This flank steak in sous vide is slow cooked in a water bath with herbs and spices before getting seared and topped off with a spunky herbaceous green sauce. It’s one of the best ways to prepare this cut of beef to ensure tender, perfectly cooked meat every time.
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Sous Vide Flank Steak
Sous vide flank steak is one of the best ways to cook what can sometimes be a tough cut of meat because the slow cook helps tenderize the mea. The cut gets sealed in an airtight bag and slowly cooked in a pot of temperature-regulated water using a sous vide wand. The term ‘sous vide’ is French for ‘under vacuum,’ and refers to the sealed bag the flank steak is cooked in.
The sous vide wand regulates the water to a precise temperature and holds it at that temperature. There is a heater in the wand and a vacuum fan that constantly moves to circulate the water to ensure it stays at the desired temperature. The lower temperatures of this cooking process allows the meat to tenderize and break down as well as ensure even heat distribution. We actually cook all of our steaks sous vide now, and finish them off on the grill or in a really hot pan.
And if you’re still on the sous vide fence? The other two meats I typically cook sous vide are chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, and pork loin.
Ingredients
- Flank steak: This is a great cut for
- Olive oil: You’ll use this for the steak and the green sauce. It’s worth using a nice olive oil for the sauce as the flavors will shine through.
- Oregano: I used fresh oregano for this recipe because it’s growing on my porch, but you can also use dried oregano. For 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, you’ll need 1 teaspoon of dried oregano.
- Fresh basil: Tis the season! Add basil with reckless abandon – you won’t be sorry!
- Fresh parsley: A bit of parsley, just to keep things interesting.
- Scallions: The green parts today, folks.
- Garlic cloves: Roughly chopped.
- Fresh lemon juice
- Preserved lemon: While raw lemon peels are extremely bitter, preserved lemon peels are more mellow and edible. Preserving them gives dishes an added complexity – an umami, salty, acidic punch if you will. If you don’t have any in your pantry, substitute with zest from a lemon.
- Capers: And if the preserved lemons weren’t enough, we’re also adding coarsely chopped capers at the very end to push the brininess over the top!
- Seasoning: Salt and pepper. I’ve included the amounts I use in my recipes. I recommend seasoning the sauce lightly and adding more to taste. For the meat, you can adjust to taste prior to cooking if you have a preference, otherwise, I’ve included the salt I used and you can add more to taste as you eat!
How To Make (Video Tutorial)
Additions and Substitutions
- Any boneless or bone-in cut of sirloin, filet, ribeye, strip, skirt, top round, hanger, T-bone, or porterhouse steak will work for this. I used flank steak for this recipe. If your cuts are smaller filets, you may need to adjust the final sear cook time by 1 minute on each side.
- For the steak, you can replace the oregano with rosemary, thyme or sage. For the sauce, you can try different combinations of herbs such as cilantro or mint.
Tips and Tricks
- Feel free to use your favorite steak seasoning!
- The best pans for searing the steak are cast iron or carbon steel. However, you can use whatever you have. I see great success with stainless steel cookware.
- The Maillard reaction, also known as the browning reaction, is an interaction between sugar and amino acids in the steak when heated to 285°and 350° over high heat, browning the meat to enhance the flavor and add more crispness. This is not the same as caramelizing.
- This is the sous vide I use.
- If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, you’ll need to use the water displacement method using a freezer bag.
What to Serve With Flank Steak
Sous vide flank steak is such a great summertime dinner! Just pop it in an airtight bag, let it do its thing in the sous vide (seriously, forget about it and go do your thing!), and then fire up the grill, and dinner’s nearly done! Just add a big bowl of salad – this white bean salad with grilled corn or this simple Swiss chard salad with garlicky bread crumbs are both amazing – or maybe serve it with some air fryer potatoes to mop through the green sauce.
📖 Recipe
Flank Steak in Sous Vide with Herby Caper Sauce
Ingredients
Flank Steak
- 2 lbs flank steak
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano chopped.
Green Sauce
- ½ cup basil
- ¼ cup parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped scallions greens only
- 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice plus more to taste
- 8 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons preserved lemon
- 2-3 teaspoons capers rough chop – add at the very end.
- ¼ teaspoons salt plus more to taste
Instructions
Flank Steak in Sous Vide
- Pat the steak dry on all sides with a paper towel.
- Season the steak on all sides with salt, freshly cracked black pepper and oregano. I’ve provided amounts for salt and pepper, but season to taste.
- Add a sous vide wand to a large pot or container that’s filled ¾ of the way with cold water adn preheat water bath to your desired temperature. 123-127 F for rare, 128-134 F for medium rare, 135-140 F for medium, 141-150 F for well done. I prefer 129 degrees F.
- Add your steak to a large vacuum seal bag. Seal the vacuum bag until compressed and airtight. You can also use a plain plastic zip bag and the water displacement method to achieve a very similar process.
- Cook fully submerged for 2-4 hours.
- Remove the bag from the water and then remove the steak from the bag.
- As the steak cooks in the bag, it sits in its own rendered juice and fat for a few hours, so to ensure it gets a nice sear on the grill or a nice brown crust (stove top), pat it dry on all sides with a paper towel.
- Preheat grill, cook for 2 minutes on each side, just enough to get nice grill marks.
Green Sauce
- While the flank steak is cooking in the sous vide water bath, make the herby green caper sauce.
- Add all of the ingredients for the green sauce and whiz in a blender. Season to taste (adding a bit more salt, black pepper, or even lemon juice/olive oil to make the sauce sing).
Notes
- Greek Grilled Romaine Salad
- Kale White Bean Salad with Corn and Charred Onion Vinaigrette
- Beet & Cucumber Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
