The best way to cook a steak indoors.
Cooking steak outside? That’s easy. Get the grill as hot as possible, toss the meat on and cook until done. But attempt that same stunt indoors, and you’ll smoke out your family.
As a condo dweller without easy access to an outdoor grill, I’ve tried a number of different methods for indoor steak, from electric grills and grill pans to placing multiple fans around my kitchen to help direct the smoke out the window. Usually, my family just sits down to dinner in a haze of vaporized beef fat so thick we can hardly see one another.
Turns out I was thinking about it all wrong. Instead of worrying about what to do with an excess of smoke, what if I used a method that keeps the high-heat cooking to the shortest amount of time possible?
That’s the deal with the reverse sear, a method of cooking thick steaks that is contrary to two long-held, though entirely false, pieces of steakcooking lore. No doubt, you’ve heard that searing “seals in the juices,” even though that has been disproved by just about every food authority over the past 30 years. And I’m guessing some questionable uncle instructed you to only flip a steak once.
We’re going to do the opposite. Instead, gently cook the steak until nearly done in a very low oven, and then sear it quickly at the end, flipping every 30 seconds. This method is called the reverse sear, and it has been popularized by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, the chief culinary consultant at Serious Eats, and Chicago’s Meathead Goldwyn, whose cookbook, Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling,I consulted for this recipe.
The advantages of the reverse sear are easy to see. The steak will develop a stunningly browned exterior, without a spot of gray. Cut in, and instead of a thick band of gray meat around the exterior, the steak is mostly rosy pink from top to bottom.
A word of warning: This recipe only works with big steaks, the kind that are 1½ inches to 2 inches thick, and which weigh about 2 pounds. I went with a bone-in rib-eye, which was more than enough to split with my wife and have some left over for a light lunch the next day.
Reverse Sear Rib-Eye
1 bone-in rib-eye steak, 1½ inch to 2 inches thick, about 2 pounds
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon canola oil (or
other suitable oil) 1 tablespoon butter Freshly ground black pepper
If you have the time, liberally sprinkle salt on both sides of the beef, transfer meat to a wire rack set on a baking sheet, and then place in the fridge. Let rest for at least an hour. If you don’t have time, just salt the meat thoroughly on both sides right before cooking, and place meat on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Heat oven to 225 degrees. Place the baking sheet in the oven. Using a digital meat thermometer, check the meat every 10 to 15 minutes. The total time depends on the thickness of the steak, but plan for the degrees, temperature so steak. degrees, oven. you 45 temperature When to don’t plan remove 55 minutes. every it overcook to has reaches check steak 5 reached minutes, Once the the from 100 115 skillet starting and Heat butter. over to oil smoke. Carefully high in a large heat Add spoon cast-iron until the just steak the melted Flip Continue the butter steak spooning after over 30 the the seconds. steak. butter and seconds, flipping until the the steak steak every has 30 been in the pan for 2 minutes. Remove the steak and check the temperature. If it’s 125 to 130 degrees, set it aside on a clean plate to rest. If not, return it to the pan for an additional minute of basting, flipping halfway through. Let the steak rest, 10 minutes. Cut the steak into thick slices, season with black pepper and an additional pinch of salt. Divide between two plates and serve. Makes 2 servings.
Recipe adapted from Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling