Grilled Top Round London-Broil Juicy and Tender

Who knew? I certainly didn’t. I’ve always had this preconceived notion that if I took a thick and lean type piece of meat, like the top round London broil, and cooked it on the grill that it would be tough and dry. It didn’t seem to matter that many, many of my customers liked them. Whenever they were on sale we would sell a ton of them. I just thought that those folks didn’t know any better, and like white meat lovers, liked their meat dry and tough. Well that was another notion that I had to get out of my head by eventually trying some white meated chicken breast on the grill. They were good, actually very good, but there was no way that a tough and lean piece of meat like the top round could be good when grilled. I was wrong, again.

The other day we had top round London broils on sale for $1.88 a pound. That’s about as cheap as they have been in some while and probably as cheap as they will be for some time to come. So I went and got me a nice three inch beauty that weighed about 4 pounds. This would have been a good time to stock up. Top rounds will also make outstanding oven roasts. If you purchase an eight inch London broil and then cut it in half you will have two very nice 4-5 pound roasts. Top rounds can be cut into very nice stir fry, stew meat or Swiss steaks or just ask the butcher to grind some of them for nice and lean ground round. They are a very versatile cut of beef and at $1.88 to $2.49 a a pound a great value.

Once I got that 3 inch beauty home I placed it into my special marinade consisting of cheap soy sauce, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, onion powder and pepper. The purpose of my marinade is not to tenderize but to enhance the flavor. That’s what I love about this particular marinade, which I invented, is that it does not change or cover up the flavor of the beef but enhances it. I hate, I know that hate is a strong word and should be used sparingly but I do hate or dislike tremendously, those marinades and tenderizers that change the flavor of the beef (which is most of them).

The next day after letting the London broil soak in all that goodness from my marinade I threw it on the grill. I cooked it on high for about four minutes on each side then I turned it down to the lowest setting and cooked it for about another eight minutes on each side. I wanted medium rare for me and medium for the family so I cut off a nice big chunk to check it. As it turned out it was just right. So I pulled my chunk off and cooked the other for about three more minutes on each side and pulled it too. One thing to remember is that the center of the meat will continue to rise in temperature so you need to pull it from the grill before it reaches your desired temperature. Using a good quality meat thermometer is a good idea.

To serve the grilled top round London broil slice thin going against the grain. I do not recommend giving everyone a big chunk. I’ve had it served that way once a long time ago and I tried to eat it like steak, you know ripping off big chunks and trying to chew it up. It wasn’t very good. Maybe that’s why I haven’t wanted to try it for all these years. So slice it very thin and the rarer the better for nice tender and juicy London broil.

We served our top round London broil with au jus and some nice fresh from the oven French bread rolls. I added some water to a couple of au jus packets cooked it up on the stove adding a little of my leftover marinade that the meat had been soaking in. Of course I made sure that I cooked the marinade thoroughly first before adding to the au jus mixture. Then we made sandwiches with the hot rolls for French dippers. It turned out great. The meat was tender and moist. The au jus was especially good after adding some of my marinade to pump it up.

So there you have it after over thirty years in the meat biz and I’m still learning about the different cuts of beef. Last weekend we had a three day sale at work. That’s a sure fire way to fill our customers guts with feelings of anxiety so they get their rear ends into our stores and begin a shopping frenzy. We used to do 12 hour sales but that was more than we could handle. You let the public know that they have a limited amount of time to purchase an ad item and they go nuts.

Anyhow we had top sirloins on sale at $2.99 a pound. As soon as I realized that I only had three days to purchase the steaks at that great price I dropped what I was doing and cut me up several steaks for our Sunday dinner. Once I got them home I placed them in my favorite marinade consisting of cheap soy sauce, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, onion powder and black pepper. I let the steaks soak over night. Sunday after church I grilled them up to a very nice and juicy medium rare. The steaks were tender and tasty. They were a big hit. No complaints. In our house that means it was a big hit.

As it turned out we had a couple of steaks left. So the next day Vickie and I were trying to figure out what to do with them. I voted for steak and potato omelets. Vickie suggested we make beef soup.

“Beef soup? Beef soup made with leftover steak?” I was flabbergasted. “ You mean hot water with chunks of stuff in it?” I wanted to know.

Yes, she wanted to take that delicious and tender steak meat and put it into hot water with vegetable chunks. I don’t know how you guys feel about it but hot water with chunks is not food. Its just hot water with chunks. Its something restaurants do to tease you.

We went back and forth on this issue. Sometimes a guy has to stick to his guns. After I explained to her that soup is made from bones not steak she relented. I sautéed a chopped up onion which we added to the cut up steak and potato and grated some cheddar cheese and we were set. They turned out very nice.

SBI!