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.
I am the chief cook and bottle washer at this house, LOL.. well as long as I can remember really. I’ve always preferred to cook anything and everything I can on my grill. I have gas and charcoal and am really wanting a smoker! I make my own rubs for various meats, most are the same ingredients just use thyme or rosemary with chicken and fish, leave it out on the steaks and pork. Garlic powder, Onion powder, season salt, white pepper if I have it, black if not, kosher salt, smoky paprika also if I have it. I keep this mix in a shaker so it’s ready to go whenever I am, LOL. I don’t really measure, but if someone wants a more precise list, I’ll probably be mixing some up next week. I’ve seen the Green Eggs, but have never cooked on one, the steaks look fantastic!! Thanks for all that you do!!! <3
Since my grocery budget is very tiny, I can only purchase a good quality steak maybe once or twice a year, and that’s only if they are on sale. Last month, my local grocery store had Porterhouse steaks on sale, so I purchased one and then froze it when I got home.
About 2 months ago, I purchased my very first ever electric frying pan, and boy do I love that thing! I hardly ever use my stove top or oven any more. And I love that fact that I don’t have to clean up grease splatters on my stove top any more.
When the day came to thaw out that Porterhouse, my mind asked: “under the broiler as usual, or on the BBQ grill?” But then I had an ‘ah ha’ moment, and decided to try the steak in the electric frying pan.
My usual way of cooking any steak is to thaw it out and then leave it covered in the store wrapper or in a zip lock bag for several hours at room temperature.. I figure cooking will burn off any microbes 🙂 and I swear that cooking a steak that has been left out of the frig for several hours is always more tender.
I put the steak in the electric frying pan, no oil, no nothing, just the steak, and put the heat on 350 degrees, then covered the electric frying pan with the lid that came with it. After about 5 minutes, I turned the steak and continued to cook it until it was the way I like my steaks… COMPLETELY DONE… NO PINK WHAT SO EVER, and just enough dark to look a tiny bit burnt.
That was the most tender, delicious steak I have ever had in my 59 years of life! I suspect that since the electric frying pan is smaller than an oven or a BBQ grill, that the size of it and the heat that was contained within it were the reason it came out so tender. Because this was the best steak I’ve ever had, I am now going to purchase more steaks per year… I’ll forgot some veggies or something in order to buy the steaks, cause now I have them on my mind all of the time! If you have an electric frying pan, try your steak in there and don’t forget to leave the steak sitting out on the counter for several hours after it’s been thawed out.
I never thought of that either, Mary, what a neat idea! Sounds delicious!
My brother married a lady that had 4 teenages and then I moved in also so we were cooking for 7. She taught me the wonders of cooking for many in a wok and now we even cook for more with grown adults in the house and those visiting. The electric skillet has been a must have. It is so good to fry a whole package of bacon and easy clean up. She cooks a roast in it too.. just coats the outside of the roast with flour, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Adds a little oil in the pan to brown the roast and then adds worchestershire sauce to the meat and some water and covers and lets it cook for several hours. About an hour before the roast is done, adds in the potatoes and carrots. Gives a good gravy to the meat and potatoes. So glad to be a part of the SP family and get to share and learn. Worked in a steak restaurant and we did it differently and thought that was good cooking, can’t wait to try this recipe Christy. Bet your neighborhood kids loves to show up at your house. 🙂
I love your suggestion to cook the steak in an electric fry pan!
Do you mind telling me the brand or type. I have a stainless steel one, but it doesn’t get hot enough — so i quit using it.
Thanks.; I want to try your way of cooking one. Quick clean up!
Alice
This sounds wonderful. I can not grill either. My husband does the grilling in the family.
I want one of the Green Eggs. I plan to treat myself as soon as the boys finish college. thank you for this delicious recipe. We get our steaks at Sams. Steaks are never as good out as they are on the grill at home.
Most all of the grocery stores have good steaks, Publics, Krogers, Cosco, Sam’s Club… but… I have found through experience that the very best steaks are at Fresh market. Just last week I purchased some nice filets and they were about 1 ½” or so thick and were very good but they didn’t have the special flavor of fresh Market. Christy I have copies of many of your recipes and all of them are great! The next steak I do will use your great steak rub.
My family loves this recipe for Barbecued Pork Chops which I found in Cooking Light several years ago, although I can’t find a direct link to it now:
Barbecued Pork Chops
Sauce:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbl low-sodium soy sauce
Remaining ingredients:
6 (6-ounce) bone-in center-cut pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
Cooking spray
Prepare grill or broiler.
To prepare sauce, combine the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Place 1/4 cup sauce in a small bowl, and set aside.
Trim fat from pork. Combine the thyme, garlic salt, and pepper; sprinkle over pork. (I tend to just sprinkle the three ingredients over the pork and don’t measure).
Place pork on a grill rack or broiler pan coated with cooking spray; cook 6 minutes on each side, basting with remaining sauce. Serve pork chops with reserved 1/4 cup sauce.
YUM!! I know a few people from Cooking Light and I can’t imagine they’d ever make anything that wasn’t delicious! Thank you for sharing, I’m gonna try this!
I live in GA and shop at a store called Harverys. They have their ribeyes on sale half or whoe for 3.99 or 4.99 all the time. I usually buy a half and can get between 10-15 steaks for about $30-40.xx
We. too, have been buying our beef by the animal from a farm. It is far cheaper and much better quaility than the store. If we didn’t …we’d never eat steaks. Couldn’t do it this year, though…we just used the last of our steaks on the grill Tuesday. This makes me want more though…yum!!! I just season my meat of any kind with Paula Deen’s all purpose rub and slap it on a hot hot grill. Tasty tasty!!