Bacon wrapped flat iron steak thoughts

[gruelurks]

I picked up a flat iron/hanger steak tonight for cheap at Kroger. I generally marinade these for a few hours in Daddy Hinkles marinade but thought I'd try something different this time. My thoughts are to still marinade it, but then wrap it completely in bacon, then smoke it with some bourbon soaked oak chips. The downside to this is if the bacon will cook fast enough to keep up with the steak in the smoker. I think 45-60 minutes at 250 is more than enough to get the steak to 130 degrees but the bacon might still be 1/2 cooked at best I'm afraid.

Any thoughts or advice from past experience/experiments with bacon wrapped meats like this?

 

[bman62526]

Two thoughts here. #1 - I think about a 24 - 36 hour marinade would be all you'd need, and you could skip the bacon. Perhaps a little less time, but I know I've done flank steaks before marinated in red wine and spices for 48 hours, and they were awesome. Flat irons are a tad different texture though.

#2 - Bacon can't hurt

However, I agree that for you to take these to med. rare or even medium - the bacon wont be crisp. Especially because the flat iron steaks are thin - usually about 1" thick. Can't imagine that it would take too long to hit 130...

If you go the bacon route, I'd reserve the bacon when you are done, and use it in beans or something else. Hell - here's a thought. Continue to grill the bacon either in a hot zone in the smoker, or broil, etc...then use that as filler in a fatty of some sort, the beans, whatever suits your taste for crisp, crumbly bacon.

 

[mballi3011]

You can per cook the bacon just not too much where it will break when you wrap it around the steak. That should cure your bacon delimma. We don't get that cut of meat here in Fla but we do get flank or are they the same thing.?

 

[scubadoo97]

Let us know how it turns out. Each cut is different.

I never see hangers but flat irons are becoming more common in our markets. I usually cut my own from top shoulder roast. I think both of these steaks shine best when grilled and kept rare to med rare. Interested to see how they turn out in the smoker.

 

[gruelurks]

I decided to skip the bacon and just do the steak. Resting on the counter to warm up while the smoker heats up. Got the smoker at 250 since it's a cold fall night here in MI. and my experience shows it runs as much as 10 degrees lower than the temp on the display. I'm gonna smoke it for 45 minutes or so, then sear it on the grill to finish it off.

 

[chefrob]

you can always saute some bacon and mushrooms to serve with it.....

 

[jdsmith]

Please report on the outcome of this. I got over 20 lbs in my freezer that I scored for 99 cents/lb when it was about to expire. SCORE!!!

 

[gruelurks]

Most certainly. They are a great steak IMO, and very tender. I usually grill them for a few minutes on each side and eat them, but figured a test smoke with a new meat never hurt anyone. :-)

 

[gruelurks]

It came out pretty damn good if you ask me. I used the Jack Daniels bourbon oak chips to smoke, it took about an hour @ 235 in the smoker and 2 minutes on a hot grill a minute per side. The rice was one of those Uncle Ben's microwave bags, don't ever get those again! Holy crap do they taste nasty!

 

[jdsmith]

Man, that looks tasty. I guess it's time to thaw one out and smoke it up! Thanks for the pics and info.

 

[scubadoo97]

Gruelurks, that flat iron looks really good. Nice job