French Onion Steak Pinwheels (2024)

These French Onion Steak Pinwheels combine stuffed steak, melty cheese, and caramelized onions. This meal is a delicious, easy recipe that you’ve likely never had before! In just half an hour of prep and an hour of cook time, you’ll be ready to serve 4. Let’s dive in!

Why You’ll Love French Onion Steak Pinwheels

French onion soup is one of those go-to comfort food recipes that just never gets old. These beef pinwheels are a different take on those classic french onion soup flavors. Each cut of meat is complemented by gooey cheese and caramelized onions. It’s a perfect option for holiday parties or a hearty family dinner.

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For more with caramelized onions, check out my French Onion Patty Melt, Tomahawk Steak with French Onion Crust and Smoked Cheesesteak Sliders.

Keep in mind, while steak pinwheels are full of savory flavor, they can be a bit heavy. However, the meal is easy to balance with a simple garden salad or some grilled vegetables, like charred bell peppers.

French Onion Steak Pinwheels Ingredients

The foundation of French Onion Steak Pinwheels is some savory skirt steak. I picked up this cut of beef at my local grocery store. It tastes best when drizzled with some vegetable oil and then seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder.

We’ll use a very sharp knife to thinly slice a couple medium white onions, and mix them in beef broth, bourbon, brown sugar, chopped rosemary, garlic, salt,pepper, and beef tallow.

Those onions will get sautéed until they’re caramelized to golden perfection! You’ll use some of these caramelized french onions and a few slices of Swiss cheese to stuff each steak for our pinwheels.

Make sure you have kitchen twine to hold each pinwheel together while they cook. It will help them hold that gorgeous pinwheel shape you’re going for!

Finish it off with a cheesy crust made out of Gruyere, Panko breadcrumbs, melted butter, and grated parmesan.

For more with skirt steak, check out my Stuffed Skirt Steak, Braided Skirt Steak and Cheesy Skewered Skirt Steak with Salsa Verde.

How to Make French Onion Steak Pinwheels

French Onion

Preheat your grill to medium high heat (about 350F) for direct cooking. Add a cast iron skillet to the grill about 2 minutes before cooking so that it can also preheat.

Next, melt the beef tallow in the large pan and then add your thinly sliced white onions. Season the onions with salt and pepper and cook them on a medium heat until they are caramelized (golden brown).

Your caramelized onions should take about 45-60 minutes to become golden brown with that medium-high heat. Stir the onions frequently so that they don’t burn.

Once they are dark brown and soft, add your garlic and rosemary to cook for 2 more minutes. Finally, deglaze the skillet with bourbon and beef broth, then add your brown sugar. Let the onions simmer until most of the liquid is gone (about 3-5 minutes), then remove from the grill.

Skirt Steak

Lay your skirt steak out on a cutting board. If it’s really long, you can slice it in half (I had to cut mine in half). Then cover the skirt steak with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using a heavy meat mallet, hammer the skirt steak until it is less than ½” thick.

Mix together your salt, pepper and garlic then lather your steak with oil and season both sides. Next, add a layer of sliced swiss cheese and top with a line of the caramelized onion running down the middle of the length of the steak(s).

Carefully roll the skirt steak up lengthwise to create the pinwheel. Secure that bad boy with two strings of cooking twine and slice between the middle of the two strings, making two separate pinwheels.

Season the tops with salt, pepper and garlic. Repeat this with the rest of the skirt steak for all of the pinwheels.

For other pinwheel variations, check out my Green Chili Salmon Pinwheels, Surf and Turf Pinwheels and Grilled Steak Pinwheels.

Grilling & Serving

Preheat your grill for a two zone high heat temperature around 400 degrees F. Line your pinwheels across the hot side of the grill. Let them sear for 1 minute per side or until they have developed a nice crust.

Once they have a nice crust on the outside, pull the pinwheels over to the cool side of the grill to cook indirectly until they reach 125F internal (about 10-15 minutes more).

When the steaks are done, pull them off and let rest for 10 minutes until they reach room temperature. After resting, mix together all the ingredients for the cheese crust and add some to each steak. Torch or broil the crust until it’s caramelized.

Now slice, serve and enjoy!