Best Steak for Hibachi/Asian Stir Fry?

[jfmorris]

My daughter turns 25 on Sunday. Her husband turns 32 (I think - maybe 33) on Monday. We will be celebrating on Sunday, and my daughter has asked for hibachi steak for her birthday. Son in law wants chicken. I'll be feeding 8 adults total, 7 of which want steak, haha, and 1 of which wants chicken. Fair enough. Oh - and a 18 month old who will eat both steak and chicken, but little else.

Anyway, I was looking at the deep freeze, and while I don't have steak for 7, what I *do* have are two frozen 4 or 5 bone-on prime ribs, one of which is pretty large. And a couple of top sirloins, and miscellaneous inappropriate stuff like chuck, tri-tip, etc.

Do you guys and gals in the Pit think that ribeye would be good for stir fry, if I thaw and slice up one of those prime ribs that has been chilling in the bottom of the chest freezer since Christmas, or am I better off with a leaner cut like sirloin or top sirloin for stir fry cooking on the flat top? I can always run to Sam's or Publix and get more top sirloin if that is more appropriate.

Whatever I use, I'll probably marinade it in something soy sauce based overnight, for cooking early Sunday afternoon. Same with the chicken - I'll pick up a pack of boneless skinless thighs to cover my one chicken loving son-in-law, and also to help have some leftovers. Of course, this will all be paired with fried rice and stir fried veggies, all courtesy of the Camp Chef flat top grill.

Thoughts? I know Attjack does a lot of asian inspired cooking on his griddle... everyone's advice welcome.

[Dan Deter]

I wouldn't go too lean, it needs the fat to help it cook without sticking. I generally use skirt or flank for asian style stir frys, sliced as thin as I can. Ribeye would probably be good. Since it will be sliced thin I think you'd want something with good beefy flavor so it doesn't just disappear.

[jfmorris]

Thanks. I just checked, and Sam's has inside skirt for $7.98 a pound, and flank for $8.98 a pound. Not bad for today I guess, but I remember paying $5-6 for flank steak before the pandemic...

I've done a lot of flank for fajitas before, and usually just cooked it whole and then sliced. I guess for this, if I go with flank/skirt, I would pre-slice into strips or cubes so that it will cook faster.

[Dan Deter]

That's what I do...cook whole for fajitas, slice across the grain before cooking for stir fry.

[Panhead John]

I think the ribeyes would be great with the stir fry. I don’t know about marinating them overnight though. The steaks might absorb too much of the soy sauce and overpower the flavor of the steak. Personally, I’d add the soy sauce while cooking or right before. The chicken would do fine though.

[Livermoron]

I generally use sliced ribeye. Takes to Asian marinade well, and a good marbled ribeye has the fat content throughout to stand up to stir fry/hibachi technique. Tri tip might work, it's all about slicing against the grain to keep it from being rubbery-tough. Maybe see if you can sneak in a dash of fish sauce in the marinade. The unidentifiable umami can really lift the flavor (just don't use too much!).

[jfmorris]

Haha yeah, I think fish sauce has to be used in moderation. That is why one bottle of Red Boat in the fridge will probably last me forever... seriously, I think its been there for a couple of years, and I cannot find an expiration date on the thing...

[Livermoron]

jfmorris I hear ya. I have to make a trip to the Asian grocery store today to reload on 3 Crabs.

[Murdy]

What is the ultimate goal? Are you incorporating the meat into some sort of Asian dish? How will it be sliced?

I haven't done stir fry for a while, but I used to use sirloin all the time (you can add a little peanut oil or something if you need it for cooking purposes). I assume you're slicing it fairly thin. If you use the ribeye, II would trim it well, as the larger chunks of fat probably won't render up much during the quick cook and would be unappetizing.

[jfmorris]

I've used sirloin or top sirloin probably in the past, but I will be honest - I've not done a hibachi style cook on the flat top in about a year. Most of my stir fries since last fall have been in the wok on the stove...

I guess the other goal was to use what I already have if possible, BUT.... I may end up with a lot of waste due to the fat content of that ribeye in the prime rib, which as you point out, will not render at all in a 5 minute cook on a hot griddle.

[TripleB]

I think your rib-eyes and top sirloin would be just fine. But why do think Tri-Tip is inappropriate stuff? TT would work fine in a stir-fry. In fact I would use the TT before using one or two of those prime rib-eyes. TT is part of the sirloin, usually fairly well marbled, but has less external fat than other cuts of beef (like rib-eye, strip steak, etc.)

[jfmorris]

Well... I would prefer to save my last Click Akaushi tri-tip for just the wife and I!

I threw out the prime ribs as an option as they were like $7 per pound on sale back in Nov-Dec, and are a source of beef that is already paid for. But the amount of external fat could be problematic and result in a lot of waste for this type of cook.

[Murdy]

I'd save the tri-tip too, but as for appropriateness for stir fry, I've used thin cut, across the grain, round in various Chinese dishes and it was fine. I generally use sirloin though.

[TripleB]

jfmorris I’d save the TT too. Thought it was just Choice.

[jfmorris]

Murdy asked my goal of this cook. The goal is chunks of beef (or chicken) on the victims (I mean diners) plate, next to a pile of veggie fried rice, and a pile of stir-fried mixed veggies. I'll be incorporating carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic, ginger, probably some squash as people keep giving it to me this summer, maybe some mushrooms, peas, etc.

Think of going to a Japanese steak house. Everyone gets the same veggies and same fried rice, gets a couple of shrimp tossed at them, and then gets their protein - steak, chicken, etc. The protein always ends up being cut into little cubes on the flat top at those places. I'll pre-cut it before the cook, as I don't want to cut on my griddle top...

[Murdy]

My experience is more cooking Chinese style, stir-fry meat incorporated into dish of some sort with a sauce (i.e., beef broccoli), but the cooking style is similar if not identical.

[Dan Deter]

For chunks I'd probably shy away from the skirt/flank I mentioned earlier and and look to something like ribeye or sirloin, which are what I use (depending on what I can find and cost) when making our pepper steak recipe, which uses chunked meat. Something that's fairly tender by default will make the chewing more enjoyable for a chunk of meat that's quick cooked.

[jfmorris]

Ok, unless Grill Artist Attjack - master of the round flat top - comes back with opposing advice, I think I will pull the larger of the two ribeye roasts / prime ribs out of the deep freeze. I'll let it thaw a day in the fridge, then tomorrow night I'll pull it out and let it sit on the counter until I can hack through it with my knives. The question that will come is whether to bother separating the ribeye cap, or just slice through the entire thing after removing the bones, to make some steaks about an inch thick, then slice those up into chunks or strips...

EDIT: I will go pull stuff from the deep freeze as soon as I am not trapped in my office. I ran the sprinklers manually, and the zone here came on, and I am trapped in my office for 45 minutes, unless I want to get wet by running through 4 criss crossing sprinklers...

[hoovarmin]

I really don't know how you could go wrong with ribeye unless you overcook it.

[Spinaker]

Ribeye is awesome or Skirt would be my second choice.

Skirt steak is amazing and is tough to beat. There really is not reason not to use it. Great fat to meat ratio, cheaper than ribeye and it fries up really well on the flat top. When sliced across the grain, it is really tender and flavorful.

[Spinaker]

Ughhhhh, now that must have been one for those moments where you are like, "Do you realize what you've done??!!!" LOL

[jfmorris]

Yeah, there may have been some words said... such as, I can buy stew meat MUCH cheaper than that steak you just cut up...

[Murdy]

Reminds me, last time the kids were visiting, my wife made scrambled eggs for breakfast. I wasn't in the kitchen when she started cooking. She wanted to put some swiss cheese in them and found an unmarked (my bad) zip loc bag with a small block of swiss in it, so she graded it into the eggs. Turned out it was some 5-year old, $20/pound swiss I had picked up at a little cheese shop. Damn good eggs.

[Attjack]

Flank is my go-to.

[jfmorris]

I like flank too! I liked it much better when it was not $9 or more per pound. I discovered flank about 4-5 years ago, when it was $5 per pound.

[jfmorris]

Thanks guys! I've put moved a USDA Choice prime rib roast to the fridge to commence the thaw, reserving the USDA prime one for use as steaks or prime rib. So ribeye is how I will be going for this cook. I'll just be sure to trim the excess fat after slicing it into steaks.

My thoughts are that it will be too hard to try and separate muscles during a defrost, so unfortunately the spinalis stays on the ribeye this time, and I'm just going to saw through the roast tonight, either with my granton blade slicer or a serrated knife like my bread knife, and cut into steaks which will thaw much quicker than the whole roast. I am thinking cut flush with the side of each bone, which will result in bone-thick slices of meat, plus the piece between the bones which is about the same thickness.

I am pretty sure with all the other food, a 4 bone rib roast will result in enough beef for 7 people and a baby, and I'll have chicken due to the one son in law, for folks that are still hungry.

Now I have to ponder whether to chunk up the steak and chicken, or cook the pieces whole like they do at the Japanese steak house, and slice for serving on a cutting board, since I cannot slice on the cold rolled steel flat top the way the hibachi guys do it on their stainless flat top.

[shify]

I know you think it would be too hard to do so, but I'd strongly consider removing the ribeye cap and have the separately and then cube/cook the eye. If the roast is vacuum sealed, you can put it in a big bowl of water to help speed the defrost (even while sitting in the fridge). Within a few hours at most it should thaw it enough to be able to remove the cap.

[jfmorris]

Sounds good. Not sure I have a bowl that will fully submerge this, but I can put it in a 5 gallon bucket of water, and pull a shelf from the fridge to accommodate it. The fridge in question is practically empty right now aside from some meat that is either curing or thawing.

[FireMan]

I just did a cook recently. Shrimp it was. Then I found even after I had asked that there was an allergy to shrimp. What I did, this is me, was bought a flank steak and cut it into fingerlings. Stir fried it, in 3 batches, you do not cook over 12oz in a 14” wok. There was not a piece of beef to be found in the end, shrimp either for that matter.

[jfmorris]

My son is allergic to shrimp, so we will be skipping that course of the hibachi feast this weekend.