I am a big fan of a great steak and make them often at home, so I wanted to share my favorite tips for making a restaurant quality steak right in your own kitchen. All you’ll need is a little pre-planning and a good quality skillet and you can enjoy a juicy, well seared, flavorful steak any night of the week.
Let’s get started…
Let Your Steak Relax…
One of the most important steps is to let your steak come to room temperature before cooking. If your steak is tough even when it is not overcooked, it was most likely placed into the skillet cold. There are several reasons that allowing your steak to come to room temperature is a great idea.
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- Steaks should be tender, not tough – cold meat fibers tend to tense up at the shock of being placed into a hot skillet, but this is easily avoided by allowing the meat to sit out at room temperature for 30-45 minutes before cooking.
- Ensuring an even cook – if the meat is cold throughout, the outer portions will begin cooking much faster than the heat can work its way in towards the center, especially in a thicker cut steak. This can lead to overcooking or steaks with a nicely seared outside, but a raw center.
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Preparing The Surface…
The outer surface of the steak is super important. The way that it is prepared determines how well the steak will sear as it cooks and a well seared surface both locks in moisture and develops the most flavor.
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- First, dry the entire steak – pat the entire steak dry with paper towels to void any moisture from working its way into the skillet. Moisture creates steam and steam prevents the a good sear from forming, so make sure your steak is completely dried off before seasoning.
- Second, add a little oil – but, we just dried the steak off, right? Oil is different than any natural moisture or water than may have been on the steak initially and oil both helps the seasoning to stick to the steak and it also adds another layer of flavor. A good quality olive oil is the best choice here.
- Third, season generously – if you ever wondered why steaks at your local steakhouse taste so flavorful, it is most likely because they are very generously seasoned. Seasoning is up to personal preference, but kosher salt and black pepper should always be included. My very favorite steak seasoning is a combination of Lawry’s seasoned salt and garlic salt, but there are many ways to season a steak depending on what you will be pairing it with. Just be generous with the seasoning and don’t forget the salt!
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Preheat Your Skillet…
Second to letting your steak come to room temperature, preheating your skillet is a very important step in developing that crucial sear. Place a good quality, dry skillet over medium to medium high heat. I love using my Victoria Cookware Signature cast iron skillet to cook steaks at home, but any good quality skillet will work. Avoid using a non-stick skillet as they tend to not allow meat to brown as heavily as we need our steak to do.
A good way to determine whether your skillet is warm enough to add your steak is to hold your hand about 2 inches above the surface and if it gets too hot to keep your hand there within 2-3 seconds then your skillet is good to go. If you can comfortably hold your hand close to the skillets surface for longer than 2-3 seconds, let your skillet get a little warmer before adding the steak. We want our steak to sizzle instantly when it hits the skillet, so that skillet needs to be nice and warm.
Do Not Disturb…
Once your skillet has preheated, place your steak down in the center of the skillet. If you are cooking 2 steaks together, be sure to choose a large enough skillet to be able to leave some space between them.
Once the steak is in the skillet, leave it alone. This is difficult for a lot of people to do, but a steak needs time to develop that all important sear we keep discussing. Your steak should only be seared one each side once, so allow the underside to develop a nice crisp and deeply browned sear before flipping the steak to the other side.
Note: If you started with a hot, dry skillet and your steak was oiled and seasoned, the steak will easily release from the skillet when it has formed a proper sear. If you go to flip the steak and it is sticking to the skillet, let it cook a little longer and then try again.
This is exactly what you are looking for. The entire surface is crisp and brown and any fat has been rendered off. You can see the difference between the color of the white fat on the side of the steak versus the browned surface that we developed on the first side.
Note: If you are cooking a particularly thick steak, you may have to sear the sides too. Do this by using tongs to hold the steak sides down onto the skillet for 60-90 seconds or until the fat on the sides has had a chance to render down.
Finishing The Steak…
This step is optional, but highly recommended. Once you have flipped the steak, add a tablespoon of butter into the skillet and baste the steak as it finishes cooking. If you want to really ramp up the flavor, add a little bit of minced garlic or a sprig of fresh rosemary in with the butter and continue to baste all of that flavor over the steak as it comes to your preferred temperature.
How Do You Want Your Steak Cooked?
This is a super important decision! Every time you order a steak at a restaurant, you will be asked how you want your steak cooked and usually the correct answer is medium rare (in my most humble of opinions), but how can you tell when it has reached your desired level of doneness when you are cooking a steak at home?
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- A meat thermometer is your bff – using a meat thermometer to determine your steaks temperature is the absolute best way to ensure your steak is done how you want it and avoid the dreaded overcooked steak. Here are the temperatures you should be looking for:
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- Rare – 120 degrees (a cool bright red center)
- Medium Rare – 130 degrees (fully warmed red center)
- Medium – 140 degrees (hot center, dark pink)
- Medium Well – 150 degrees (mostly browned, firm in texture)
- Well Done – 160+ degrees (no color, very firm in texture, dry)
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- The “hand trick” – a seasoned grill master may use the ol’ hand trick when checking the doneness of a steak. If you are unfamiliar with this method, googling “steak hand trick” will offer you a wide variety of explanations, but this is what I go by in a pinch.
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- This method compares the feeling of pressing on the top of a steak with the feeling of the pad under your thumb with your fingers in various potions. For example, a rare steak feels similar to that part of your hand when your hand is completely relaxed. If you bring your pointer finger and thumb together, that area under your thumb will feel similar to a medium rare steak and then if you bring your pinky together with your thumb, this steak would be well done. You can feel that area under your thumb become tighter the further you work down your fingers and this simulates the increasing temperature as a steak continues to cook.
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- A meat thermometer is your bff – using a meat thermometer to determine your steaks temperature is the absolute best way to ensure your steak is done how you want it and avoid the dreaded overcooked steak. Here are the temperatures you should be looking for:
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Rest Is Important…
As soon as your steak reaches your desired level of doneness, transfer it onto a cutting board and let it rest. Just like a steak shouldn’t be disturbed as it is cooking, the same things goes for its post cooking nap too.
While the steak is sitting in a hot skillet, the meat is being restricted as it cooks and the juices inside the meat are traveling around during this process. If you cut into a steak while it is still in this process, those juices will leave town and never return. Letting a steak rest gives those juices time to redistribute evenly throughout the entire steak and when you slice into a properly rested steak, those juices will remain inside the steak along with all of the flavor too.
An average sized steak should be rested for 5-7 minutes, whereas a thick steak should be rested for 10 minutes.
Slicing Is Surprisingly Important…
Now that you have a well seared, generously seasoned steak that has been rested, it is time to slice into that bad boy. While certain cuts of steak are more tender than others, the way that you slice a steak can create tougher or more tender bites depending on the direction of the grain.
Before you prepare the steak, take a look at the grain and see the direction it is running. The grain in this New York strip steak is running diagonally, so I sliced the steak in the opposite diagonal. I have found that most longer, more narrow cuts have diagonally running grains that go toward the curve of the steak. Steaks that are more square or rectangularly shaped, such as a ribeye or top round, usually have grains running lengthwise, so a diagonal slice works best for these cuts too.
Enjoying The Fruits Of Your Labor…
Now that you have carefully prepared your steak, it is time to enjoy the tender, flavorful fruits of your labor. There are many fabulous ways to enjoy a great steak and here are some of my favorites…
There is something special about a great steak. It is a wonderful source of protein with no carbs and endless pairings.
If you have ever struggled to prepare a juicy, flavorful steak in your own kitchen then hopefully this will help you create something fabulous next time you give it a try.
