Flank steak may not be the first cut you think of when you’re shopping for steaks to grill. If you’re on a budget thin flat cuts like flank steaks or skirt steaks are often cheaper than thick steaks like ribeye or New York strip and they still taste great. Flank is the go-to cut for London broil and it’s great in fajitas but served on its own it has a robust strong beef flavor. You just have to be careful not to overcook it or it will become tough and unpleasantly chewy.
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 Art of Manliness | 2013-07-01 18:10:58 |  541,859 Views |
The Art of Grilling: How to Grill a Flank Steak
The most important thing to remember is that flank steak is a thinner cut of meat that comes from the abdominal muscles of the cow near the stomach. Different cuts of steak are cooked differently and thin steaks are more likely to overcook. This means you’ll need to be a more vigilant griller than you would when grilling a thicker steak. For flank steak it’s helpful to grill it for a shorter time or at a lower temperature than you normally would (there are a few reasons for this that we’ll discuss later) and marinating it will help keep the steak from becoming tough.
Thick steaks can easily be grilled at high temperatures for a long time without much risk of overcooking but flank steak cannot. Some grillers say that the best way to cook thin steaks is to cook them quickly at high temperatures. Others however argue that it is easier to accidentally dry them out this way and that you should grill them at lower temperatures for longer instead. If you do choose high temperatures the meat should only need three to five minutes on each side before it is fully cooked.
Another thing to keep in mind that applies to all steaks—but especially thinner cuts—is heat transfer. When you turn off the heat that doesn’t mean the steak is done. There’s still a lot of heat inside the steak and that inside will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the grill and let it rest. So if you’re aiming for an ideal medium-rare temperature and you find that cooking the flank at that temperature somehow overcooks it try cooking it five or ten degrees Fahrenheit lower. Once it rests the heat transfer will finish cooking it.
