The bistro classic that's really just steak and chips, done properly

Every bistro in Paris built its name on this plate, and here's the quiet truth: it's steak and chips. What turns it into steak frites is care — chips cut thin and roasted properly crisp, a hard-seared steak rested as long as it takes, and a parsley-lemon butter that carries all the browned pan goodness over the top. The 420g sirloin halves neatly into two bistro-sized steaks, so this is dinner for two, done exactly right. Pour something red and don't answer the phone.

50 mins 2 servings Prep 15 minsCook 35 minsMain CourseFrench

Ingredients

  • 1 Your Farmer grass-fed sirloin steak (about 420g), halved into two steaks
  • 800g floury potatoes (sebago or similar), cut into 1cm chips
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • 40g butter
  • 2 cloves garlic, bruised
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • Squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions

For the frites

Heat the oven to 220°C with two large trays inside. Cut the potatoes into skinny 1cm chips, soak in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain and dry them thoroughly with a clean tea towel — dry chips crisp, wet chips steam.

800g potatoes

Toss the chips with 2 tbsp of the oil and a good pinch of salt, spread in a single layer over the hot trays and roast 25–30 minutes, turning halfway, until deep golden.

2 tbsp olive oil

For the steak

While the frites roast, pat the steaks very dry and season generously on both sides.

2 sirloin steaks

Heat the remaining oil in a heavy pan over high heat until just smoking. Lean the steaks together fat-edges down for 1–2 minutes to render, then sear 2.5–3 minutes per side for medium-rare.

1 tbsp olive oil

Drop the heat right down, add the butter, garlic and thyme, and baste the steaks with the foaming butter for a minute.

40g butter2 cloves garlic2 sprigs thyme

Rest the steaks on a warm plate for 5–8 minutes. Off the heat, stir the parsley and a squeeze of lemon into the warm pan butter.

1 tbsp parsleysqueeze of lemon

Pile the frites high, sit the steaks alongside, and spoon the parsley-lemon pan butter over the beef. Salt flakes on the chips, and serve immediately — frites wait for no one.

Appears in

Your Farmer CSA grass-fed beef share — vacuum-sealed steaks, roasts, mince and sausages, paddock-to-plate NSW & ACT delivery
CSA Grass Fed Beef Share
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What Makes It Frites and Not Chips

Three things: cut thin, dried properly, and given room. A 1cm chip has enough surface to go genuinely crisp in a home oven, the cold-water soak rinses off surface starch so they colour instead of gluing together, and a single layer on a preheated tray means every chip touches hot metal. Crowd the tray and you've made steamed potato batons — good, but not frites. As for the steak, French bistros know this cut as faux-filet, and it's their workhorse for a reason: tender enough to please everyone, with a fat cap and a proper beefy character the leaner cuts can't offer. Your Farmer® sirloin is the Pack C steak in the grass-fed beef CSA share, and being 100% grass-fed it runs slightly leaner and quicker-cooking than the grain-fed steak most bistros work with — watch it a minute early and trust the rest to finish it. If you're chasing spuds worth the name, our seasonal regenerative potatoes are grown in living soil twenty minutes from the cattle.

Swaps and Variations

Scotch fillet is the other bistro steak — a little richer, same method; see it dressed up in scotch fillet with compound butter. The pan butter takes variations happily: a teaspoon of Dijon whisked in at the end, a couple of mashed anchovies, or cracked green peppercorns for something closer to sauce au poivre. A pile of vinegar-dressed leaves on the plate is traditional, cuts the richness, and takes ninety seconds. Skin-on chips work too if the potatoes are clean — a little more rustic, a little less Paris, no complaints either way.

Storage and Leftovers

Frites are a right-now food — they don't keep with any dignity, though a 220°C oven for 8 minutes revives day-old ones to about eighty per cent of their glory. Cooked steak keeps airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days; slice it cold into a baguette with butter, Dijon and cornichons and you've made yourself the second-best French lunch there is. The garlic-thyme butter left in the pan is worth saving too — scrape it into a jar and melt it over vegetables tomorrow.

Frequently asked questions

Why soak the potatoes first?

The soak rinses surface starch off the cut chips. Less starch means they brown and crisp individually instead of sticking to each other and the tray. Ten minutes does the job — just dry them thoroughly afterwards.

Can I deep-fry the frites instead?

You can — 160°C for a first fry until soft, then 190°C until golden and crisp. But the oven method gets impressively close with a fraction of the oil and no pot of hot fat to manage alongside a steak.

How do I keep the smaller steaks medium-rare?

Halved steaks cook faster than one big one, so the margin shrinks. Get the pan properly hot so the crust forms quickly, stick to 2.5–3 minutes a side, and pull them at 52–54°C. The rest and butter baste finish them gently.

My kitchen fills with smoke when I sear — any way around it?

Use the barbecue. A heavy pan on the barbecue side-burner or the grill itself gives you the same sear with the smoke staying outdoors. Otherwise, exhaust fan on full and a high-smoke-point oil help indoors.

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