Most steakhouses serve their steaks as thick as possible, especially tender cuts like Filet Mignon and Porterhouse. Yet thin steaks are often just as flavorful when cooked with care. There’s no need to worry about a tough or chewy texture either with the right cooking method. Little details add up to make thin steaks great no matter how you end up serving them. Get the tips you need to make thin cuts like flank and breakfast steaks turn out better than ever.
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Best Thin Steak Cuts
Skirt steaks are among the most popular thin cuts of beef. However, even the people who cook them regularly are often unaware that there are two types. The outer Skirt steak is a better choice because it’s tender and tends to be more flavorful. The inner Skirt steak is affordable, but it doesn’t have the same texture.
Hanging tender is the correct name for the hanger steak, which can also be called the pillar. It’s a group of muscles that hangs inside the body cavity. While it was once kept by the butcher or rarely sold, it’s now much more widely available. It’s a thin and highly textured piece of steak that can be juicy and flavorful when cooked with extra liquid or a quick turn on the grill. Some people prefer it for grinding into burgers or chopping up for stir fries and tacos.
The Sirloin Flap is another interior muscle group that wasn’t as widely available in the past. When it’s sliced into smaller pieces, they make great thin steaks. Trimmed Flap steak is the best choice since this cut can have a lot of silverside and other membranes on it.
Flank steaks are widely used for dishes that call for thin and quick-cooking cuts. The long and flat piece of muscle comes from the belly right in front of the rear legs. You’ll find this steak grilled or cut up and used in other dishes in Spanish, Mexican, and Italian cuisines.
What Happens When You Overcook Thin Steak?
Thin steaks either need a short cooking time over high heat or a long cooking time with liquid and low heat to turn out tender. Overcooked thin steaks, especially when no liquid is used for cooking, will turn out dry and tough. While you’ll want to rarely flip a steak that’s ½ inch thick or thicker, thin steaks need multiple flips to cook them evenly without risking overcooking.
How Do You Make Thin Steaks Tender?
Marinating the meat is a good way to boost the flavor and juiciness of the finished steak. It can help with tenderness as well, especially if you add an ingredient that contains meat-tenderizing enzymes. These ingredients include raw pineapple, buttermilk, yogurt, and papaya. You can also pound the steaks with a meat mallet or sprinkle on some powdered meat tenderizer right before cooking. But no matter how you prepare the steak, the real key to tenderness is avoiding overcooking. Some thin steaks need as little as one minute on each side per flip and under five minutes in total when cooked on a hot grill.
The Ideal Thin Steak Marinade
You need about ¼th to ½ cup of marinade per pound of steak you’re soaking. Use a mix of acidic ingredients like vinegar, lime juice, or buttermilk with flavorful liquids like wine, coffee, or soy sauce. Toss in crushed garlic cloves and your favorite dried spices, along with some whole peppercorns. Don’t forget about 1 teaspoon of salt per three cups of liquid, unless you’re using a source of concentrated sodium like soy sauce. Tossing in some liquid smoke can give you that grilled flavor if you’re going to be cooking the thin steaks in a frying pan or in the oven.
Can You Bread Thin Steaks?
Keeping the steaks dry rather than marinating them gives you a chance to dredge and bread them. Thin steaks are great for breading and deep frying or air frying because they cook quicker and more evenly than thicker cuts. That means you won’t have to fuss with pre-cooking before moving on to the frying stage. Thin steaks taste great whether you coat them with seasoned breadcrumbs or a flour and spice mix. Even cornmeal-based coatings can add flavor and crunch when cooking thin steak.
Methods of Cooking Thin Steak
There are many ways to transform thin cuts of steak into a delicious meal for any night of the week. If you’re grilling, you can have the cooking process done in under ten minutes. Other methods may take a little longer because they rely on the method of low and slow cooking. No matter what texture and flavors you want in the finished dish, these cooking methods will help you make the most of your thin steak.
On the Stove
A hot cast iron skillet is all you need for a tender and juicy thin steak. Season the steak and let it warm up for about 5 minutes on the counter as you heat the pan and add a little high-heat oil. Bring the pan up to at least 400 degrees on the surface, then cook the steak for about 5 minutes in total. Flip every minute or so to avoid overcooking and to get an even sear. For deep frying, use a deep Dutch oven with at least three to four inches of frying oil in it. Keep the oil at 350 degrees and cook the steaks until they are golden brown.
In the Oven
Braising the steaks is the best way to keep the thin cuts from getting tough when exposed to longer cooking periods. Sear the steaks first in a hot cast iron pan for a few seconds per side. Layer the thin steaks in a casserole dish or Dutch oven with ingredients like beef broth, red wine, fresh herbs, and sliced onions. Cook the steaks at 300 degrees for about 2 hours and serve topped with the rich juices.
On the Grill
Thin steaks need almost the same handling on the grill that they take on the stovetop. Heat the grill up to about 400 degrees F, then let the steaks come to room temperature and season them. Give the steaks about 1 minute at a time before flipping. Cook for about 5 to 6 minutes for medium rareness and a minute longer for more well-done meat.
In Air Fryer
Breaded or bare, thin steaks cook up quickly in the air fryer. Make sure there’s plenty of oil on the steaks if they’re bare or on the air fryer basket if they’re breaded. Cook the steak at 400 degrees F for around 5 to 7 minutes, flipping once.
Conclusion
Thin steaks stretch your food budget while still helping you enjoy the meaty flavor of beef. Explore what you can do with Flank or Skirt steaks by slicing them up for steak sandwiches and pizza toppings as well.