Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to cook steak perfectly every time.
A lot of home cooks are intimidated by making steak because they're afraid of messing it up,
but I'm here to tell you just how easy it is with a foolproof method.
I'll be showing you how to sear on the stovetop and finish it off in the oven, which is great for home cooks.
It's so incredibly easy, but I'll also show you the restaurant way of cooking steak.
But before we get to cooking we need to talk about the different grades of beef.
There are 3 grades of beef: select, choice, and prime.
It all has to do with the amount of fat and flavor on the beef,
and you can see here on the select grade that there's not a lot of marbling and the fat cap is a little bit gray.
Over here we have the choice grade and you can see that marbling of fat throughout the meat,
and it's got a nice red color with a nice white fat.
Last we have our prime grade here,
and you can see it has even more marbling, which has a lot of flavor in it,
and we have a nice deep red and a beautiful fat cap.
You've also probably heard of American wagyu.
This is a prime grade of beef, but it comes from a specific breed of cow.
And over here we have a super thick cut, dry aged prime grade strip steak.
These 2 methods that I'm going to show you will work with any grade of beef, but it'll also work with any cut of steak.
I've been showing you a bunch of strip steaks, which are super common,
but here are some ribeyes as well, also a fabulous choice of beef.
You can also use a t-bone or porterhouse, which is both pieces put together with a bone running through.
Or you can even use this with a filet.
Before we get cooking let me go over the price difference, because our choice grade was $3 more per pound over our select grade,
While our prime grade was $17 more per pound over our select.
If i'm cooking steak for company or for my family I'm going to choose choice grade, because it is always worth the extra few dollars.
Even amongst each grade you can get a large variety.
If you look at this one that's super gray and unappetizing, this is also select grade beef.
So you can kind of see why I say to choose choice, and then save prime grades for special occasions.
Let your steaks sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes before you cook them.
When it's almost time to cook preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
I like to keep my steak seasoning simple with a 1:1 ratio of salt and pepper, and I actually like to use a combination of both black pepper and white pepper,
to give it just a little bit more depth of flavor.
Drizzle a neutral flavored oil onto your steak and get both sides and season both sides very generously with that salt and pepper.
You want to rub it in and get both sides.
It's actually hard to over-season a steak.
It's also worth noting that thick steaks are easier to work with.
If you're looking at 1-1 1/2-inches, it's going to be hard to dry that sucker out.
Next get a large heavy skillet heating over high heat.
I like to use cast iron for this because it conducts heat evenly.
The pan should be hot enough that you get a nice sizzle when you add in your steak.
With this first method we don't need to add any extra oil to the pan because we're going to use the oil from our steak.
Let it sear for about 2-3 minutes per side.
You can see that our choice grade over here has a little bit more of those golden notes because it has more fat.
With these strip steaks you get a fat cap on the side.
What you want to do is use some tongs so you can render those off as well.
I like to give it one final flip before we finish it off in the oven.
I'm gonna grab that select grade so we can slice into it
so you can see the level of doneness just from searing.
And slide the choice grade into the oven.
I recommend cooking for about 5 minutes per inch of thickness.
Let's slice this in half and take a look at the level of doneness with just searing on the stove.
If you take a look at the inside you can see it still has a pretty rare interior.
With just a few more minutes in the oven you'll get a nice medium rare, and I like to flip it in the oven every 1 minute.
Of course you cook your steak to your preferred level of doneness, all the way up till well done.
but in culinary terms we consider medium-rare to be correct.
Remove the steak from the pan and let it rest for a few minutes.
Really it's probably enough just in the time that it takes to get from the pan to the table.
Then you can see what just a few more minutes in the oven will do.
The next method i'm going to show you is all done on the stovetop.
It's the restaurant method, which you've probably seen before,
where you're spooning a whole bunch of butter over the top of the steak, but that can be a little intimidating for home cooks,
and it can easily get overdone.
For this one I'm going to use a couple of ribeyes.
You want to gently pat them dry.
We're not going to add any oil directly on the steaks.
We're just going to season them generously.
Instead I'm going to add my oil directly to the skillet.
You'll use about 1-2 tablespoons.
You'll know the oil is hot when it begins to shimmer, and then you can add in your steak.
You want to get that nice sizzle when you add it in.
After 2-3 minutes you'll flip your steak, but this time once you flip you're only gonna let it sit for about 30 seconds.
Then you'll add in about 4 tablespoons of butter, and you can also add in aromatics like thyme,
or even some smashed garlic cloves.
Then you're going to tip the pan and start basting those steaks with the butter.
After it's had about 3 minutes on the other side you can go ahead and flip them again, and continue flipping every 1 minute and basting some more
until you've reached your desired level of doneness.
Now in restaurant land they don't even use meat thermometers, they just go by feel,
and in fact they teach it to you where you're looking at rare by touching the meaty fleshy part of your thumb,
medium-rare where it gets a little bit more firm, moving up your wrist onto your arm,
to firm for well done.
And while the steaks are resting you can go ahead and drizzle on more of that flavor infused butter.
If you didn't know already restaurants use a lot of butter in their cooking, which is probably why it tastes so good.
But now you know how to make steaks perfectly at home every single time using 2 different methods.
Thanks for watching.
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