I honestly don’t recall how/why I did a Google search that yielded this simple, sublime technique. I think I might have seen someone do it on a cooking show. No matter. Being 46, I have cooked steaks in many ways. Directly on the grill being the most common. I’ve tried the broiler. The stove top. Most recently, I tried my beloved cast iron skillet, in the oven. All were good. It’s steak, after all. It never dawned on me to try the cast iron directly on the grill. Of course! It makes brilliant sense. The high heat of the grill, with the flat cooking surface of the skillet. I’m probably sounding like an amateur to those who know this. No matter. I preheated the grill on high for 15 minutes with the skillet on the bars. I lightly coated the boneless rib eye with olive oil, salt and pepper. When the pan was ready I put the steak on, and let it cook 4 minutes per side. (I like my steak medium.) I let it sit while I fixed my sides. PHE-NOM-EN-AL. Perfectly seared outside. Just barely pink inside (you can obviously cook it less it if you like it more rare.) Juicy as hell. Yep. Wrong all these years.
A rib eye steak, being fatty, takes to a closed heated skillet pretty well. In fact, a lot of people do that on the grill to render off excess fat. You might want to add onions, celery and bell peppers to the skillet after you’ve seared both sides.
Personally, i prefer the leaner t-bones and sirloins. For these, sear for a couple minutes each side and then put in indirect heat (usually still on the grill but away from the coals.)
so, you liked the results from all of the other ways you’ve cooked your steaks, but now you’ve found another way and all of a sudden your previous methods were all wrong.
got it.
Sure. The difference is between good and great. Glad you got it.
Funny. I thought you were referring tothis article, which matched my experience.
TY Chuck.
That seems like an odd extra step to me. What’s wrong with preheating it on the stovetop? Given 15 minutes, I bet it would get up to blazing temps in a hurry, too. I do two minutes a side on a stovetop for medium rare (after slowly bringing it up to about 90-95F first in a slow oven.)
There’s no reason to put your iron skillet on top of a grill. Sear the meat in the skillet first under extremely high heat, then finish for a couple minutes on the grill. Or alternatively, do whatever you like!
This, pretty much. You sear it in a skillet always, then finish it however you want (grill, broiler, engine block, etc).
This is exactly how I cook mine! The warming is a smidge different as I use a warm water bath rather than low oven, but same thing, really. Two minutes a side in cast iron to get that perfect golden brown crust and medium rare. Eesh, now I’m hungry and I’m on my way to bed. Big glass of water it is…
cast iron skillet straight on top of the natural gas burner on top of the stove. Bring the steak to room temperature first, heat the pan then cook for 2 minutes each side on “burn”. rest on a warm plate with some foil over top for 2-3 minutes while you get the sides. then eat.
I like mine rare.
There are moments sometimes when someone says something really puzzling in a thread, and I figure out I’ve been reading American English wrong all these decades. I think this must be one of those moments.
What exactly is “a grill” in your world? Because in my world, a grill is an enclosed oven-like area (except much smaller) where the heat is produced from the top and goes down. You can’t put things “on” the grill, but you can put things in it.
So am I defining “grilling” different to you, or is it the word “on” which is causing me confusion?
I have an electric cook top stove. The reason I tried it all on the grill was so that my kitchen didn’t get filled with smoke and my cook top wouldn’t get splattered. I’ve seared it on the cook top and finished it in the oven before, but this was the easiest way I’ve found.
A “grill” or sometimes called a “BBQ grill” is a (typically) outdoor cooking appliance. It can use charcoal or gas, but the heat/flame comes up from the bottom and there is usually a rack that you put the food on.
Oh…ok, that’s what we would call a barbecue.
So - do you have the other kind of grill? Is that what a “toaster oven” is? - small enclosed area, heat coming down?
And…explain again the difference between putting your pan on the stovetop and putting it on a bbq grill? Isn’t it the same effect in both cases - heat comes up from the bottom, heats the pan, pan cooks the steak?
All confused - but becoming less so!
You might find this site useful, Aspidistra:
Nice site.
It took me ages to figure these things out.
Yes, what you describe would be closer to a toaster oven in the U.S., although most wall ovens have a broiler feature which cooks with more intense heat from the top down.
I wanted to get my cast iron skillet very hot. My gas grill gets up to 500+ degrees. When putting a steak in that skillet it sizzles and smokes quite a bit. I decided I didn’t want a kitchen full of smoke and a glass stove top to clean up last night. It was a beautiful night to have a cocktail on the deck and cook outside. I normally would have just thrown the steak directly on the grill, but thought I’d try something new. I’m discovering I prefer the sear of a hot pan to the char of an open flame.
A tip for the OP: don’t apply the pepper before you put it in the pan. Pepper burns, and it’ll give your steak a slightly bitter taste. Pepper it after you flip it.
Thanks. I’ll try that next time and see if I notice a difference.