On a gorgeous day, there’s little food more appropriate for dinner than a perfectly grilled steak! Steak can be a foul temptress though…there are so many cuts, and if it’s not cooked right, it can become tough…or worse, burnt on the outside and undercooked on the inside! However, with a few little tricks, you can grill the perfect steak every time and never have to perform a steak autopsy to figure out what went wrong again! The three main keys to always remember are:
- Don’t put a cold steak on the grill. Room temperature steak is best!
- Season both sides with salt a half hour before grilling.
- Let it rest for at least 5 minutes after cooking.
With those notes, you should be home free from disaster. Either serve your steak simply just as it is off the grill to let flavours shine through, or top it with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, seasoned butter, horseradish, black pepper, or blue cheese before serving…it’s hard to go wrong!
As for side dishes, we paired this steak with Grill Bread and a Grilled Veggie Pillow (post coming soon!). But, this would also go well with mashed potatoes, Mashed Celery Root, Garlic Butter Shredded Eggplant, and/or Grilled or Roasted Asparagus.
Time: 40-45 minutes (about 8-10 minutes of cook time though…the rest is waiting time)
Ingredients:
- NY Strip Steak (about an 1.5 inches thick)
- Coarse gound sea salt
Method:
- About a half hour before you are going to start cooking, remove your steak from the fridge, and sprinkle some of your salt on the top and bottom. Then let the steak just sit there so the meat can warm up closer to room temperature (lower temperature journey on the grill makes for better steak) and so the salt can do its thing.
- Preheat your grill…the hotter, the better for this purpose. If you want to get a little bit of smoky flavor, toss some wet bbq wood chips (I used Applewood) into a smoker box or a foil pouch with a bunch of holes cut into the top when you turn the grill on.
- When your grill is heated (and your wood chips start to smoke if using them), lay your steak on the grill, and leave it there for 2-3 minutes (depending on your desired level of doneness).
- Then, rotate the meat 90 degrees to create cross-hatched grill marks (not necessary, but it makes the steak look so good at the end), and leave it for another 2-3 minutes.
- When the time is up, flip the steak, and leave it for 2-3 minutes again.
- Once more, rotate the steak 90 degrees, and again, leave it for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the steak from your grill when the internal temperature reaches:
- Rare: 130-135 degrees F
- Medium Rare: 140 degrees F
- Medium: 155 degrees F
- Well (aka ruined): 165 degrees F
- Let the steak sit off the heat (I usually just put it on a cutting board for this part) for at least 5 minutes. This will allow your steak’s finish cooking gradually (yup…temperature will continue to increase off the heat) to your doneness preference and also prevent precious juices from running when you cut in. To quote Alton Brown, “Your patience will be rewarded.”
- Plate, top your steak with whatever you’re using as a topping (if any), devour, and enjoy!
