Easy Stuffed Flank Steak Pinwheels Recipe

(6 votes)
41 Comments
4 minutes
April 25, 2024
Andi GleesonJump to Recipe

All you need is a few ingredients to whip up these fancy, delicious Stuffed Flank Steak Pinwheels.

Apparently, I was not in the mood to use a lot of ingredients in my recipes this week since I made this a couple of days before the 5-Ingredient Southwest Chicken Rice Bowls. It may have something to do with the fact that I never remember to bring my bags to the grocery store, and bags cost ten cents in my area. You’ve got to think small when you are cheap and frugal and don’t want to spend an extra dollar on plastic bags.

Impress your guests with these easy stuffed flank steak pinwheels with spinach and cream cheese.

How to Make Stuffed Flank Steak: TIPS

Whatever the reason, all I had to buy for these fancy pinwheel steaks was a flank steak (or another thin, flat cut of steak like skirt steak), cream cheese, and spinach. (I already had seasoned salt on hand.) When you see and taste the final product, you’ll never believe that’s all there is to it! This is a dinner you could serve to impress guests. Go ahead and graciously accept all the awe and praise for your amazing cooking skills. You don’t need to tell anyone how easy these stuffed flank steaks are to make.

Easy Pinwheel Steaks with Spinach and Cream Cheese - stuffed flank steak
Season the flank steaks with seasoning salt, spread cream cheese on your steak, and arrange spinach over the top.
Spinach and Cream Cheese wrapped with steak
Carefully roll and secure with toothpicks. Then bake.

Stuffed Flank Steak Recipe

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Easy Pinwheel Steaks with Spinach and Cream Cheese

Easy Stuffed Flank Steak Pinwheels Recipe

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4.7 from 6 reviews

You only need a few ingredients to make these easy stuffed flank steaks and impress your friends and family!

  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3/4 tsp. seasoned salt
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 24 oz. flank steak (or other thin, flat steak like top round or skirt steaks work well; weight is approximate)
  • 46 oz. chive and onion cream cheese
  • 4 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.
  2. Lay steak on a cutting board, spread olive oil over the surface and sprinkle evenly with seasoned salt. Flip meat over.
  3. Spread cream cheese evenly over the surface of the steak, and arrange spinach leaves over the cheese.
  4. Carefully roll steak, and secure seam with toothpicks to hold your spiral together.
  5. Place rolled steak seam-side up on the prepared baking sheet, and bake until internal temperature reaches at least 145 degrees F, approximately 35 minutes. (A probe thermometer is highly recommended for this recipe.)
  6. Remove from oven, and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Remove toothpicks, and slice into 1″-thick slices.
  • Author: Andi
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Category: Main Course

Modifications in preparing flank steak pinwheels

There are a few easy modifications you can make to this recipe to enhance it or switch things up.

  • You can switch cream cheese for goat cheese, Boursin cheese or any other spreadable cheese based on your preferences.
  • Add some grated parmesan cheese on top of the cream cheese for a little stronger flavor. You only need to add about 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.
  • Add some diced sun-dried tomatoes (in oil) or diced artichoke hearts with the spinach for a more Mediterranean flavor profile. You only need about a 1/4 cup of either.

How to make medium-rare flank steak pinwheels

In addition to the above substitutions and additions there is one other cooking technique you can use with these flank steak pinwheels to end up with a medium-rare steak. Using a traditional pinwheel recipe, like the one above, can be hard to end up with a medium rare or even medium steak temperature. Here is a way that you can achieve a nice medium or even medium-rare pinwheel.

  1. Take a large skillet and heat it over high heat and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Rub both sides of your flank steak with olive oil and season with salt and pepper or a steak seasoning blend of your choosing.
  3. Add just a touch of oil to the skillet and then quickly sear each side of the steak, about 20-30 seconds per side. You want to color and sear the outside of the steak but not cook it.
  4. Remove the steak from the skillet and let rest on a clean cutting board.
  5. Once the steak has rested about 10 minutes continue on the recipe by adding the cream cheese and spinach and rolling the pinwheels.
  6. Roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or when your steak has reached 120 degrees.

The key with this recipe modification is a really hot skillet so you can quickly sear the flank steak. You also want the flank steak too cold as it slows down the cooking but will not impact the sear. Because you have seared both sides of the steak you are now only trying to heat the cream cheese and wilt the spinach but do not need to fully cook the steak. I do not have these steps as part of the main recipe as it does require some additional steps and can be more difficult to execute.

Other tips for cooking pinwheel flank steaks

I highly recommend a probe meat thermometer for this recipe because it’s pretty impossible to tell when it’s done without one. If you don’t have one, these are the ones I use, and they come in handy all the time! (These are affiliate links, so if you place an order after clicking the link, I’ll earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. THANKS!)

Last but not least, if you like this recipe, you will love these too!

10 Stuffed Chicken Recipes - stuffed flank steak
10 Stuffed Chicken Recipes
Andi Gleeson, food blogger

Andi Gleeson

Andi Gleeson is a passionate blogger and mom based in San Francisco who focuses on easy and delicious dinner recipes.

41 comments

S Stubbs
5 years ago

Where’s the recipe?

Chantelle
6 years ago

If I were to freeze some of the pinwheels, would it be better to freeze them PRE cooked or should I cook the all first then freeze the leftovers?

Thank you!

CHERYL
6 years ago

Made this tonight and it was a hit! Keto friendly too! Thank you.

Sean Mahan
7 years ago

These are genius!! I would never think about doing pinwheels with steaks before, but these look truly delicious. Can’t wait to try them myself!

Sally Soles
7 years ago

I wanted to make something different and I was going to make flank steak with stuffing but when I saw this recipe with cream cheese and spinach I said oh this is very good so I’m going to make it this way thank you

Leann
7 years ago

Could you bake this, cut it into slices, freeze them and reheat them later?

Danielle
9 years ago

How long should these be baked for and at what temperature?

Andi Gleeson
9 years ago

Sorry for the confusion, Danielle! This detailed recipe is on the second page of this post here. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you!

Joyce
9 years ago

Just tried this recipe. Very easy and delicious.

Andi Gleeson
9 years ago

Thanks so much, Joyce!

Angela B.
10 years ago

Just as I was contemplating what to serve to my dinner guests next weekend, I came across this recipe in your recent post. There will be 6 of us for dinner, celebrating a special occasion. I’ll try to find a larger cut of steak, and I’ll also increase the other ingredients. This looks very impressive, and sounds exceptionally delicious! I’m thinking of (lightly) sprinkling the top of the roll with a ‘scant’ amount of garlic powder, a bit of cracked pepper, and some very finely chopped parsley. Do you think this would work? I don’t usually rate a recipe before I make it, but this one looks and sounds like a 5* dish to me!

Andi
10 years ago

Hi, Angela. Thank you so much! I really think you and your guests will enjoy this one. Adding the extra seasoning on top will be delicious I’m sure. Let me know how it turns out!

Nicole
10 years ago

I made this for a meeting over dinner at my place. I actually prepared it, froze it, thawed overnight and then cooked it. The cream cheese was a little difficult to spread on the meat. It needed to cook a little longer than expected so that it wasn’t bleeding still…but it turned out very impressive and delicious! I will be making this again. Thank you for this creative recipe!

Andi
10 years ago

Thank you for your feedback, Nicole. I’m glad it turned out well in the end!

Amber
10 years ago

This is such a fabulous dinner! We made it this summer after finding your recipe here, and LOVED IT! Thanks for the reminder by posting it again, we need to make it this week!!

Once again, thank you for all the hard work. With my daycare, I’m planning menus for all day, every day, every week and it gets exhausting finding things kids will like and then what my family will like at night. Wonderful, hard working people like you that share such easy, delicious recipes help out way more than you can ever imagine! Appreciate it! I don’t comment often but I do peruse your page weekly for ideas!!

Andi
10 years ago

Amber, thank you so much! I so appreciate this because I do spend a lot of time working on recipes here, and it means so much to know that they are helpful to you! I’m happy you like these steaks. I want to make them again soon too!

Loraine
10 years ago

Dear Weary Chef, The steak pinwheels are delicious! Never have three main ingredients equalled such a five-star taste!. The simplicity is refreshing. Thanks for sharing. Loraine

Andi
10 years ago

Thank you so much, Loraine! I’m so happy you liked the recipe and really appreciate your sweet comment :)

Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life
10 years ago

I love these kind of steaks but I’ve never made them myself! You make it look easy. I definitely want to try it…pinning! If you have a free moment, I’d love it if you’d join us for Foodie Fridays…we go live Thursday night at 9 pm EST.

Andi
10 years ago

It IS easy, Michelle! You should give it a try! Thanks for the invitation to your party. I’ll try to remember to head over on Thursday!

velinda b
10 years ago

loved the recipe. i used green beans instead of spinach, my kids are not spinach fans lol. turned out really good. thanks

Andi
10 years ago

Thank you, Velinda! I’m glad you liked it! Using green beans is very clever. I would think they would be hard to roll. Were they cooked so they were soft?

P.S. I have a cousin named Velina, so I thought it was her at first when I saw your comment :)

velinda
10 years ago

they were canned beans not homemade. rolled up beautifully and cream cheese gave them the seasoning they needed. i thougjt to try cooked broccoli next time. yes my name is out there but few people have it hers is spelt differently. we have been on a very tight budget lately and i also just started on pininterest so i have been making alot of new things i do have to say there ate alot of good recipes on this. i made my first tamales last week and turned out awesome

Andi
10 years ago

Oh that’s a good idea to use canned beans! I should add a frugal category for my recipes. One recipe you might like is this one (beef and green beans again!). Thanks again for your comments :)

Skye
10 years ago

Found you on Pinterest! I was wondering if you could substitute the cream cheese with plain yogurt instead?

Andi
10 years ago

Hi, Skye! Great to meet you. I don’t think yogurt would work because it is thinner and would probably all leak out of the steak. What is it about the cream cheese that you are trying to avoid, and maybe I can help you think of a substitute that would work!

AsiaFan
10 years ago

I am also not a huge fan of cream cheese with my meat, so do you think a pesto would work as a substitute? Thank you and looking forward to trying it!

Andi
10 years ago

Hi! Pesto would be a different kind of dish but definitely still good I think. Let me know how it turns out!

Julie @ Julie's Eats & Treats
11 years ago

This looks so fancy and it’s only 5 ingredients! Love it!

Andi
11 years ago

Thank you, Julie! The easier the better if you ask me :) Have a good weekend, and maybe we’ll see you at Saturday Night Fever tomorrow night!

Kelly
11 years ago

These pinwheels look mouthwatering Andi! My husband loves steak and this would be a great way to add some greens in his meal. Love this awesome dish!

Andi
11 years ago

Thank you, Kelly! Does your husband try to avoid vegetables like mine? He always eats them but acts like it’s a chore ;)

Kelly
11 years ago

Haha, yes, sounds just like my husband :)

Tanya Schroeder
11 years ago

I love your pictures Andi!! I get so intimidated by steaks, but you make it look so easy! I have to try this out on my family. I’m sure my husband and myself will love this!

Andi
11 years ago

That’s funny, Tanya, because I get intimidated by making sandwich cookies and other goodies that you make sound easy! This steak is so easy. If you have a meat thermometer, I don’t think it could go wrong! Thanks for your visit :)

Krista @ Joyful Healthy Eats
11 years ago

Ok, seriously love these Andi! Totally need to try this one soon! Beautiful pictures too friend. :)

Andi
11 years ago

Thank you, Krista! I swear, you always know just when to stop by and say something nice :) I got lights to start taking some photos at night, and this was one of the first times I used them. I’m still figuring them out, so I wasn’t happy how the final photo came out, but you just made me feel better about it :) xo

Brittany @ The Domestic Geek
11 years ago

This looks absolutely amazing, completely drool-worthy! I definitely have to try this one.

Andi
11 years ago

Thank you so much, Brittany! I’m glad we found each other today. Have a great week!

Bianca @ Confessions of a Chocoholic
11 years ago

I love that this is both easy and fancy :) Great idea!

Andi
11 years ago

Thanks, Bianca! I’m all about easy, and fancy is always a nice bonus :)

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