Why you are cooking this tonight
The steak dinner you cook on a Tuesday to remind yourself that life is not all admin and washing the car. Twenty-five minutes from wrapper to plate, one pan, one board, one small bowl of green sauce that makes it look like you know what you’re doing. Which you do, because you bought the right cut and you read this first.
The two things that make this dinner work are a good piece of meat and a chimichurri that actually tastes of herbs, not just vinegar and sadness. Get both right and nothing else needs to be complicated. A handful of rocket on the plate, a roasted potato or two, bread to mop. Done.
This is a steak-at-home dinner, not a steakhouse impression. Home is better. You control the heat, the cut, the rest, and the sauce. You also get to drink a decent bottle of red for less than the restaurant corkage.
What you need
2 thick-cut rib-eye steaks, about 350 g each, at least 3 cm thick. Thickness matters more than weight. A thin steak cooks before it crusts. Ask the butcher for bone-in if they have it, cowboy-cut if you’re feeling theatrical. Supermarket porterhouse at 3 cm also works. Scotch fillet is the New South Wales name for the same cut, in case your butcher speaks a different dialect.
A big bunch of flat-leaf parsley, about 60 g of leaves once picked. Curly parsley is not an acceptable substitute. Neither is coriander. Chimichurri is parsley.
A small handful of fresh oregano, about 2 tablespoons of picked leaves. Dried oregano works at a pinch, use half the amount. Skip it if you cannot find either.
4 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped. Not crushed, not microplaned. Chopped. You want bits.
1 long red chilli, seeds in or out depending on your crowd. Finely chopped.
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar. The chimichurri’s backbone. Don’t swap for white wine vinegar or balsamic.
120 ml good olive oil. Extra virgin. Your second-best bottle, not the cooking oil from the bottom shelf.
1 teaspoon flaky salt, plus more for the steak.
Freshly ground black pepper.
Neutral oil for the pan, rice bran or grapeseed. Olive oil burns at the heat you need here.
Flaky salt for finishing. Murray River, Maldon, whatever you have. Non-negotiable on a steak.
Optional: 1 rocket and parmesan salad on the side, and a loaf of crusty bread. That’s the whole dinner.
How to cook it
-
Pull the steaks out. Unwrap, pat dry with paper towel, sit them on a plate on the bench for 30 to 45 minutes. Cold steak into a hot pan is the most common home-cook mistake and the easiest to fix. Room-temperature meat cooks evenly.
-
Make the chimichurri first. This sauce rests better than the steak. Pile the parsley on a big board and chop it finely. Same with the oregano, garlic, chilli. Tip it all into a bowl. Vinegar, salt, a good grind of pepper. Pour over the olive oil, stir. Taste. Needs more salt? Probably. More vinegar? Maybe. Set aside at room temperature while you cook.
-
Heat the pan hard. Heavy-based skillet, cast iron ideal, on the highest heat your stove has. Dry pan. Leave it for at least three minutes. You want it visibly shimmering, almost smoking. This is louder than you are used to. Open a window.
-
Oil and season. A teaspoon of neutral oil into the pan. Salt the steaks generously on both sides the second before they go in, not before. Salting early pulls moisture to the surface and ruins the crust.
-
Steaks in, don’t move. Lay them away from you so the oil doesn’t splash. Press down gently with tongs for the first ten seconds so the whole surface makes contact. Then leave them. Three minutes. Do not touch. Do not lift the corner. Music in the kitchen, a cold beer in your hand, faith.
-
Flip once. Proper flip, not nudging. Another three minutes on the other side for medium-rare on a 3 cm steak. Add a knob of butter, a smashed garlic clove, a sprig of thyme if you have it, and baste the steak with the foaming butter for the last minute. Restaurant trick. Cheap trick. Excellent trick.
-
Check. Finger-poke test or thermometer, your call. Medium-rare is 52°C internal, it will climb another 3 degrees as it rests. If you like medium, pull at 55°C. Well-done rib-eye is a hate crime and we will not acknowledge it.
-
Rest, properly. Onto the board, loosely tented with foil, 8 to 10 minutes. This is the single biggest thing home cooks skip. The steak finishes cooking, the juices settle, the slice is pink all the way through. If you cut straight away, half the juice ends up on the board, and the steak is grey.
-
Slice against the grain. Look at the direction of the muscle fibres, slice across them, 1 cm thick slices. Fan them out on the board.
-
Dress and serve. Spoon half the chimichurri over the sliced steak, then flaky salt, then a bit more pepper. Put the rest of the chimichurri in a bowl on the table. People will want more.
What to pour with it
Wine / beer to buyA McLaren Vale Shiraz or a Coonawarra Cabernet
The default, and still correct. Shiraz brings pepper and dark fruit that chime with the char. Cabernet brings tannin and blackcurrant that cut through the fat. Penfolds St Henri, Wynns, Yalumba, d’Arenberg. $25 to $50 is the range where Australian reds absolutely outperform their price.
Wine / beer to buyA Mendoza Malbec if you want to play the chimichurri card
This is the Argentinian pairing and there is a reason it is a cliche. Plush, dark, a whisper of violet, low enough acid to let the steak shine. Catena or Zuccardi from the bottle shop. $20 to $30 does the job.
Make this drinkAn Old Fashioned before dinner
Brown spirit, sugar, bitters, a twist of orange. The drink for red meat night. Pour it small, sip it while the steak is resting, finish it with the first slice. Starward or Archie Rose if you’re drinking Australian whisky.
Read the recipe →Make this drinkA Negroni if you want to start bitter
Campari, sweet vermouth, gin. Cuts through the richness coming, resets your palate. A Negroni before a rib-eye is one of life’s correct sequences.
Read the recipe →Two things that go wrong
Grey steak, no crust. Pan not hot enough, or steak not dry enough, or too much movement. Three fixes: dry the meat, heat the pan until it smokes, and don’t touch the steak for the first three minutes. Steaks don’t need help, they need heat and patience.
Chimichurri tastes like vinegar. You used too much, or not enough salt, or you blitzed it in a food processor. Do not blitz. Chop by hand. The texture matters. Balance with more olive oil and a pinch of salt. Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving, the flavours marry.
Variations worth knowing
T-bone or porterhouse for two
One thick T-bone, 600 to 800 g, treated the same way but given an extra minute or two per side. Carve the strip and the fillet off the bone separately. Share. Drink better wine. It’s still a Tuesday.
Red chimichurri
Add a tablespoon of smoked paprika and a couple of roasted red capsicums, chopped, to the green sauce. Deeper, smokier. Works beautifully with grilled lamb too.
Flank or skirt steak for a crowd
Cheaper cuts, bigger pieces, just as good if you slice them properly. Grill hard, rest well, slice thin against the grain. Feeds four for the price of two rib-eyes.
Leftover plan
Cold sliced steak on sourdough with leftover chimichurri and a smear of mayo is the best lunch of the week. Or chop the steak into chunks, toss through warm grains (farro, barley, couscous) with rocket, crumbled feta, and the rest of the chimichurri as a dressing. Monday desk lunch, self-respect intact.
Rib-eye steak with proper chimichurri
Ingredients
Method
- Rest the steaks at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes. Pat dry.
- Make the chimichurri: finely chop the parsley, oregano, garlic and chilli by hand. Stir in the vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. Rest while you cook.
- Heat a heavy pan until smoking hot. Film with neutral oil. Salt the steaks generously, lay them in away from you.
- Three minutes undisturbed. Flip once. Three minutes more.
- Add the butter, smashed garlic clove and thyme. Baste for a final minute.
- Pull the steaks at 52°C internal for medium-rare.
- Rest under loose foil for 8 to 10 minutes. This is not optional.
- Slice thickly against the grain. Spoon chimichurri over, finish with flaky salt, serve.