NEVER EVER Grill a Steak again - Skillet Seared Steak

I really love to grill out and I actually have three grills on my back patio .

And during the summer in nice weather , I grill out almost every night of the week .

And one of my favorite things to grill is a nice juicy thick steak .

But I'm gonna show you a method today that you've probably heard about .

Once you master this method , you may never want to cook a steak on a grill again because it's so so good .

Welcome to all things food with John Woods .

I love to cook , but I cook to love .

So let's talk food .

So I told you that I love the grill .

So the other night I took some beautiful steaks home .

They were about an inch to an inch and a half thick .

And I wanted to cook those on my grill , but a terrible storm came up in our area and it lasted for hours and hours and there , I was with a hunger for those beautiful steaks .

So , what did I do ?

Well , I reverted to one of the great methods of all time to cook a steak , real restaurant , quality steak right there in my own home .

And that was seared steak in a skillet .

And I'm gonna share with you some of the basic principles today to help you really cook a really fine quality steak right there inside your own kitchen .

So , let's go .

So , the first step is we want to select a good quality the steak .

If you're gonna spend time cooking a steak and spend the money cooking a steak , be sure you buy a really good quality steak .

Don't skimp and buy a cheap steak .

Find one with good marbling .

If you're not exactly certain how to select a good steak .

Talk to your butcher and they'll be very glad to help you .

But it starts with a good steak tip .

Number two is temper your steak .

So many people will take their meat , whether it's a steak or a pot roast or whatever it is directly out of the refrigerator at 40 41 degrees and put it in a skillet and try to cook it .

That's really not a good idea .

It's always better to temper your steak and bring it up to room temperature .

Now , a lot of videos will tell you to put it out for 20 or 30 minutes , but I did an experiment today to tell you that that's not near long enough .

So I took these beautiful New York strips out of the refrigerator , temp them at 41 degrees at this point .

They've been at room temperature 68 to 70 degrees for almost three hours .

Now , this check the internal temperature and see what they are at this point .

It looks like they're not even quite 60 degrees .

So whenever you temper a steak , be sure you put it out at room temperature in a room that's 68 to 70 degrees for an extended period of time , 2 to 3 hours at the , at the very minimum .

And I think you're going to find you're going to have a much better quality steak by doing so .

Point number three , if you want a good seared steak , remove any moisture , I always take a paper towel and I try to blot it dry as much as possible , removing any excess moisture .

Always remember that moisture is an enemy to searing .

We don't want to our steak .

We want to sear the steak , so we're gonna remove all the excess moisture as much as possible .

Our fourth step is we want to adequately season the steak .

And remember that seasoning is gonna require more than you actually think .

Um , when you put the steak in the skillet after you've seasoned it , it's gonna lose about 30% of the seasoning that you put on it into the skillet .

So how do we season the steak ?

Well , the simplest thing to do good old salt and pepper and I always like to use kosher salt .

Do not use table salt .

I have the table salt here .

This is a , no , no , you don't wanna use table salt on just about anything , especially a good steak .

So get some good kosher salt .

I like Diamond brand .

Um , it's really good , fine coarse salt and I'm gonna salt it very generously .

Both sides .

I'm gonna get some good coarse pepper .

You use ground pepper , but I'm just gonna use this already pre ground pepper here generously sees on both sides and then I'm not only gonna season both sides , I'm gonna take it and turn it up on its edge and season the edges of the steak .

We want that seasoning to be permeating the entire steak .

So there's a good seasoning .

Now , there's a good seasoning that I like to use a lot of times that if I'm not using salt and pepper , I love Montreal steak .

It has garlic and salt and pepper , really a really fine steak seasoning .

And I , I love to use this whenever I can .

Another good one is , um , Weber's Chicago steak seasoning .

So it's whatever your preference .

But if you're in the , you have salt and pepper , that's exactly one of the best ways to do it .

Step number five is select the right skillet .

Um , whenever you're searing a steak , you want to use something that's real heavy , it will stand up to a lot of heat .

Of course , the best option is the good old trusty cast iron skillet .

One that's well seasoned .

And so we're gonna do two .

We have a stainless steel skillet over here on my induction burner and we're gonna bring those up to temperature , get them very , very hot .

And before we add the oil , now , let's talk about the oil .

Um , I'd like to use a , um , avocado oil because it has a very high smoke point of 525 degrees .

A good substitute would be grape seed oil .

Even though it has a smoke point of only about 4 , 25 I think avocado oil is always the best choice .

It's mild .

It's nutty .

It's sweet .

It's just really a good choice whenever you're searing a steak .

So once these skillets get hot , we're going to add the oil .

Don't add the oil first .

Wait until they get hot before you add the oil .

So it looks like our skillet .

This cast iron is pretty hot .

I'm gonna go ahead and add a couple tablespoons of oil .

Not too much and we're gonna sear the steak .

Um , there are a couple of things you can do here .

There's one thing called a reverse here where we actually start the steak in the oven , probably cook it at 300 degrees and on a preheated sheet pan for maybe 15 minutes , 10 minutes , depending on the thickness of the steak .

But I usually cook it almost to about 20% shy of the doneness that I'm wanting .

So , um , so you started it in the oven and that's actually what I've already done for you today .

Um , we , we uh pre sear these in the oven and we're gonna finish those in the skillet here and that's what we call a reverse sear .

Now , the skill is pretty hot .

It's not gonna take very long to do this , maybe about two minutes on each side .

And then we're gonna have a really , really nice steak , put it in away from you .

Listen for that sizzle , press it down to make sure it's getting full coverage there .

And we're gonna let that cook for about two minutes .

At this point .

I'm gonna add a couple aromatics , a little bit of thyme , a little bit of rosemary .

Just throw it right in there .

Come over here and add some garlic , couple cloves of garlic and then we're gonna put some butter in , let that melt .

And we don't want to move our steaks around a lot .

Just let the skillet do the work .

Don't flip them , don't flop them .

Just let them cook .

We'll take some of that butter and base up on the steak here .

It's been about two minutes .

We're gonna turn those over , shake them anyway .

Let them cook just another minute or two .

Continue to ba our other skillet over here is getting fairly hot .

You add some oil to it , that'll get good .

And he remember this is the pre Seared , um , reverse Sear method and this one here , we're just gonna sear right on the skillet .

We're gonna cook this for about three minutes on each side .

Once that gets warm and turn these over another two minutes since we've already precooked these a little bit .

Continue to baste nice and crisp on the outside .

They are looking absolutely beautiful .

Can hardly wait to try those .

So these steaks are sizzling hot .

I'm going to take them out of here and put them on a plate and let them rest for about five minutes or so .

Don't want to cut into them right away .

Take some of our aromatics and throw on top of that , set these aside and let them rest for just a few minutes .

And then we'll enjoy here .

We have the two stakes that we did not uh , reverse here .

We're gonna put them in a very hot skillet and , um , see what happens again , put them away from us and don't overcrowd your steaks .

If , when you , when you're cooking on a skillet , don't put too many steaks in at one time because again , it'll steam the steak rather than searing the steak .

Press that down to make sure we have good coverage everywhere .

I'm gonna throw in my aromatics , thyme and rosemary garlic .

And then we're gonna let that cook a minute or two , then we're gonna throw in some butter and baste it .

Ok , see if it's time to turn these , just let them cook just another minute or two .

And I always like to let them cook that first three minutes .

Actually , before I put my butter in there again .

That's your preference .

But that's kind of the way I like to do .

It really smells wonderful .

Those aromatics really adds a lot of flavor to the steak .

Nice , golden brown and crispy .

Go ahead and add my butter in here and then we'll base these steaks with that butter .

I'm gonna cook these to about a medium rare .

That's my preference .

Probably about 100 and 30 degrees internal temperature .

Let's talk about checking the temperature of a steak .

A lot of people are afraid to use a thermometer for some reason .

They , I guess they think it's just the wrong thing to do .

But if you're going to cook a good steak , don't have an aversion to using a thermometer .

Try to get a good digital thermometer and when you check the temperature of the steak , be sure to go through the side of the steak right into the very middle and you need to leave the thermometer in there for exactly , for about a minimum of 15 seconds for it to register properly .

We're one of these steaks to be about 1 30 ish or so .

And let me check over here and see if it looks like we're at exactly 100 and 29 degrees internal on that steak .

So that's exactly perfect .

These are gonna put three minutes on each side and we're gonna pull them out and let them rest .

We're gonna check the temperature and let them rest .

Now , there's a little trick if you don't have a digital thermometer or a good thermometer , you can kind of check the dumbness of a steak by touching your , the palm of your hand .

That part of your hand right there , your palm where it's real soft .

That would be the feel of a rare steak .

If you move your finger up a little higher there , maybe put those two fingers together .

That would be like a medium rare , medium , well and well done .

So , um , so you can just feel the steak like right now , that's exactly a rare .

It feels just like that part of my ham .

Um , if I wanted it well done , it would feel like that part of my palm right there .

So right now the steak feels rare but it's getting the , the desired dumbness that I want a medium rare that we're getting pretty close right about 1 .

17 .

I don't think you can actually get a steak any better than this .

It'd be hard to .

So now is the moment of truth , this is the steak .

These are the steaks that we reverse sear .

We started those in the oven , cook them for about 10 minutes and then finish them in the skillet here .

And then these , these are the ones that we seared in the skillet , cook completely in the skillet .

Now , we could have actually started these in the skillet , searing them in the skillet and then finish them in the oven .

That's a good method to do as well .

But these , here we cook completely in the skillet .

So let's cut one open and see what we have again .

I was looking kind of for a rare to medium , uh rare steak .

Exactly what we were looking for .

Nice , beautiful mate .

So I'm gonna try a bite of this and see how it is .

Flavor is magnificent .

Texture is really good .

I give that steak in a plus .

And these are the steaks that we've actually cooked in the skillet .

Again .

I'm looking for a rare to medium rare steak .

The way I prefer it , texture is good .

Color is good .

I let the thing rest for about five minutes or so and I'll take a bite and this one's a little rarer than that one , but that's kind of the way I wanted it actually .

Hm .

So good .

So if I had to make a decision between a reverse sear steak and then just searing one and then perhaps finishing off in the oven or finish it in the skillet , I think I would go with this method .

The one that we seared the steak completely in the skillet first rather than the reverse syrup .

That's just my preference .

But give it a try , try both methods , see which one works better for you .

So the next time you have that rainy day and you can't get out on your grill , but you're just dying for a steak and you want a good crispy juicy restaurant .

Quality steak .

Please use these methods that I discussed today on how to sear a steak in a skillet .

I think you're gonna be very , very happy .

Thank you for watching today .

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Food with John Woods .