Pan Seared Steak Recipe
After almost 20 years of cooking steaks in the restaurants and at home, I have a wealth of knowledge to share. I broke down lots of tips and things to know and tried to make it as quick and easy as possible.
The best part of a steak dinner is that it takes so little preparation and cook time, it requires minimal effort, and options of sides and sauces is practically endless.
The most effort on your part will be to choose what steaks you want to cook and then the clean up. There is one negative to cooking pan seared steaks and that is the splatter on the stove around the pan. But, it’s small price to pay for a couple of mouthwatering steaks and you can remedy that with a splatter screen!
Before Buying Steaks: Best Steak To Cook At Home
- New York strip – I often use this cut because it is incredibly tender and often budget-friendly. Slices are often consistent in thickness, making it easier to get a consistent cook when making several at a time. You do have to get this cut from places you trust though because it can be tough at times.
- Filet mignon – this is one of the most coveted steaks because of the great tenderness and smooth beef flavor. Because it is incredibly lean and tender, I recommend taking a look at my helpful tips on how to cook filet mignon for preparing it just right.
- Ribeye – This is a great cut if you like extra juicy, flavorful bites since it has plenty of marbling throughout. Just be sure to choose pieces that have finer webs of fat throughout instead of thicker lines in a few places.
- Strip steak – is tender and lean. Although, leaner does mean less marbling and less fat, which results in less flavor and juiciness.
- Top Sirloin – affordable and just as flavorful as other options, despite being a bit leaner. Top sirloin is more tender than bottom sirloin, so read the package label carefully or confirm with the butcher before purchasing.
Important Tips For Cooking Steaks
For best tasting steak, you are looking for a lot of fine marbling of fat throughout the slice as opposed to thick fat lines concentrated in certain areas.
Good quality steaks won’t require any heavy seasoning, all you will need is some kosher coarse salt and black pepper. I like to finish it off with compound garlic butter that has a simple mix of herbs and fresh garlic.
Cookware: For best results, use cast iron skillet to cook your steaks. Cast iron skillets are the best at holding even temperature and distributing it evenly through the pan.
Give it a rest: remember to rest the steaks before cooking and after!
How To Measure Steak Temperature and Doneness Guidelines
Unfortunately, you can’t set exact time on a timer when it comes to cooking steaks. Every cut of beef is different, has a different amount of fat, and varies in size. For these reasons, steaks can take a different amount of time to cook. Taking the temperature of the steak is the most reliable way to know when it’s cooked the way you like it.
To take the temperate, lift it out of the skillet with a pair of tongs and insert the probe into the thickest part, through the side, towards the middle. This makes reaching the center easier and ensures that the reading doesn’t include the heat from the pan as well.
Although medium-rare is most often recommended for good quality steaks, you can use the temperature to make sure it’s cooked exactly how you like.
Time can vary for every steak, it could take as fast as 5-6 minutes or as long as 15 minutes. It depends on desired temperature as well as the steak itself.
Sides and Sauces That Go Well With Steaks
Vegetables: they add a nice balance to the richness of the pan seared steak and compound butter. Roast some green beans, asparagus, or broccoli. Other classic sides are sautéed mushrooms and haricot verts!
Potatoes: Mashed potatoes is the most classic way but think outside the masher, and try other comforting options like hashbrown casserole or cheesy potatoes or roasted options like oven roasted potatoes and roasted fingerling potatoes.
Sauces: When you do want a nice steak sauce, you have several options like red wine steak sauce, a delicious creamy steak sauce, the classic mushroom steak sauce, and our favorite peppercorn sauce. All are super fast and simple to cook right in the skillet after you take out the steaks.
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Pan Seared Steak Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 NY strip steaks that are about 1-inch thick or ribeye steaks, sirloins, filet mignon, or any other favorite steaks
- 1-2 tbsp avocado oil or vegetable oil
- coarse kosher salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
Compound garlic butter:
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh minced dill weed
- pinch salt
Instructions
Before cooking:
- Take the steaks out of the refrigerator and out of the packaging 30-45 minutes before cooking. Cold meat will seize if it hits high heat suddenly so for the best results, always let the steak warm up before cooking.
- Take the butter out as well and let it warm up and soften on the counter. You can cut off the amount needed and leave it in a small dish.
Prepare the steaks:
- Mix butter with pressed garlic, minced herbs, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Use a fork to work the butter and other ingredients together until evenly incorporated. Set aside.
- When ready to start cooking, set the cast iron skillet to preheat over medium-high heat. The skillet will have to be hot before you add oil and steaks.
- Pat each steak dry with a paper towel all around and season generously with salt and pepper on all sides.
- Add oil to the pan, swirl it all around carefully to spread the oil all over the bottom of the pan and add steaks.
- Let steaks sear for 3-4 minutes, undisturbed, and flip to the other side. Let them sear on the other side for 3-4 more minutes.
- (Take this extra step for the steaks that have a fatty side along one of the sides) Stack steaks and use long metal tongs to hold the steaks on the side, fat side down. This will render that fat down so you able to eat it if you wish and it will also add more flavor to the pan while the steaks finish cooking.
- Lower the stove temperature to medium and continue to cook the steaks for about 1 minute on each side, until they reach your desired temperature.
Taking steak temperature:
- Make sure to use instant digital read meat thermometer to check the doneness of your steaks. To do that: pick up the steak with long metal tongs and hold it while you insert the thermometer probe through the side of the steak, in the middle of the thickest part.
Rest steaks:
- Remember that steaks will continue to cook about 5 more degrees while they are resting.
- Pull the steaks out of the skillet when ready, place on the plates, top them off with a scoop of compound garlic butter, and loosely tent with a sheet of aluminum foil to let them rest.
- Rest them for about 5 minutes. (Tip: I like to let the steaks rest right on the plate that I will be serving them on so that the melted butter and juices don't get wasted.)If you don't want butter to be melted too fast over the steaks, you can add the scoop of compound garlic butter after the steaks are rested. Remember to slice your steak against the grain!
Video
Notes
- Nutritional information: note that nutritional information will vary widely based on the cut of steak, size of steak, and amount of fat in each steak.
- *When choosing steaks: try to get prime or choice grade and remember that you will get what you pay for. Also, try to get steaks that are about 1 to 1.5 inches in thickness. (Ask the butcher if none available on the shelf.)
- Rare = 125°-130°F;
- Medium-Rare = 135°-140°F;
- Medium = 145°-150°F;
- Medium-Well = 150°-155°F;
- Well = 160°-165°F
Nutrition
Some More Beef Recipes To Try
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in February 2021.
Categories:
30 Minute Meals, Beef Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Father's Day Recipe Ideas, Gluten Free Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Love the butter compound! Delicious! I was putting it on Ritz crackers while waiting for steak to cook. Lol
Haha it is tasty! I am glad you liked it!
Nice recipe. Loved the butter mixture with the chopped up garlic- really nice flavor. I cooked my steak rare and when I checked, it had an internal temperature around 115°. That’s just my preference, but I thought the recipe was good.
My hubby loved these steaks thanks for the recipe