Making dinner is hard work.
Lucky for me I had a fresh squeezed blood orange cocktail sustenance — 2 parts blood orange juice, 2 parts Tequila, 1 part Aperol. Fresh and bright, a delicious cooking companion.
On the menu this night was cocoa rubbed steak and sweet potato wedges with lemongrass dipping sauce. My husband got me the Food Network magazine for Christmas. Over the past few years I’ve let most of my magazine subscriptions run out. I was looking forward to this one arriving, it took a few months but it finally arrived. No surprise the February issue was all about chocolate. The cocoa rubbed steak recipe had me at cocoa! I didn’t have a number of the ingredients so I just winged it with what I had…
| Cocoa Rubbed Steak |
- 1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 t. packed light brown sugar
- 2 t. smoked paprika
- 1/4 t. cayenne pepper
- 1/4 t. chipotle pepper
- Kosher salt
- 2 Ribeye steaks (about 1 1/2 inches thick)
- 1 T. unsalted butter
- Combine cocoa, brown sugar, paprika, cayenne, and chipotle.
- Pat steak dry and rub mixture on steak to coat. Top with kosher salt to taste.
- Place steak in fridge for at least 1 hour (mine sat for 8 hours).
- Heat a grill pan, melt butter and grill steak about 8 mins per side (depending on personal taste).
Oh my goodness was this good. By far the best way I have made steak to date. The cocoa and heat from chipotle make an amazing combination of savory and heat. DELICIOUS! Helps to use butter when grilling too, what isn’t better with a little butter.
Love my cast iron grilling pan from the camping department at Sport Authority. Grilled to perfection!
This looks amazing!!!
Thanks!
Mmmmm I love cocoa on meat, this looks absolutely stunning 🙂 Wonderful recipe!
Thanks. I can’t believe I never tried cocoa in a rub before.
Jacky – that looks amazing! I didn’t know you could get a cast iron skillet like that in the camping dept! I’ll have to check that out :0)
Yep! They have great cast iron stuff in the camping. Cheap too.
Holy smokes – I haven’t gotten that far in that month’s magazine – I am totally going to make this!
I have the same grill pan – is yours flat on the other side? It weighs a ton and smokes up my kitchen, but its worth it.
This looks wonderful! I had my eye on this one in the Food Network magazine too, but haven’t gotten a chance to make it yet…this will definitely inspire me, the steak looks amazing! 🙂
I was just re-reading this tonight and thought of you. I made a cocoa rubbed pork tenderloin a couple of weeks ago, it was the third time, LOVE the recipe, try it. Grill it. You’ll love it!
I have a pork tenderloin in the freezer, I think we’ll kick off grilling season with a cocoa rub on it.