Chili Oil Steak Pinwheels

Sliced-Pinwheel

by: Matt Zentz

I was pretty excited about this. It looked insanely good. I drove around town trying to find Sichuan chili flakes and,  while I was successful, I'm not sure they were the right kind. I don't know. The chili oil just wasn't all that.

The pinwheel steaks were also challenging. First, they came apart multiple times. I assume I didn't tie them tight enough, but it could also use some skewers of some sort holding them together. Second, the cheese melted from the steak as it cooked. 

Overall, I feel like I did a lot of things wrong, and as a result, I'm not sure I'll attempt these again.  When finally done, they tasted okay...but definitely not worth the effort and stress, though.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 4 h 30 m
Cook Time: 1 h

Ingredients

Steak & Marinade:

  • 2 Whole Skirt Steaks
  • 2 cups Tiki Tiki BBQ Sauce


Pinwheels:

  • 10-12 Mozzarella Cheese Slices
  • 1.5 cups Chopped Green Onions
  • Kosher Salt as needed
  • Black Pepper as needed
  • Garlic Powder as needed
  • Oil as needed

Chili Oil:

  • 1.5 cups Canola Oil
  • 4-5 Star Anise
  • 2 whole Cinnamon Sticks
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 3 crushed Garlic Cloves
  • 3 tbsp Sichuan Peppercorns
  • 3/4 cup Sichuan Chili Flakes
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Directions

Chili Oil:

  1. Preheat a grill for medium heat (around 325F) for direct cooking.
  2. Add a cast iron skillet to the grill with your canola oil and bring the oil to 225-250F.
  3. Add the star anise, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, crushed garlic and sichuan peppercorns to the oil. Let fry in the oil for about 30 minutes making sure to stir occasionally.
  4. In a mason jar or heat safe bowl, add your sichuan chili flakes. With a colander over the top of the bowl of chili flakes, pour in your herb infused oil over the chili flakes and stir. Then let cool.

Steak:

  1. Lay your steak out on a cutting board and cover it with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using a heavy mallet or food mallet, hammer the skirt steak until it is less than ½” thick.
  2. Add to a food safe bowl or bag and cover in my Tiki Tiki BBQ Sauce. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight.
  3. Pull the steaks out of the marinade. Next, add a layer of sliced cheese followed by chopped green onions. Carefully roll the skirt steak up lengthwise to create the pinwheel. Secure the roll with two strings of butcher twine and slice between them to make two separate pinwheels.
  4. Slather with oil on the outside and generously season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Repeat this with the rest of the skirt steak for all of the pinwheels.
  5. Preheat your grill for a two zone high heat temperature (around 400F).
  6. Add your pinwheels to direct heat on the grill to sear each side for 1 minute per side or until they have developed a nice crust. Once they have a nice crust on the outside, pull the pinwheels over to the cool side of the grill to cook indirectly until they reach 125F internal (about 10-15 minutes more).
  7. When the steaks are done, pull them off and let rest for 10 minutes.
  8. Top each of your steaks with some of the chili oil, slice, serve and enjoy!

Source

https://overthefirecooking.com/chili-oil-steak-pinwheels/