Churrasco Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
This authentic churrasco recipe is served with flavorful chimichurri sauce. It's fast and easy to make with incredible flavor thanks to a quick marinade in Cuban mojo. Churrasco is the perfect dish for your upcoming barbecues and summer cookouts.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 553kcal
Ingredients
- 2 lbs skirt steak inner skirt preferred
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Mojo Criollo Churrasco Marinade
- 1 cup sour orange juice*
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
Chimichurri Sauce
- ¼ cup flat leaf parsley
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro optional*
- ¼ cup fresh oregano
- 3 cloves garlic
- ½ small shallot peeled
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Make the Churrasco Marinade
- Whisk together all the mojo criollo ingredients in a mixing bowl. This can be made up to a week ahead of time.
- Make the Chimichurri Sauce
- Tear the herb leaves from their stems and add them to the bowl of a food processor or blender.
- Add the garlic cloves, shallot, red pepper flakes, sea salt, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil to the container of the blender or food processor.
- Pulse to start the blending a couple of times, then blend on low speed until the garlic, herbs, and shallot are chopped finely into small pieces.
- Chimichurri sauce can be used immediately but tastes even better if it sits at room temperature for an hour or two before serving or is made the night before for the flavors to mingle together.
- Make Churrasco
- Marinate the skirt steak in a plastic zip top or large mixing bowl with the mojo criollo marinade for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours in the fridge. This step is optional, but it does impart tenderness to the skirt steak.
- Take the marinated steak out of the fridge 45 minutes before cooking to rest. Before cooking, pat the skirt steak dry and season evenly with the kosher salt and ground pepper.
- If using a grill, make sure the charcoal coals are white and hot or if using a propane grill, set it to 350 degrees F. Grill 3-4 minutes on each side for medium-rare. On a grill pan on the stove, use high heat. Sear the skirt steak on each side for 3 minutes for medium-rare.
- Let the steak rest on a cutting board or plate, covered with aluminum foil, for at least 5 minutes before cutting.
- Serve thinly sliced against the grain, topped with chimichurri sauce.
Notes
Substitutions
Cilantro can be substituted for more parsley instead. If you can't find sour orange juice, use 2 parts fresh squeezed orange juice to one part lime or lemon juice.Can I use other cuts of meat?
Flank steak, which is another long muscle coming from the belly area, is a cut that is a perfect substitute for skirt steak. It's lean and tough like skirt steak that does well being cooked quickly to medium rare, so its a perfect cut for churrasco and other dishes like steak fajitas. Another cut I love is flat iron steak, which is a cut from the top muscle blade in the chuck (shoulder) area of the cow. It's a slightly tough cut but it has way more marbling than skirt and flank steak and is a smaller steak size.How long should I marinate the skirt steak?
Skirt steak is a loose muscle, you can literally kind of pull it apart when raw, so marinades permeate it very easily! You can give it a quick 30 minute soak in marinade and see a real impact in flavor, though I wouldn't marinate more than 3 hours otherwise you'll relax the proteins too much and the steak will start to get mushy.How should I cut skirt steak or flank steak?
Flank and skirt steak should be sliced thinly and against the grain. What that means is that you'll see the muscle lines on your steak (they're easier to see when the steak is raw) and you want to cut it perpendicular to those lines; so not cutting along them, but against them like you're crossing t's.
Cutting your steak against the grain is cutting the muscle fibers into shorter pieces, making them more tender to eat. If you cut them with the grain the steak slices will be impossibly chewy.
Chimichurri Sauce Storage
Chimichurri sauce can be used immediately but tastes even better if it sits at room temperature for an hour or two before serving or is made the night before for the flavors to mingle together.Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 553kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 40g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 27g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 1179mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g