Grill Grate Scotch Fillet with Chimichurri: The Ultimate Camp Steak Over Coals
There is something that happens when a thick scotch fillet hits a properly heated grill grate over glowing coals that no kitchen stove can replicate. The smoke, the searing heat, the crackle of rendering fat, the smell that carries right across the camp — this is camping cooking at its most primal and most rewarding. When you get it right, you end up with a steak that is crusted and caramelised on the outside, rosy and tender in the middle, and packed with the kind of flavour that only live fire can give you.
This recipe treats the humble camp steak with the respect it deserves. We are cooking scotch fillet on a grill grate over hardwood coals, then finishing it with a bright, herby, garlicky chimichurri sauce that cuts through the richness and lifts the whole thing. It is a proper Aussie camping feed with a touch of South American swagger, and it works equally well whether you are set up at a bush campsite with a 4x4 full of gear or pulled into a powered site with the caravan.
Why the Grill Grate Beats a Camp Oven for Steak
Camp ovens are brilliant for slow-cooked shanks, stews, and bakes — but they are the wrong tool for a good steak. Steak needs fierce, direct, radiant heat to form that deep, crusty sear you are chasing. A grill grate suspended over a bed of hardwood coals gives you exactly that: an open flame, intense heat from below, and the space to let the meat breathe while it cooks. There is no lid trapping steam, no slow smoulder turning your cut grey.
The other reason to grill over coals is pure flavour. As the fat from a scotch fillet drips down and hits the coals, it flares, vaporises, and rises back up into the meat as smoke. That is the essence of BBQ, and it is the single biggest advantage of cooking on a grill grate out in the bush. You are not just cooking the steak — you are seasoning it with fire.
Choosing the Right Grill Grate for Camping
A decent portable grill grate is one of the best bits of gear you can throw in the back of the 4x4 or the caravan boot. Look for one that is heavy enough not to warp under heat, with legs that hold it a comfortable height above the coals — around 10 to 15 cm is ideal for most cuts. Stainless steel or cast-iron grates are the gold standard because they hold heat well and clean up reasonably easily.
Folding or telescoping designs are handy for touring because they pack down flat and fit alongside your camp chairs or in a drawer system. If you camp often, spend a bit more up front on something that will last. A cheap, thin grate will bow within a few trips and leave you cooking at uneven heights, which is a fast way to ruin a nice piece of meat.
Before your trip, give the grate a scrub and a light oil. A clean grate sears meat properly and releases it cleanly when the crust has formed. A dirty or rusted one will grab the steak, tear the crust when you try to turn it, and leave you with a patchy result that wastes a good cut.
Getting Your Coals Right
The single most common mistake people make when grilling at camp is cooking over flames instead of coals. Flames are uneven, they scorch the outside before the inside has a chance to catch up, and they deposit soot on the food. What you want is a bed of hardwood coals that are glowing orange underneath a fine layer of grey ash. That is when the heat is steady, even, and hot enough to sear properly.
Start your fire at least 45 minutes before you want to cook. Australian hardwoods like ironbark, red gum, or box are ideal — they burn hot and hold their coals for ages. Avoid softwoods like pine, which flare, spit, and leave resinous flavours in the meat. If the site has fire restrictions or is a no-wood-gathering zone, a bag of good-quality heat beads will do the job just as well. Light them early, get them fully ashed over before you start cooking.
Rake the coals into an even bed under the grill grate, keeping a smaller pile to one side so you have a two-zone setup. The main hot zone is for searing. The cooler zone gives you somewhere to move the steak if flare-ups get aggressive, or to rest the meat briefly without it going cold.
Choosing and Preparing the Scotch Fillet
Scotch fillet, also known as ribeye in some parts of the country, is the cut of choice for a camp steak because of its fat marbling. That intramuscular fat renders as it cooks, basting the meat from the inside and giving you a tender, juicy finish even if you slightly overshoot your target temperature. It is forgiving, flavourful, and it loves a hot grill.
Aim for steaks that are at least 3 cm thick. Thin steaks overcook before they have a chance to form a proper crust. Thick steaks give you time to develop that deep, dark sear while keeping the middle pink. If your butcher can cut them fresh for you, even better — ask for two steaks of around 400 grams each, which is plenty for two people with some leftover for steak sangas the next morning.
Seasoning and Resting Before the Cook
Take the steaks out of the fridge at least 45 minutes before cooking. Cold meat hits a hot grate and seizes up, which makes it tougher and harder to cook evenly. Room-temperature meat cooks faster and more uniformly. While you are waiting, pat each steak dry with a clean tea towel or paper — dry meat sears, wet meat steams.
Season generously with flaky salt and coarsely ground black pepper on both sides. Do not be shy with the salt — a lot of what you apply falls off during the cook and you lose some to the coals. A light rub of neutral oil like canola or rice bran helps the crust form. Avoid olive oil at this stage, as its lower smoke point can leave a slightly bitter note on the sear.
Some campers like to add a touch of garlic powder, smoked paprika, or a simple rub. Keep it restrained. The quality of the beef and the smoke from the coals should be doing most of the talking. Heavy rubs belong on brisket and pulled pork, not on a good fillet.
Letting the Steak Come to Life
While your coals are settling and the meat is resting, you have time to set up the rest of the camp kitchen. Have your tongs, a sharp knife, a chopping board, and a small tray ready to rest the steaks on when they come off. A folding table or the tailgate of the 4x4 makes a fine prep station. Working out of the back of a properly kitted-out tourer with a drawer system makes jobs like this a whole lot easier.
Making the Chimichurri at Camp
Chimichurri is the unsung hero of BBQ cooking. It is an Argentinian green sauce built on parsley, garlic, vinegar, oil, and chilli, and it is absolutely made for chargrilled red meat. The sharpness cuts through the fat, the herbs freshen up the palate, and the garlic and chilli give it an edge that lifts a good steak into a great one. The best part is that it is extremely forgiving at camp — no hot work, no special gear, just a chopping board and a knife.
Because it is a raw sauce, chimichurri is also dead easy to prep ahead. You can make it at home the night before, store it in a screw-top jar, and throw it in the camp fridge. By the time you dish up, the flavours have had a chance to mingle and the sauce is even better than it was fresh. If you would rather do it on site, it takes all of ten minutes.
The Ingredients You Need
You will need a decent bunch of flat-leaf parsley, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, a small red chilli (or a pinch of dried chilli flakes if that is easier), a splash of red wine vinegar, a generous pour of good extra virgin olive oil, a little dried oregano, and salt and pepper. A handful of fresh coriander is an optional addition that some campers love and others skip. It comes down to taste.
The beauty of chimichurri is that it is built for touring. Parsley keeps well for several days in an Engel fridge wrapped in damp paper. Garlic bulbs last weeks in a dry drawer. Dried oregano, vinegar, and oil live permanently in any decent camp pantry. Pack a small jar of chilli flakes and you have everything you need for multiple batches across a longer trip.
Making It by Hand
Finely chop the parsley and garlic together on a board until they are well combined but still have some texture. Do not pulp it — chimichurri should be a chunky sauce, not a smooth paste. Scrape it into a bowl or directly into a jar, then add about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, three tablespoons of olive oil, a good pinch each of dried oregano, salt, and pepper, and the chopped chilli or flakes to your taste.
Stir everything together and taste. Adjust with more vinegar if it needs sharpness, more oil if it feels too punchy, or more salt if it falls flat. The sauce should be loose enough to spoon over the steak, oily and herby, with a clear vinegar kick and a warm chilli buzz at the back. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving — an hour is better if you have the time.
Cooking the Scotch Fillet Over Coals
This is where the magic happens. Your coals are glowing, the grate is hot and oiled, your steaks are seasoned and at room temperature, and the chimichurri is waiting in its jar. Take a moment to hold your hand about 10 cm above the grate — if you can only keep it there for 2 or 3 seconds, the heat is right. Anything longer and your coals need a rake to bring them to life.
Lay the steaks across the grate, away from you so any flare-ups do not lick your arm. You should hear an immediate, aggressive sizzle. If there is silence, the grate is not hot enough and you are about to stew rather than sear. If that happens, lift the steaks off, rake more coals underneath, wait a couple of minutes, and try again.
Timing and the Touch Test
For a 3 cm thick scotch fillet cooked to medium-rare, aim for about 3 to 4 minutes per side on a properly hot grate. Give each steak a quarter turn halfway through each side to get those neat crosshatch grill marks that make a camp steak look the part. Only flip once — resist the urge to fiddle. A good crust forms when the meat is left alone.
Rather than relying on time alone, use the touch test. Press the centre of the steak gently with tongs or a fingertip. Medium-rare feels like the flesh at the base of your thumb when your hand is relaxed. Medium feels firmer, like the same spot when you make a light fist. Well done is firm and springy — which, to be fair, is a waste of a good scotch fillet, but the customer is always right around the fire.
If the fat is flaring up badly and threatening to blacken the crust, slide the steaks across to the cooler zone of coals for a minute to let the flames settle. Then move them back once the flare-up dies down. Two-zone grilling gives you options, and options keep a nice cut of beef from being ruined.
Resting — The Step Most People Skip
Once the steaks reach your preferred doneness, lift them off the grate and onto a board or tray. Do not cut them yet. Let them rest, loosely covered with foil or an upturned plate, for at least 5 minutes. The juices that have been driven to the centre of the steak by the heat will redistribute through the meat during this rest, and you will get a far juicier result on the plate.
While the meat rests, you can throw some vegetables or halloumi onto the grate to use up the heat. Capsicum, zucchini, corn cobs, and thick slices of red onion all love a chargrill and make a brilliant side. A wedge of lemon thrown on for a couple of minutes per side adds a smoky, tangy note when squeezed over the steak just before serving.
Plating Up and Serving at Camp
Slice the rested scotch fillet against the grain on a 45-degree angle, about a centimetre thick. You will see the juicy, rosy interior and the deep, dark crust in perfect contrast. Arrange the slices on a plate or serving board, then spoon the chimichurri generously over the top. Resist the temptation to drown it — the sauce is a bright accent, not a blanket.
Classic sides for this kind of feed include a simple tomato and red onion salad dressed with a bit more of the chimichurri oil, a good hunk of crusty bread to mop up the juices, and chargrilled vegetables from the grate. If you want something more filling, a foil-wrapped jacket potato buried in the coal embers for 45 minutes while the fire burns down is unbeatable. Split it open, top it with butter, salt, and pepper, and let the steak juices pool in the middle.
A cold beer, a glass of full-bodied Australian red like a shiraz or cabernet, or even a tumbler of soda and lime all pair beautifully. This is outdoor Australian cooking at its absolute best — simple ingredients, fire, smoke, and time. No fuss, no gimmicks, just proper food.
What to Do with the Leftovers
If there is any steak left over — and that is a big if — it makes a sensational steak sandwich for breakfast or the next day's lunch on the road. Slice it thinly, warm it briefly on the hotplate, and stack it on fresh bread rolls with rocket, tomato, and a smear of the leftover chimichurri. It is the kind of sanga that justifies buying an extra steak just in case.
Leftover chimichurri keeps in a sealed jar in the camp fridge for four or five days and gets better with time. Use it on scrambled eggs, over BBQ chicken, stirred through rice, or as a dressing for a simple tomato salad. It becomes a staple of the camp kitchen once you start making it, and you will wonder how you ever toured without it.
Gearing Up for Proper Camp Cooking
A few good bits of gear make the difference between a good camp cook and a great one. A quality grill grate, a long-handled set of tongs, a sharp knife kept in a proper sheath, a solid chopping board, and a couple of old tea towels will get you through 90 per cent of what you will ever want to cook over coals. A 12-volt fridge to keep the meat at temperature on the way out is, for many, the single best upgrade you can make to your touring setup.
For those travelling longer trips off-grid, keeping the fridge running and the lights on means a reliable power system — decent solar, a good lithium battery, and a DC-DC charger to top up while you drive. It is amazing how much more comfortable an extended trip becomes when you are not constantly worrying about running the fridge down. A well-sorted electrical setup also means you can stream the weather forecast, check fire conditions, and keep in touch with the world while still being deep in the bush. If you are heading truly remote, a Starlink setup tucked in a protective carry bag keeps you connected while the kettle boils on the fire.
Good cooking gear lasts years — decades, if you look after it. Clean your grate properly after each use, oil it before packing it away, and keep your knives sharp. The best camp cooks are the ones who respect their kit, and their kit rewards them back with consistent, memorable meals under the stars. Throw a decent scotch fillet on a hot grate, spoon over a spoonful of chimichurri, and you will understand exactly why so many Australians plan their holidays around the campfire.
