Recipe: Spiced Espresso-Rubbed Breakfast Steak

Espresso-rubbed steak appears to be a popular restaurant feature. But here’s the deal: Every time I see it on a menu, it’s about 7pm and I’ll be damned if I’m about to embark on an all-night bender at my advanced age. If only I’d known about the sublime relationship between coffee and beef back in the day, back when I could party all night and still make it to work by 8am. Aw hell, who am I kidding? I would’ve just puked it up later anyway…good food is wasted on the young and stupid.

So now that we’re all responsible, healthy adults, why not just have it for breakfast? Slap some eggs on the side and you’ve got yourself a new-fangled steak n’ eggs going on.

For this outing, I used a bison flat iron steak which worked beautifully. I imagine any steak would work, but flank and skirt would be similar cuts in practice here. The trick is to cook them quickly and then slice them thinly against the grain to mitigate their inherent toughness. Please adjust your cooking times accordingly for whatever cut you use.

Spiced Espresso-Rubbed Breakfast Steak

1 breakfast-style steak (I used flat iron), about 1 pound

sea salt, to taste

1 Tbsp. espresso/coffee beans, finely ground

1 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. chile powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

a few grinds of pepper

1) Before you do anything else (except maybe get the coffee brewing—PRIORITIES PEOPLE!), sprinkle salt over both sides of the steak, whisk together your spices, then rub ’em on your steak with love. Set aside while you do your morning thing/get other breakfast items together.

2) When ready to cook, preheat a heavy skillet (cast iron is perfect). Sear steak on both sides to desired doneness (my flat iron took about 3 minutes per side for a really nice medium rare).

3) Set on a heatproof cutting board to rest for 5 minutes. Slice thinly against the grain and serve up with some fried eggs.

Serves 2.