Is it a Good Idea to Air Fry Steak from Frozen

I'm not embarrassed to admit when I'm wrong and I was completely wrong .

In fact , I've been completely wrong for years .

It's perfectly fine to cook a steak from frozen in your air fryer .

It's absolutely delicious and I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it .

Welcome to the salt and pepper where we cook for real life using real food and we keep it real simple .

I really can't think of anything more simple than this .

This is definitely one of the easiest meals I've ever made , or at least a part of a meal .

Right .

So , I can't tell you how many times Jeff comes home and he's like , oh , you know , I'd love a good steak .

Well , honey , they're all in the freezer and sometimes I'll get one out and I'll do a quick thaw in , uh , you know , a thing of water , a nice cold water bath .

But still we're not eating for at least two hours .

Right .

And I have told people all the time don't cook from frozen .

If you can help it , make sure you thaw your meat , you're gonna have a better texture .

It's going to be a better outcome .

But guess what ?

I was wrong because I took a ruby the other night and put it in the air fryer and cooked it .

And it was amazing .

The seasoning stayed on .

It was literally amazing .

So let's get into it .

I've got this very frozen , completely frozen rib eye and a little bit of seasoning .

So let me go over that .

I have a quarter teaspoon of fine grain , sea salt , quarter , teaspoon of onion powder , quarter teaspoon of garlic powder , a quarter teaspoon of black pepper and then a quarter tea , a crushed rosemary .

What you season your steak with is completely up to you .

Now , in order to get the seasonings to stick on , we do need to spritz with a little bit of oil .

So I'll do that on both sides before I put it into the air fryer .

Probably about a teaspoon or so on each side will do the trick .

And I'll put half of these seasonings on this side and half on the other side .

As a matter of fact , you know what I'll do is I'll go ahead and just put it right in to the ninja foodie .

Now I'm using the Ninja foodie as my air fryer , but you could use any air fryer in this recipe and it should work just fine .

If your steak is a little bit higher up to the element , you might drop your heat a little bit .

If it's lower down , you might increase the heat a little bit .

All right .

There we go .

And of course , this is for , it looks like it's a good 1.5 inch rib eye .

You could do it with other cuts of meat .

I do recommend though .

Something that's got some fat on it .

I think that , I think they're always a little bit better and I don't know , I think it'll be better from frozen if it has a little bit of fat on it too .

If you have a thinner rib eye , you're just gonna cut your time down a little bit .

All right .

That looks great .

No need to preheat the air fryer because we're starting from frozen .

It's not gonna make that much difference .

We're not trying to , you know , crisp up some breading or anything like that .

So no need to do that .

Go ahead and turn your air fryer on .

I'm gonna select the air crisp function here .

Go up to 400 hit , start 20 minutes is what we want .

We're gonna go for 20 minutes .

I'll flip at 10 and then when it's done , I will leave it in for five minutes to finish cooking through just with the residual heat .

This is the timing that worked for this thickness for medium rare and I am the medium rare to rare , uh , steak eater .

Ok .

So if you wanted it medium , you're gonna go a little bit longer with your time .

I don't think you're gonna have to worry about like getting too much browning on the outside or anything like that .

So I don't think you're gonna need to adjust your temperatures at all , but you are gonna adjust your time .

So you might want to go 25 minutes , take an internal temp and go from there .

If you like it well done , you're obviously gonna cook it for longer for well done .

You might look and see that it's getting too dark on the outside and you don't like that .

Bump your heat down .

Ok .

And then cook to temperature .

We always cook meat to temperature .

Not time .

That's what's gonna give you the best result .

All right , let's flip the steak and it's looking really good already .

You can see that the fat is turning nice and brown .

Now it's not really dark on the top here .

If you were using the Ninja foodie and you wanted to use broil , you could do that too .

And then we flip it .

You can see how it's still really raw there .

So now we're gonna close the lid and go another 10 minutes .

And even though in my test recipes it was a total of 20 minutes with a five minute rest period inside the pot to get to the perfect temperature that could change today .

For different reasons , the steak could be a little bit thicker , could be that I took it out , um , a little sooner to cooking than maybe the , the last time .

Maybe I had the steak out for longer .

Uh , the last time .

So , always cooked temperature .

That's the point .

Uh , not time .

Ok .

So invest in a good thermometer .

I like the thermo Pen MK four and I think they even have something newer out than this one .

But I really like this thermometer .

It's the , my favorite of all the ones I've ever had , but it is a little bit pricey .

So , as long as you have a good reliable thermometer , um , you can check the meat and of course , I , somebody , um , was asking me , well , can you put the probe in ?

You know , if you have a probe , thermometer , can you put it in and do it that way ?

Or if you have the steam and crisp one lid model ?

Could you do it with the probe ?

And the answer is no , because the steak is frozen .

I mean , you'd probably have to get a little drill bit to drill in there .

So , really ?

No , that's not really feasible .

Then you might be able to insert it at this point and get it to work .

So you can always give it a try .

All right , our 20 minutes is up and now the hardest part , don't open the lid , don't do anything .

Wait five minutes .

That way you don't let the heat out and that residual heat will finish cooking your steak perfectly if you like it like I do , which is medium rare on the rare side .

Of that .

Oh my gosh .

It's gorgeous .

Look at that .

It's so beautiful .

Oh , my gosh .

All right .

So let's go in now what I want a little bit under though .

All right .

So it's reading a little bit below my 1 30 mark where I want to hit .

It was about 1 15 .

Totally normal .

I mean , things like that happen now there's a couple of choices .

You can just leave it alone and let it sit in the hot pot for longer and it will continue to rise in temperature at least , you know , over the next five minutes or so .

Or you could go right back on air fry , which is what I'm gonna do because I'm not worried , looking at this , I am not worried about over cooking it .

In fact , what I could do even is flip it and get some more browning on that side .

Ok .

So I can do that and hit air crisp and just hit start , make sure our temp is really high though and go another five minutes .

Now , like I said before I did a rib eye , it was about one inch .

This might be a tad bit thicker , which is why it would take longer to cook .

So it's about one , maybe 1.5 inches actually , which is about what this is .

So 1.5 inches and it took 20 minutes with a five minute rest period and it was absolutely perfect .

It was at 1 30 after the five minute rest period and , and it was delicious .

This one take a little bit longer and that , that's what happens that's cooking .

So cook to temperature , not time .

But this method works amazingly well for , especially for a rib eye .

OK ?

I think it would also work with a filet and um other cuts of meat .

So try cooking from frozen when you're in a pinch .

All right .

let's go ahead and , uh , take a temp again .

Now , this side looks really nice .

I wonder what the other side looks like .

So let me get right into the middle and we are up there into the 1 20 .

Ok .

About 1 19 , 1 20 .

So , since I want it to be up around 1 30 I'm gonna flip it back over and not turn it back on .

I'm just gonna close the lid for a few minutes .

So instead of rusting it on my cutting board , I'm gonna rest it inside the ninja foodie .

Ok .

So in five minutes I'll pull it out , we'll slice it up and I'll show you what it looks like and tell you what it tastes like .

All right , let's go ahead and get our steak out .

It's been that extra five minutes and I'm so confident I'm not even gonna worry about temping it .

I'm gonna let it sit here for just a few minutes .

Now .

Technically , we let it rest inside the foodie , but I like to add a special little touch and that is a little bit of butter onto the hot steak and let it start to melt and then serve it up .

It's delicious .

Alright , let's go ahead and cut into it .

Now , I always share my steak with my husband .

So we usually make one rib eye .

But if you wanted to make two , you could , if you can fit it on the rack , you can make two .

It's no problem .

And I'm gonna cut it straight down the middle here .

Oh my gosh .

Look at that .

It's so beautiful .

That is absolutely perfectly cooked .

In fact , it might even be a little bit over , overcooked for the way .

I like it .

But that is a really nice medium rare .

Ok .

So we went a total of uh 25 minutes at 400 then 10 minutes of that sit time .

Now , if I was to make this again , I might do 25 minutes of air crisp with just a five minute rest time .

Ok , because I could definitely go with it being a little bit , a little bit less cooked , but it looks absolutely beautiful , but it doesn't matter what it looks like , it matters what it tastes like .

I'm so excited about this uh rendered fat and everything of the rib eye .

Oh my gosh .

This just looks so good .

Oh my God .

Wow .

We gotta get some of that butter .

Um Absolutely amazing .

And I am so happy to be wrong .

I've never been happier to be wrong .

I will do this again and again and again .

So the next time Jeff wants a rib eye at the last minute and they're in the freezer .

I have no issues of throwing it into the air fryer .

So I hope you give this a try .

You're gonna absolutely love it .

And remember , cook to temperature , not time .