Precise cooking: the reverse sear

This is my guide to the reverse sear method.

  • Total Time: 4 Hours
  • Cooking / Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Throughout summer 2020, I definently used the grill I had at home to the fullest extent. I grilled steaks, chicken, vegetables, etc. But now that I’m in college, I no longer have regular access to a grill — sad.

Times like these are when the reverse sear is the best option for searing a thick steak. Today, I’ll show you my reverse sear steps with some 1.75 inch NY Strip Steaks.

What you’ll need:

Equipment

For starters, you need an oven, an oven rack, and a cast iron pan.

Also, we will use a instant read meat thermometer and an probe style oven meat thermometer. This is super useful for nailing the temperature.

Ingredients

I suggest getting a quality NY Strip Steak (preferably 1.75 inches thick). The steaks featured here are USDA Choice NY Strip steaks from Costco. The reverse sear is perfect for thick steaks. Thick steaks are generally a balancing act with crust vs doneness without the reverse sear.

As for the oil/fat we will use, we need a high smoke point oil. Especially if you are cooking in an apartment / confined indoor space, a high smoke point oil makes a worlds difference. I suggest getting Avocado Oil. Avocado Oils generally have a smoke point over 500°F. It’s important to use an oil with a high smoke point as we don’t want burning to occur.

Finally, we need course salt and ground pepper.

Prep Work

After getting the steaks, we want to lightly pat them dry with a paper towel. Removing the surface moisture is essential as we want to develop a beautiful crust when cooking.

Excellent steaks from Costco. Good value too.

After drying the outside of the steaks, we want to liberally coat the exterior with salt. Make sure to coat both faces and the sides. Remember that when eating from a thick steak, all of the salt will come from the edges. This is why we coat the edges liberally in salt. If this were a thinner cut (1 inch or less) we’d put on less salt.

Next, find some sort of rack that we can rest these steaks on. We want air to be able to circulate on top and on the bottom of the steak. Put the steaks uncovered back into the fridge for at least two hours.

T minus two hour till cooking

An hour before you plan to cook, take the steaks out of the fridge and put them into an oven at 200°F. Make sure you insert your oven meat thermometer into a thick part of the steak.

When your steaks reach an internal temperature of 120-125°F

Remove the steaks from the oven. Liberally season the exterior of the steaks with ground black pepper. You can also add garlic powder.

T minus 5 minutes till cooking

Heat up the cast iron pan! Set your burners to high (medium high on an electric stove) and wait for the surface temperature to climb above 500°F. Once the pan starts smoking, pour in enough avocado oil to coat the entire base of the pan.

Check out the beautiful crust
Time to cook!

Gently lay the steaks down onto the cast iron pan and don’t move them.

1) After around 90-120 seconds, flip the steaks.

3) After another 60 seconds, begin basting if necessary.

4) After basting, pick up the steaks and render the fat cap by pushing the fat covered side into the pan.

5) Remove steaks from pan and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!