The Perfect Steak
Once upon a time there was a gal who didn’t know how to grill. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a good cook or skilled in the kitchen. It wasn’t even that she didn’t love food cooked on the grill. It was just that, well, growing up, her Dad had always done all of the grilling.
Then Chef Bobby of the Big Green Egg came riding in on his Chevy Pickup and made plans to change all of that. Not only was he going to teach the mom to grill, but he was also going to teach her how to cook the perfect steak…
Stay tuned for a happy ending, and a great recipe.
Alright, enough of fairy tales, lets get down to some good old Steak cookin’!
Folks, meet “Eggy”, The Big Green Egg. My Katy Rose named him and this is a photo of his arrival into the Jordan family, via the specialized attachment on Chef Bobby Cresap’s truck. Bobby is the executive Chef for the Big Green Egg and he was kind enough to come over and show me the ropes.
He was very patient and thorough in his teachings and it was great to get instructions from a pro such as him. It was actually quite an honor. I listened, I took mental notes…
And I ate every blessed thing that beloved man cooked. His food is divine.
These are Chef Bobby’s appetizers and my stomach is growling right now thinking about them. He took large mushrooms, removed the stems, and stuffed them with sausage before cooking them on the grill. They were to die for!
He made the recipe I’m bringing you today for the Perfect steak at my home and I have to tell you, it was the most delicious steak I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. I watched him go through every single step so I could show you how we did this, too.
So after all of this one on one instruction in how to grill, when it came time for me to recreate these steaks for myself, I did exactly what you’d expect me to…
Called in my dad 🙂
Meet Bill Davis. Retired from the Huntsville Police Department so he can just sit around and wait on me to call him and tell him we need steak.
~grins~
Daddy always did the grilling growing up and you know what folks say about things not being broke...
So let me show you how we make these perfect steaks.
You’ll need: Kosher salt, white pepper, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
White pepper may be something you’ve never heard of but it’s easy to find in the spice section at pretty much any grocery store. I got mine at Krogers.
You’ll also need steaks. Chef Bobby recommends Rib Eyes, 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick.
It can be a bit of a quest finding (and affording) steaks that thick. These are a little over an inch thick and were pretty expensive, but still a LOT cheaper than all six of us going out to eat. Folks tell me that Sam’s Club has the best deals on them and if you have any hints or tips on where to find the best prices on steaks please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
Place all of your dry ingredients in a shallow dish, like the pie plate I’m using here.
Stir them all together.
Press each steak into the mixture on both sides.
Like this.
You can do this before you’re ready to cook them and then just put them back in the refrigerator for a few hours, or you can do it right before cooking.
Chef Bobby says “It is perfectly acceptable to season your steaks well in advance of cooking them. The salt will pull some of the moisture from the surface of the meat. The moisture mixes with the salt and forms a brine which will pull the flavor into the steak by osmosis. When the meat and brine are in osmosis the seasoning will travel easily back and forth with the muscle tissues. So it really is hard to dry out the steak by seasoning early.”
Now lets get that grill going full steam ahead! Bobby says you want the temperature to be around 600.
Of course, you can use this same rub recipe on your steaks and cook it on whatever grill you happen to have at your house and it will even work in a cast iron skillet in your oven, too! Okay, so I just now realized that I need to do a whole other post on that method so I’ll get to work on it..
Place steaks on hot grill.
Cook two minutes.
Flip and cook two more minutes.
Flip again and close top to grill and cook two minutes more to have them at medium rare. Since we tend to be medium well people, we cook ours just a little bit longer.
This is my Mama and Daddy, enjoying their perfect steaks, salad with Vidalia Honey Viniagrette, and loaded baked potatoes.
And this is my kids and nephew Lane, enjoying their grandparents.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:237]
For more information on the Big Green Egg, chck out their website or chat with other EggHeads on their Facebook Page, or their extensive forums,which also provide a great source of support and answers to any questions you may have!
If you have any special grilling recipes you’d like to share, please feel free to do so in the comments below. If you just wanna drop a “Hidy” that’s fine, too! Chat, have a good time, and make yourself at home because we sure are glad you’re here!
Life is all about how you look at it. Is the glass half empty or half full? To me, if there is even a little something in my ‘life’ glass, then I am going to drink it up and consider myself blessed that I got a drop of it!
Submitted by Christy Day (thank you Christy!). To submit your quote or read hundreds more, please click here.
Hey Christy–I am a Kroger shopper too. I like to buy the “Manager’s Specials” meats at Kroger. I think that’s a fancy way of saying meat that has been aged at the store :). Either way, I buy ribeyes in that section ALL the time for a lot less money. Then, my husband seasons them and grills them and they are DELISH! So, next time you hit Kroger, look for the yellow tag meat for yummy steaks at good prices.
I cooked the perfect steak on my new Lodge cast iron grill pan (made in TN not too far from you) this past weekend. Get the grill pan very hot on the burner. Do not put oil in the grill pan; it will pool between the ridges and burn. You may spray it lightly with cooking spray if you want. Brush the steaks with oil (I used olive). Do not season the meat until after cooking. When the pan is very hot, put the steaks in the pan. They should cook until you see the juices pool on the top of the meat; then turn. When you see the juices pool on that side, remove the meat or turn once more if you prefer your steak a little more done. Remove from pan, season, let rest. My husband likes a little more rare, so we turned his once, and I like mine a little more well, so we turned mine twice. Both were perfect; lots of pink for him, not so much for me! I used “store-boughten” (as we say in the South) grill seasoning, but am anxious to try Bobby’s recipe. How ironic that you and I both just learned how to cook the perfect steak in the last few days! Thanks for all your recipes (and Bobby’s also).
Hi Christy,
Your link to the Big Green Egg website doesn’t work. You need to take out “the” for it to link to the right website. Thank you for this wonderful post. I enjoy all your stories and recipes. Your cookbook is amazing.
Here is the right link.
http://www.biggreenegg.com/
I’ve been looking for a new grill since mine died last fall. Thanks for the tips.
Thank you so much! I fixed it 🙂
Thanks for this story! As a child I hated steak; literally running in fear whenever mom announced we were having it for dinner. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I learned there were other modes besides “shoe leather”!!! Turns out mom cooked it to suit my dad’s tastes, and he wanted it beyond well-done. Horrors!
Today, almost 30 years later, one of my favorite things in the world is a nice, thick ribeye, cooked medium. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.
I married a Carnivore 20 yrs ago and he can throw down some grilled steaks on our BGE. Other times, we grill Teriyaki (or Terri-yaki 😀 ) chicken or salmon steaks. Life seems best to me at the leisurely pace of a grilled meal outdoors. Thanks for the post today. Maybe honey-pie hubby will step to the side one day and show me how to work the BGE so I can be a Grill master too.
Love this! I want a Big Green Egg myself, for smoking and grilling. Costco has the best prices on the best meat in my opinion. And if you really want to splurge and buy Costco’s prime beef rather than the choice, you will have meat that melts in your mouth it’s so tender.
I’ve been using Ina Garten’s iron skillet method for filets and find it really is the best as I never have much luck on the grill. But I may have to try Chef Bobby’s method. Thanks!
Thanks for this post! My husband is the grill man in our household, but he is a ground beef man. So while he makes the best burgers in the universe, we have both been looking for tips on how to grill other things. I will show this to him, and maybe a steak will be in my near future.