Just like the illusive Bigfoot, UFOs and the Loch Ness Monster, cooking the perfect steak is something shrouded by myth. Veiled in hearsay. Wrapped up in secrecy and forbidden recipes. All this hullabaloo can make cooking the perfect steak a tad intimidating or seemingly out of reach.
Well, fear not because the path to the perfectly cooked steak is all too simple.
The Stay At Home Chef has us covered!
Rachel Farnswroth, AKA, The Stay At Home Chef, is a powerhouse of home cooking, and her recipes have helped millions achieve greatness no matter how humble their kitchen. In this case, she takes the humble slab of beef, and shows us how to cook a steak that is tender, flavourful and easy for even the novice chef.
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What you’ll need:
2x beef steaks, 1-inch minimum thickness
2x tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1x tsp salt
1-2x cloves minced garlic
2x tsp butter, softened
(Optional) herbs like thyme, sage, or rosemary
Having an oven safe skillet helps too, but is not essential.
A word about the steaks:
Rachel recommends using thicker steaks for a better, more tender and juicy result. Thinner steaks will cook faster and will be more prone to being overcooked or drying out. The steaks she uses in her videos are New York strip steaks, and they are so big and juicy, you wont want to use anything else.
Rachel also recommends looking for steaks with a bit of marbling, and for a better result, trying to find either choice or prime cuts. Fat along the sides of the steak are a personal choice, but certainly don’t hurt.
So let’s cook some steaks!
1. Prep the steaks
Take your steaks out of the fridge and remove any packaging. Let them get to room temperature, and keep them there for a minimum of half an hour. Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 375 ° degrees.
2. Oil them up
Cover your steaks generously in olive oil and rub it into every side of the steaks, including any fatty sides.
3. Mix the rub
Mix together the pepper, salt and onion powder in a little container like a ramekin. And just like when you want to brag about something, rub it in. Make sure to get each side.
4. Preheat your skillet.
Get that skillet nice and hot, as Rachel says, “smoking hot”. Then it’s time to sear your steaks in the pan for approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. You shouldn’t need to put oil or butter in your pan.
Don’t forget the sides!
Now’s the time to get to those fatty sides for a little extra flavour. The name of the game is rendering. We want all the fat on the sides to render out, or else we’ll be chewing through chewy chunks of fat. Give each of those sides 2 to 3 minutes too.
5. Oven time!
Put your whole skillet with the steaks into your preheated oven. If you don’t have a skillet, you could transfer them to an oven safe tray, but you really want to put them in in the same pan they were searing in. They should only be in there a short while, as per your cooking preference, Rachel recommends a rule of thumb of 5 minutes per inch for a medium rare steak.
6. Combine your garlic butter
To combine your garlic butter, you combine your garlic and your butter….an voilà! Look at you, cheffin’ it up! If you want to go even further with your cheffing, you can throw in a pinch of your favorite herb for a little extra flavor.
7. Remove the steaks.
Pull your steaks out approximately 5 degrees before they reach your desired temperature. If you have a meat thermometer, this will mean 130° for medium rare. They will continue to rise in temperature by about 5 degrees once removed.
8. Top it off!
As soon as your steaks are out, top them with your garlic butter. Now for the most important part, but also the easiest: let them rest for ten minutes. Give them time to soak up their own juices and become nice and tender. Come to think of it, this may actually be the hardest part to do, as resisting the smell of these steaks will be a test of your willpower! Trust me though, it will pay off.
If you’ve managed to resist cutting them prematurely, your steaks will be tender, juicy, and ready to enjoy!
Of course, as with any recipe you can make your own little changes, such as adding different spices to your rub such as cayenne pepper, paprika or mustard powder, but for simple yet delicious steaks, Rachel’s recipe cannot be beaten.
Watch the full video below to watch The Stay At Home Chef show you how it’s done!
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