Quick and delicious for a weeknight meal, these steak and green chile pinwheels are grilled on the Traeger Flatrock griddle until the steak is a perfect medium rare and the cheese and green chiles are melty. Served with a pile of sweet potato fries, this dinner comes together in under an hour and is a great change of pace from the normal steak and ‘spuds.
PINWHEELS ON THE TRAEGER
Often, I’ve seen other BBQ accounts that I follow cook up amazing looking steak pinwheels on their grills and have had pinwheel envy. How did they get them to roll so tightly? What was the trick to keeping the ingredients inside? Did they cook the pinwheels as a whole roast first and then cut, or cut and then cook? All of these questions left me a little guy shy and leery of doing such a recipe myself, for fear of ruining one of our favorite cuts of meat. But this past week we decided to go for it (on an ambitious Friday night no less) and the result was epic.
WHAT KIND OF STEAK?
For these steak and green chile pinwheels on the Flatrock, we started with a beautiful and well-marbled whole flank steak from Snake River Farms. It was a pretty even cut– about 3/4 of an inch thick all over and looked like it would be perfect for butterflying. We ensured it was defrosted really well and then refrigerated it to keep the meat cool (easier for butterflying) until ready to go.
WHAT KIND OF KNIFE?
Butterflying a cut like a flank steak takes time, precision and patience. Not things we usually have on a Friday night with twin toddlers underfoot, but somehow we made it happen. The other key to successful butterfling is a super sharp knife. We used my favorite Messermeister boning knife, freshly sharpened, to make precision cuts to get an even steak all over.
HOW TO BUTTERFLY A STEAK FOR PINWHEELS
In order to butterfly a steak like a flank steak for this recipe, you need to lay the entire roast on the cutting board, putting the flatter side of the roast down on the board. You want the convex side to stick up towards you– making it easier to get even cuts.
Place your hand flat atop the steak and using the other hand with the knife, start gently cutting using mostly the tip of the knife. I like to keep my hand atop the steak (scary as it may seem) because it gives me the ability to feel how my cutting is going.
Continue cutting with the front half of your knife and opening the steak as you go– much like a book. As you get to the other side of the steak, slow down because you don’t want to punch a hole through it. We didn’t cut the last inch or so of the steak, because it acted like the hinge and flattened out itself.
TOO THICK STILL?
If your butterflied steak is still too thick and/or not even completely, cover the surface of the meat with parchment or plastic wrap and use a mallet to pound the steak more evenly. Again, be careful not to punch holes through the steak.
HOW TO FILL STEAK AND GREEN CHILE PINWHEELS
Once the steak is even all over, we layered it up for rolling. First a layer of peeled, seeded and flattened roasted green chiles that we’d picked up last fall at a roadside stand. Once we got them home we packed them in quart sized ziplock bags in our deep freezer for later use. This was the perfect use for them! To peel them easily, run a small stream of water from your kitchen faucet and rub the blistered skin off the whole chiles. Then use scissors or a knife to remove the pith and seeds. Cut the peppers open to make them one even layer.
Arrange the prepared green chiles atop the butterflied flank steak, leaving at least an inch around all sides to make it easier to roll and secure.
CHEESE IS NEXT
Next, we put an even layer of sliced pepper jack cheese on top of the green chiles, again leaving some room on the edges. We used cracker cuts of our favorite Cabot Creamery Cooperative’s pepper jack cheese for this recipe– which made it so easy.
ROLL IT UP
Once the filling ingredients were atop the butterflied flank steak, we were ready to roll up these steak and green chile pinwheels. Using both hands, and working against the grain (the grain of the meat running perpendicular to you), begin on one side of the steak and roll tightly.
Once the steak was rolled completely, we set it seam side down on the cutting board and then tied it up with strips of kitchen twine. In addition, we used half-length kabob skewers throughout the roast to secure the pinwheels. We found that this made it hold together the best.
Then season the roll all over with your seasoning.
SLICE TO SEAR
Once secured, we used a sharp knife to cut between the skewers and create 1-1.5 inch thick pinwheels. It seemed most successful to have two skewers and a piece of twine on each finished steak and green chile pinwheel.
COOKED ON THE TRAEGER FLATROCK
I think one of the reasons I had been hesitant to try out steak pinwheels on my own is that the logistics of cooking it on a great seemed overwhelming. But with the introduction of the new Traeger Flatrock griddle, this was the perfect recipe for the new way to cook. The cast iron cooking surface is enormous and well-seasoned and my steak and green Chile pinwheels seared really nicely without everything falling out.
Cook the pinwheels on a hot part of the griddle for a few minutes to sear the cut edges, and then transfer to a medium area of the grill to continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 130*. We flipped the steak and green Chile pinwheels frequently during this phase of cooking.
I allowed them to rest for about 5 minutes on a cutting board before slicing (mostly so the cheese didn’t all melt out), and then sliced in half for serving.
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Flank steak
- Whole roasted green chiles
- Pepper jack cheese
- Grill Dads’ Salt Pepper & 3 Chiles seasoning blend
WHY COOKING STEAK & GREEN CHILE PINWHEELS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
As mentioned before, this recipe is perfect for the Traeger Flatrock griddle because the solid cooking surface lends itself perfectly to searing these steak and green chile pinwheels and then allowing them to cook until doneness. If I were to do this recipe on my Traeger, the low and slow method would allow all the cheese and chiles to drip out, resulting in tasty pinwheels with no filling.
STEP-BY-STEP
- Place your flank steak on a cutting board, flatter side down.
- Using an extremely sharp boning knife, butterfly the flank steak.
- It should be evenly-thin (about 1/4 an inch thick) all over. If necessary, pound with a mallet to even it out.
- Peel the green chiles under a stream of running water.
- Place the peeled chiles on a paper towel and use scissors to remove the stem tops.
- Remove the seeds from the chiles and cut down one side to open them flatly.
- On the cutting board, arrange the butterflied flank steak.
- Atop the steak, add an even layer of green chiles.
- Put an even layer of sliced pepper jack cheese on top of the chiles.
- Working against the grain, roll the steak tightly into an even roll.
- Using a combination of skewers and kitchen twine, secure the roll tightly.
- With a sharp knife, cut the roll into even pinwheels (ours made 4 about 1 1/2 inches thick).
- We found that a piece of kitchen twine between two skewers did the best to keep the pinwheels tight.
- Preheat your Traeger Flatrock Griddle to medium-high heat.
- Spray a thin coating of vegetable cooking spray on the hot griddle.
- Insert a Meater thermometer probe in one steak and green chile pinwheel and set the temperature to 130*.
- Place the pinwheels on the griddle and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Move the pinwheels to a cooler part of the grill as necessary to allow them to continue to cook without burning.
- Flip the pinwheels and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 130*.
- You can also sear them on a hot part of the grill for about 3 minutes per side, and then transfer to a medium part of the grill and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes, flipping frequently, until they reach 130*.
- Transfer the cooked green chile pinwheels to a cutting board and allow to rest for a few minutes.
- Cut the twine off the pinwheels.
- Using a sharp knife, slice between the skewers.
- Serve the steak and green chile pinwheels with a simple side like sweet potato fries and enjoy.
ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS
Flank steak is a family favorite around here… and here are some other recipes to consider:
Products used in this cook:
- Traeger Flatrock Griddle
- Messermeister knives
- Meater thermometer
- Snake River Farms beef
- Cabot pepper jack cheese
- Grill Dads’s Salt Pepper & 3 Chile blend
Did you make this recipe?
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Steak and Green Chile Pinwheels
Equipment
- Traeger Flatrock griddle
- Sharp boning knife and cutting board
- Skewers and kitchen twine
Ingredients
- 1 whole flank steak
- 6 whole green chiles roasted
- 8 ounces sliced pepper jack cheese
- 4 tbsp Salt Pepper and 3 Chiles seasoning
Instructions
- Place your flank steak on a cutting board, flatter side down.
- Using an extremely sharp boning knife, butterfly the flank steak.
- It should be evenly-thin (about 1/4 an inch thick) all over. If necessary, pound with a mallet to even it out.
- Peel the green chiles under a stream of running water.
- Place the peeled chiles on a paper towel and use scissors to remove the stem tops.
- Remove the seeds from the chiles and cut down one side to open them flatly.
- On the cutting board, arrange the butterflied flank steak.
- Atop the steak, add an even layer of green chiles.
- Put an even layer of sliced pepper jack cheese on top of the chiles.
- Working against the grain, roll the steak tightly into an even roll.
- Using a combination of skewers and kitchen twine, secure the roll tightly.
- With a sharp knife, cut the roll into even pinwheels (ours made 4 about 1 1/2 inches thick).
- We found that a piece of kitchen twine between two skewers did the best to keep the pinwheels tight.
- Preheat your Traeger Flatrock Griddle to medium-high heat.
- Spray a thin coating of vegetable cooking spray on the hot griddle.
- Insert a Meater thermometer probe in one steak and green chile pinwheel and set the temperature to 130*.
- Place the pinwheels on the griddle and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Move the pinwheels to a cooler part of the grill as necessary to allow them to continue to cook without burning.
- Flip the pinwheels and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 130*.
- You can also sear them on a hot part of the grill for about 3 minutes per side, and then transfer to a medium part of the grill and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes, flipping frequently, until they reach 130*.
- Transfer the cooked green chile pinwheels to a cutting board and allow to rest for a few minutes.
- Cut the twine off the pinwheels.
- Using a sharp knife, slice between the skewers.
- Serve the steak and green chile pinwheels with a simple side like sweet potato fries and enjoy.
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