Grilling Day, part II: The main event

Cook's Illustrated's "Charcoal-grilled Argentine steaks with chimichurri sauce."

When I said I had chimichurri on the mind, I was thinking of a Bobby Flay recipe that involves marinating rib-eye steak for about four hours prior to grilling. So I made a bee line to Costco and picked up my pack of rib-eyes.

Later my wife reminded me that we had lots of success with the Cook's Illustrated method of cooking chimichurri. I'm glad I heeded her advice (this tends to work well in most situations).

Because she prepared the chimichurri sauce last time (and is more handy than I am at a food processor), I focused on the steaks themselves.

Rib-eye steak placed on a tricked-out former gas grill-turned-charcoal

To begin, you take a tablespoon of cornstarch and salt and mix them together.

Next, you light up your charcoal grill. But if you have a gas grill and want a charcoal grill, you can do what I did and rip out all of the guts of the gas grill and throw in some charcoal.

Actually, this former gas grill was all rusted out inside and had been gathering dust on the deck since I'd bought a brand new propane grill a few months back. But I loved the way the old Kenmore grill still looked, so it was perfect to be put to use as a charcoal grill. After I ripped out all of the rusted out parts with a pair of work gloves (I'm up on my tetanus shots), it turned out my hibachi grill fit perfectly inside the newly-opened cavity. It should be noted no propane tank was still hooked up to this grill.

So you take your pack of rib-eyes, open them up and then grab a bunch of paper towels and do like those old war movies and start patting down all the blood. Make sure the steaks are dry. Then take your unbloodied hand and rub in the cornstarch/salt mixture.

When you've done all of them, put them on a plate and place them carefully, uncovered, in the freezer for a half-hour. This actually works out perfectly when you're dealing with coals, since they will need time to light and turn into the ashy embers you need for good steaks.

The recipe says you should be able to hold your hand above the grilling grate about five inches for a few seconds. If you have wood chips, place them around the perimeter of the grill. This will generate a bunch of smoke (the desired effect) but you won't necessarily want to smoke out your deck doing this.

When you are ready to put your steaks on the grill, you season them with some pepper (pretty standard), but what is not standard is the Cook's Illustrated way of grilling them. Basically you flip them twice after 2-3 minutes. The third time you cook until the side is charred and you get 115 degrees for rare and 120 degrees for medium-rare. The recipe says this is to prevent flare-ups.

It worked like a charm. We got the desired temperature for medium-rare on the first try. We took them out and tented them for about 10 minutes. When it was time to slice them for the brunch party, it looked like outside that they were mainly well-done. But as you can see above, we did get a bunch of medium to medium-rare pieces.

We grilled a bunch of chicken breasts for the non-red meat eaters and I have to say, these were even more tasty than the steaks. All we did was season them on both sides with sea salt and pepper. The chimichurri sauce went well with both kinds of meats.