Looking for new Christmas centrepiece inspiration? Our triple-tested honey mustard skirt steak recipe is marinated in a flavoursome thyme and rosemary oil, and served alongside a creamy honey mustard sauce for an indulgent meal. Plus, it only comes in at £4.48 per portion meaning you won't break the budget.
We suggest pairing the steak with our winning, taste-approved Shiraz, which is full of blackcurrant, cherry and plum notes to perfectly complement this special meal.
Did you know that a skirt steak is also known as hanger steak, and can sometimes be sold labelled as a bavette? It's an incredibly tasty and affordable cut of beef and is best cooked fast, and served rare or medium-rare as a steak, or very low and slow as a filling for hearty pies. For best cooking results, use a digital thermometer.
Cooking note: you'll need to marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight.
If you're looking for Christmas sides, we have a whole gallery to inspire and help with planning your meal.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
4
Prep Time:
25 mins
Cook Time:
45 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 10 mins
Cal/Serv:
563
Ingredients
For the steak
4Tbsp.
olive oil
4
thyme sprigs
2
rosemary sprigs
3
large garlic cloves
1tsp.
black peppercorns
800-900g whole beef skirt steak (see intro)
For the sauce
15g
butter
1
echalion shallot, finely chopped
2tsp.
black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
250ml
beef stock
125ml
double cream
1Tbsp.
wholegrain mustard
1Tbsp.
runny honey
Directions
Step 1For the steak, in a small frying pan mix the oil, herbs, garlic and peppercorns and heat gently for a couple of minutes until aromatic. Set aside to cool completely.
Step 2Pat the steak dry with kitchen paper and trim off and discard any sinew. Put into a snug-fitting dish, pour over the cooled oil mixture and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4hr, ideally overnight.
Step 3For the sauce, melt the butter in a medium frying pan over low heat. Add the shallot and crushed peppercorns and cook for 15min, or until the shallot is softened. Add the stock and increase heat to high. Bubble to reduce liquid by 2/3. Pour in the cream and bubble for 3min, or until thickened. Stir in the mustard and honey and check seasoning. Set aside to reheat later.
Step 4Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan that will fit the steak flat (skirt steak is long and narrow, so you can curve it to fit) over medium-high heat. When hot, remove the steak from the marinade and brush off aromatics and excess oil back into the dish (reserve the marinade). Season steak with salt.
Step 5Cook steak in the hot pan for 3-4 minutes per side, until well browned. Remove to a baking tray and pour over all the reserved marinade (including herbs). Transfer to the oven and cook for 10-12min for rare meat – or until a digital thermometer reads 57°C when inserted into the thickest part of the steak. If you prefer medium-rare meat, cook for a few minutes more, or until the thermometer reads 63°C. Due to the fibres in skirt steak, the meat will still feel soft when cooked.
Step 6Remove steak to a board, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 10min. Slice thinly across the grain (see GH TIP) and serve with the sauce, reheated if you like, on the side.
GH tip
Skirt steak has long fibres so it’s important to cut it across the grain to enjoy tender meat. This is easy when cooking a whole skirt steak, as you simply lay the steak horizontally in front of you then carve vertically across the steak, from right to left.
Get ahead
Prepare sauce up to 2 days ahead; cool, cover and chill. Reheat gently in a small pan. Marinate steak up to 24hr ahead. Complete recipe to serve.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
