The Perfect Steak, Indoors Or Out
If you’ve been following my drivel at all, you’ve prolly already heard me ramble about my cast iron. I love cooking in a cast iron skillet for a lot of reasons but first and foremost is the bad ass steaks you can turn out in one of these bitches. I’ll be describing both an indoor and outdoor method you can use to cook restaurant quality steaks. Both work great- but because of the amount of smoke produced, unless you have a really good vent or hood over your stove, I would recommend the outdoors method. Here’s the things you will need:
Cast iron skillet
Charcoal grill (optional)
Meat thermometer (optional)
Grapeseed, peanut or vegetable oil
Butter
Sea salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
2-4 Steaks
Preheat your oven to 550 degrees and toss in your skillet. Allow it to heat for at least 20 minutes. If you will be cooking outdoors, prepare your charcoal grill for cooking as you normally would. Once the coals are red-hot, spread them out and place your skillet directly on top of them and allow it to heat up.
While your pan is heating, grab your steaks and apply a very thin coat of the oil of your choice followed by a GENEROUS pinch of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Retrieve the screaming hot pan from the oven (use thick oven mitts, dum-dum) and place over a burner set to high heat. Place the steaks in the pan. This will result in a fair amount of smoke and hissing, but don’t worry; your steaks are not burning. Let the meat sear on each side for exactly two minutes. No more, no less. Use a timer.
Once the meat has seared on both sides, flip it again and add about a tablespoon of butter to each steak. Carefully remove the skillet from the burner and place it back into the oven. If using a charcoal grill, remove the steaks from the skillet and place onto the grill rack to finish cooking. Cook for 4-5 minutes before checking for doneness. Though it allows some juices to escape, I always use a meat thermometer. If you prefer a medium rare steak, pull it from the heat at 140 degrees as it will continue to cook as it rests.
Once you have removed the steaks from the skillet or grill top, allow it to rest, covered on a plate with tin foil for 5-10 minutes. That’s pretty much it. Sound like a pain in the ass for cooking a few steaks? Maybe, but it’s well worth it.
Stay tuned for the nearly perfect recipe for chicken and dumplings. I’m not sure who, if anyone, reads this. If you’re a broke college kid, I can hook you up with some great cheap stuff to chow on. Leave some questions, comments, suggestions or hatemail. We like it all.