My Guide For How To Grill STeak! This comprehensive guide offers tips for grilling, seasoning, and serving excellent steak. Fire up the grill!
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A Comprehensive Guide For Grilling Steak
Making a juicy, perfectly seasoned, lightly charred, and expertly cooked steak on the grill can be thought of as an elusive task.
How do I season it?
How long do I cook it for?
At what temperature?!
Speaking from experience, I can understand why some people avoid it altogether. For the longest time, I avoided making steak on the grill myself because I had overcooked, underseasoned, and generally screwed it up too many times before. But when I understood the basics of grilling, the proper cooking temperature that I like, and stopped overcomplicating the seasoning, that’s when I started making some of the best steak I’ve ever had (not to brag or anything…).
Read on to learn how to grill steak!
What Type Of Steak Should I Grill?
There are a number of excellent options for steaks you can grill. I’ve outlined a few of my favorites below. Be sure to check out my article, A Guide To Meat: Cuts of Beef, which will show you where on the cow each cut comes from.
- Flank, Skirt, and Hangar Steak: These cuts are known for their low price point and have a reputation of being overcooked, due to their low-fat content. That’s what makes these cuts perfect contenders for marinating! The acid in the marinade will tenderize the meat, and after a quick sear on the grill, it will be juicy, tender, and so flavorful. These cuts are great sliced and topped on tacos, salads, or in sandwiches.
- Top Sirloin: Probably my personal favorite for grilling, Top Sirloin steaks feature little marbling and are generally leaner than other cuts of beef. It’s a more economical cut, making it a reasonable option for both a weeknight meal or when you’re entertaining. It’s best simply seasoned with salt and pepper, seared on both sides, and cooked over indirect heat until your desired doneness is reached.
- Filet Mignon: A cut that just sounds expensive, the Filet is incredibly tender and sought-after cut of beef whose price tag reflects it. Like Top Sirloin, Filet Mignon is best simply seasoned with salt and pepper, seared on each side, and finished cooking over indirect heat. I can’t recommend erring on the side of rare for this steak, whatever your threshold may be. This steak is made even more delicious with a pad of compound butter.
- T-Bone: Garnering its name from its physical appearance, the T-Bone features two pieces of meat, the Filet Mignon and the New York Strip, divided by a bone which of course is in the form of a “T”. This steak appeals to those who like variety and have an appetite. It too requires minimal seasoning (salt and pepper will do!), a quick sear, and is finished cooking indirectly until your desired doneness is reached.
Cooking Temperatures For Steak
Is anything worse than getting a steak that is under or overcooked?! No. While the best restaurants out there should be following the standardized definitions of what medium-rare versus medium-well are, the simple fact is that it can be tough to cook steak if you don’t know what you’re doing. And realistically, when you do know what you’re doing – things still can go wrong!
I realize that this may sound pretentious, but if you want to enjoy consistent and delicious results, I can’t stress it enough: find the temperature of doneness that you personally prefer! This of course will mean cooking steak at home, getting a meat thermometer, and determining what temperature prompts those sighs of approval after that first bite.
If you’re looking to do things by the book, I’ve created the below graphic for you to print, tape up inside a cupboard, and review anytime you’re grilling steak.
How To Grill Steak
Though it can be intimidating to some, grilling the perfect steak takes just a few steps and considerations. Read on, fire up the grill, and get cooking!
- Bring your steak to room temperature. This is an important step as having an even temperature throughout your steak before you grill will yield even cooking. Make sure to blot your steak dry with a paper towel to remove any residual liquid.
- Get your grill hot and ready. It goes without saying that starting with a clean surface will provide better results. Preheat your grill to about 500º. Remove any debris with a grill brush, and oil the grates with a paper towel drizzled with some oil – be sure to hold it with tongs.
- Create two heat zones: As I’ve outlined above, many steaks require a quick sear followed by indirect cooking. This means your steak will be cooking on the opposite side of the grill where the heat is coming from. On a gas grill, set one of your burners to high, and the others to low. This allows you to sear the steak over the high flame, and then move it to the low flame to indirectly cook. With a charcoal grill, this will mean banking your coals on one side of the grill.
- Season simply! There are so many flavors you can add to a steak after it’s cooked. I find that the best delivers comes from a liberal amount of salt and cracked pepper. As my Dad would say, “When you think you’ve added enough, add more!”.
- Time to grill! Place your steaks on the oiled grates and don’t touch them for a couple of minutes. If you’re looking for the charming quintessential charred crosshatch, shift your steak 45º and leave for one minute. Flip your steaks, cooking until your desired temperatures reached. Don’t forget the meat thermometer! I use mine constantly, as it allows me to know exactly when I should take my meat off the grill.
- Allow it to rest. Once your steak is within 5 degrees of your desired doneness, pull it from the grill, cover it loosely with tin foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, which will result in a tender and juicy bite in each piece.
- Go against the grain. When ready to serve, slice the meat against the grain, which will allow for an easier slice and bite to chew.
Recipes To Try
While the above process for cooking steak can work for all sorts of cuts of steak, I wanted to offer a few delicious ideas to consider as you embark you your steak grilling journey! Check out one or all of the following steak recipes, and see below for ideas for what to serve with them!
What To Serve With Your Grilled Steak
Tried any of these recipes and loved them? Use the hashtag #sohappyyoulikedit and tag @sohappyyoulikedit on social media so I can see your creations!
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