the grill is still hot and one side is cooler. 

(We accomplished this on our three burner gas grill by setting the front burner to high, the middle burner to medium, and the back burner to low.)

Move the seared meat to the cooler side of the grill, close the lid, and let it roast for about 20 minutes until the center reaches the desired temperature (we opted for ~140 F for a medium steak).

When the desired temperature is achieved, bring the meat inside, and let it rest on the cutting board for about 5-10 minutes. 

Remove the kitchen twine, and slice in about 1-inch pinwheels. Serve immediately, and enjoy!