Recipes
Ribeye With Chimichurri: Steak Over Fire and the Green Sauce of Argentina
Real chimichurri is chopped by hand, not blended, and left to stand. The sauce recipe, ribeye on the grill or cast iron to medium, and why the steak is never marinated in chimichurri.
MYASYA team3 min readupdated
Ingredients
Serves 3 45 min
Chimichurri
- a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 50 g leaves)
- 3–4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½–1 tsp chilli flakes
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 120 ml olive oil
- ½ tsp coarse salt
Steak
- 2 ribeye steaks, 350–400 g each, 3 cm thick
- coarse salt
Chimichurri the Argentine way
In Argentina chimichurri sits on every asado table, most often next to ribeye, which they call ojo de bife. Acid and garlic cut through the richness of the steak, and the herbs add freshness. The result depends on two things: the knife and time.
Step 1. Chop everything by knife
Parsley — only the leaves and thin stems, finely. Garlic — even finer. A blender purées the herbs into a paste and makes the sauce bitter and murky.
Step 2. Vinegar first
Mix the herbs, garlic, oregano, chilli and salt with the vinegar and leave for 5–10 minutes. The vinegar softens the garlic and opens up the oregano.
Step 3. Then the oil
Pour it in, stirring with a fork, not whisking. The sauce should be green herbs in oil, not an emulsion.
Step 4. Let it stand
At least 30 minutes at room temperature, ideally 2 hours. In that time the flavours move into the oil.
The steak
Argentines don't marinate the meat or pepper it before the fire: just coarse salt. Chimichurri does the rest.
Step 1. Salt and dry
Pat the steaks dry and salt them with coarse salt 10–40 minutes before cooking. Blot them again with a towel before the heat: surface moisture gets in the way of the crust.
Step 2. High heat
Grill at 250–300 °C or cast iron until it smokes lightly. Don't move the steak for 2–3 minutes, flip, another 2–3 minutes. Hold the fatty edge against the grate for a minute.
Step 3. Pull at 57–60 °C
For ribeye we recommend medium: the fat between the fibres melts and the steak turns juicy while staying pink. If the crust is there but the temperature isn't, move the steak to a cooler zone.
Step 4. Rest 5–8 minutes
On a warm board. Then slice across the grain into 1–1.5 cm strips.
How to cook ribeye on the grill, in cast iron or by reverse sear.Three methods →
What to serve with it
- Baked potatoes or potatoes cooked over the fire with coarse salt.
- Tomato and onion salad — Argentine ensalada criolla: tomatoes, red onion, vinegar, oil.
- Bread, to mop up the juices and chimichurri from the board.
Astra and Frigon ribeye: cut weight and today's price.To the catalogue →
