Steak Bites and Creamy Gnocchi – A Favorite Griddle Recipe!

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Looking for a fantastic steak bites and gnocchi recipe to make on your Blackstone griddle or flat top grill? This creamy steak and gnocchi dinner is for you!

Since starting our griddle cooking YouTube channel over 3 years ago, we’ve made about 1,000 different meals on the flat top grill. Literally.

So to say that this griddle steak bites and gnocchi recipe is one of our all-time favorite griddle recipes, you know it’s good!

This flavor-packed recipe starts out with a roasted garlic cheese sauce that’s similar to a homemade Alfredo (like the sauce that we made for this Blackened Chicken Alfredo with Tortellini) that gets tossed together with perfectly crispy griddle gnocchi. Quick and easy marinated steak bites and some sautéed mushrooms and shallots round out this restaurant-quality flat top grill dinner.

If you’re looking for a complete griddle dinner that the whole family will love, and you want to try a creative way to cook steak on the griddle, then this steak bites and gnocchi recipe is for you!

Ingredients for Steak Bites and Creamy Gnocchi

Here’s a quick rundown of the ingredients that you need to make this fantastic steak and gnocchi recipe on the griddle (or inside in a skillet):

For the Griddle Steak Bites:

We used about 1 pound of New York strip for our steak bites. Since we were cubing the steak and searing it on the griddle, we wanted to stay away from pricier cuts like filet… We would rather eat filet in a cast iron skillet or grilled over charcoal.

We also added these ingredients to the steak bites:

• olive oil
• thyme
• shallot
• baby portobello mushrooms
• Worcestershire sauce
• garlic

For the Gnocchi:

Look for a shelf-stable potato gnocchi, probably found in the dry pasta aisle of your grocery store. In addition to the gnocchi, you will need some butter and/or your favorite cooking oil to toast them on the griddle. We pretty much exclusively use avocado oil for griddle cooking.

For the Garlic Gorgonzola Cream Sauce:

The roasted garlic gorgonzola cream sauce is what really brings this dish together!

Here are the ingredients that you need for the roasted garlic cream sauce:

• Asiago cheese
• Gorgonzola cheese
• heavy cream
• butter
• garlic – I’ll show you how to roast your own head of garlic down below, and you’ll probably never use plain ol’ minced garlic again!

How to Make Griddle Steak Bites and Creamy Gnocchi

This griddle recipe is perfectly suited to flat top grill cooking, because it really allows you to take advantage of two of the main benefits of a griddle: 1) the large cooking area and 2) less dishes to wash.

You can benefit from the large cooking surface to cook a large package of gnocchi at once, and use the high griddle temps to quickly sear your steak bites, all while making the perfect cheesy cream sauce right on the griddle top.

And if you can’t tell from the full griddle of food above, this is why I always recommend a 4 burner outdoor griddle model, even if you’re only cooking for two people.

Here’s how to make this awesome gnocchi and steak bites recipe:

Roasting the Garlic

Roasted garlic adds an incredible flavor to any dish versus just using minced garlic, but it does require a bit of planning. You’ll need to start roasting the garlic about one hour before you’re ready to start making this steak bites recipe. But don’t worry, it’s super easy to do, and prepping the garlic for the oven only takes about 2 minutes flat.

Start by cutting the top 1/4 off the head of garlic so that the individual cloves are exposed. Place the two pieces in a piece of aluminum foil like this:

Then, drizzle the cut side of the cloves with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and fold the aluminum foil up around the garlic, just like you would for a foil packet dinner.

Bake the foil packet in the oven at 375 degrees F for about one hour. When it’s done, unwrap your foil pack of garlic goodness and allow that beautiful, fragrant roasted garlic to cool down a bit so that you can handle the bulb. Then, you can just squeeze the soft garlic cloves out. Turn the head upside down, squeeze gently, and the garlic will come out in a paste-like consistency.

You may be skeptical about roasting your own garlic, especially if you’re not a fan of raw garlic to begin with, but trust me… this garlic preparation changes the ball game!

Prepping the Steak

To prep the steak, you’ll first need to dry it well with some paper towels. Then cut it into bite-sized cubes like this:

You don’t want the steak bites to be too small, because then they won’t have enough time to sear on the griddle and develop a nice crust without overcooking. And you don’t want them to be too large, because you want to be able to fit the steak bite on a fork with some gnocchi.

You’ll notice that we left the fat on our New York strips. Fat is flavor, and we enjoy eating the fat on our steaks, but of course you can trim it first if you wish.

Once your steak is cut, just add it to a large bowl with some olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and about 1/4 of the roasted garlic. We also added some fresh chopped thyme because we already had it in the fridge and it needed to be used up, but you can substitute some rosemary or just go with the salt and pepper. This dish has a TON of flavor thanks to the roasted garlic and Asiago Gorgonzola cream sauce, so you don’t want too much seasoning on the steak.

Just mix all of the steak marinade ingredients together so that each piece is evenly coated, and your steak bites should look like this:

Sautéing the Mushrooms and Shallot

While the steak is marinating, start cooking the baby portobello mushrooms and diced shallot on the griddle. Just add a bit of your favorite cooking oil to the hot griddle surface, and place the mushrooms down like this:

As you’re putting the sliced mushrooms on the griddle, be sure that each piece has its own “landing zone”. You want the mushrooms to lay flat on the griddle to help release the moisture and get some nice color instead of piling them up together. If you were to just dump the mushrooms on the flat top grill and immediately start sautéing them, then the moisture would cause them to steam.

It’s small steps like that and the extra attention to detail that really can take a dish from great to freaking delicious!

Right before you flip the mushrooms to the second side, season them lightly with salt and pepper. Then flip and cook on the second side while you sauté the diced shallots.

Once the mushrooms and shallots are tender and caramelized, move them to the cooler side of the griddle while your other items cook.

Making the Asiago Cream Sauce

Before you begin making the cream sauce, you should taste the cheeses that you are using. Each cheese has its own unique flavor, and the flavors even vary by brand, so it’s a good idea to know what the individual ingredients taste like before adding them to the sauce. For instance, if your gorgonzola cheese is very pungent, then you may want to use less of that and more Asiago.

While your mushrooms are sautéing, start making the garlic cream sauce. Just add about a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons of butter to a skillet on the griddle. Once the butter has melted, squeeze the rest of the roasted garlic into the butter and stir to combine.

Your skillet should look like this:

Once the butter has melted, add the heavy cream and the cheeses to the skillet. Allow the cream to heat almost to a boil, and then move the skillet to a cooler side of the griddle.

For my Traeger Flatrock, I had the far left side of the griddle on low, the middle burner on medium, and the right burner off to create a “zone cooking” system. Once you’ve made your garlic cream sauce, you don’t want it to get too hot or boil too much because then the sauce will break. If your griddle has difficulty maintaining a lower temperature, you can also make the cream sauce inside on your stovetop.

Your sauce should look something like this:

You’re not looking to boil or reduce your sauce. You just want enough heat to melt the cheeses. Then, add some fresh cracked pepper and continue to stir the sauce occasionally. Hold off on adding salt, because the cheeses are already fairly salty. You can always adjust the seasoning at the end.

Once the sauce gets to the consistency that you like, it’s done. The sauce should pull away from the bottom of the skillet as you drag a spatula through it. You can hold the finished cream sauce on the cooler side of the griddle (remember I had one side of my flat top completely off), or remove the skillet from the griddle top completely.

Cooking Gnocchi on the Griddle

As the sauce is finishing, take advantage of your zone cooking system, and add some cooking oil and a bit of butter to the hotter zone on your griddle. Add the gnocchi to the oil and butter and toss so that they are evenly coated.

Then, allow the gnocchi to cook, stirring occasionally.

After about one minute on the griddle, I steamed the gnocchi to help along the cooking process. Simply squirt some water on the hot griddle around the gnocchi to create steam, and immediately cover with a melting dome. If needed, you can also add a few more squirts of water to the gnocchi under the dome after about 60 seconds. *You can see my favorite melting dome and my other must-have griddle accessories here!

I personally prefer my gnocchi to be a bit crispy on the outside, so after steaming I allowed them to cook for about another 4-5 minutes on the griddle. I just tossed them occasionally so that they got evenly crispy on all sides. The exterior will dry out a bit, but the inside will stay nice and soft… perfect for adding to your garlic cream sauce!

Making the Griddle Steak Bites

When the gnocchi is cooked and the sauce is finished, the last step is to sear the steak bites on the griddle.

Make sure that your griddle top is nice and hot (about 475-500 degrees F) to get a great sear on your steak. Since you just steamed the gnocchi on the flat top by adding some water, you may need to allow the temperature to build back up again for a few minutes.

Then, add the cubed steak to the griddle like this so that each piece is in contact with the hot surface:

Cook the steak pieces on the first side untouched so they develop a nice color. Then, flip to the next side and continue to cook. This is why the hot griddle temp is important… You want to get a nice seared crust on the steak bites without overcooking the steak.

Add the sautéed mushrooms and shallots to the cooked steak, and then your awesome griddle dinner is almost done!

Finishing the Steak Bites and Creamy Gnocchi

The last step is to incorporate all of the cooked individual ingredients into the sauce.

Just toss the crispy gnocchi in the skillet with your roasted garlic cream sauce like this:

Lay the steak bites on top of the creamy gnocchi, garnish with some fresh parsley or a sprinkling of cheese, and your Steak Bites and Gnocchi dinner is done!

This is quite possibly one of the best complete dinner griddle recipes that we’ve ever made on the flat top grill. Definitely a restaurant-quality meal that you can feed your family at home! Getting the perfect sear on the steak, crisping up the gnocchi, and browning the mushrooms instead of steaming them are all small details that really help the overall flavor of this fantastic dish!

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