Braised Flat Iron Steak

Preheat oven to 225 F.

Dice 1/4 of a large yellow onion finely. Set aside.

Add butter and herbs to a large skillet. Heat over medium-high until butter starts to sizzle.

Sprinkle flour over each side of your steak, lightly coating it. Make sure the butter is really hot before you put the steak in, as you want the flour to crisp and brown without getting soggy. Gently place steak in the skillet. Brown each side of the steak in the herbed butter. This should take 1-2 minutes on each side. Transfer the steak to a baking dish.

Add the diced onions to the skillet, and saute them until they are translucent and starting to brown. Pour in the cooking sherry, and let that cook off for 5 minutes or so. Next add the beef broth, and let it sit there boiling while you arrange the peppers.

For the peppers I like to use mini bell peppers sometimes, but normal-sized ones work as well. If using the mini ones, just arrange 8 or so of them, without stems or seeds, around the steak. If you’re using large peppers, just cut them into quarters and arrange them skin side up around the steak. Make sure you use red, yellow, or orange bell peppers for this, as the green ones just don’t have the same sweetness and tartness.

Pour the pan liquid over the peppers, around the steak. Don’t pour the liquid directly onto the steak, though, as this might wash away some of that browned flour.

Cover the baking pan tightly with foil, and bake at 225 degrees for 2 hours. Then remove the foil and broil for 10 minutes or so. Keep a close eye on it as you broil, because you don’t want to burn it. The whole thing will be pretty moist, so it will take some time to adequately brown. The tops of your peppers should be just above the liquid, and you want them to blacken with the broil. Just watch to keep a balance between blackened peppers and browned meat. It’s better to not have blackened peppers than to have burned meat.

Remove the meat and the peppers from the dish, and pour the liquid into a small saucepan. Cook the liquid at medium-high heat until it bubbles. Turn down the heat to medium-low, and sift in flour while whisking until it reaches a gravy consistency.

Slice the flat iron steak into 1/2 inch wide strips, and serve with the gravy and peppers.

Note: if you don’t have peppers, this dish will still turn out just as well. The peppers are a wonderful compliment to the meat, but not necessary.