Skillet Seared Ribeye Steak

There are so many incredible ways that you can enjoy beef in the culinary world. If you consider all of the different cuts of beef and then add to that the different ways you can prepare them the list is a long one!  Still, with all of the choices out there it remains very clear to me what my favorite is: as simply prepared stake.  And specifically...a cast iron grilled rib-eye steak.

First let's begin with the steak.  There are many different steaks: all of which are good depending on what you are looking for from a taste and tenderness perspective.  Rib-eye's are knows for this: they are well marbled, flavorful and juicy. Marbling is a more pleasant way of saying they have a healthy dose of fat in and amongst the meat itself. That fat is what makes the rib-eye both flavorful and juicy if cooked properly.

Choosing Your Steak

The right rib-eye to cook should be between 1 and 1.5 inches thick.  That's a big steak but it should be that thick enough so you can cook it the way many steak eaters like to eat beef: rare to medium rare to medium.  The thinner the steak the harder it is to cook it properly if you want the rare-medium spectrum. It should have streaks of fat mixed in with the red beef.  It should not have big blocks of fat lumped in with the beef.  That would be fatty versus well-marbled.

The other decision then becomes bone-in versus boneless.  Many steak snobs will tell you that bone-in is the way to go.  Any butcher will have a choice of a bone-in rib-eye or a boneless rib-eye.  Both are very good but I always use boneless due to that fact that it is simply easier to work with for the way I like to cook it.

Cooking Your Steak

Everyone has an opinion on how to best cook a steak.  I'm no different.  There are numerous good ways but the way I feel is best is cooking it on a cast-iron skillet. Specifically I do mine on a cast iron skillet on the grill outside. I do that because I love cooking outside and using a skillet can often make a lot of smoke and sizzle so it's just more of an outside thing by virtue of that.  The important thing here is the cast iron.

Using a cast iron skillet does two things: cooks it fast and most important - it sears in the juices by creating a delicious crust on the outside.  The method I will now describe will be cooking on a cast iron skillet using a 4 burner gas grill.  Now let's get down to cooking it.

Step-by-Step

I began with referring to my favorite thing as simply prepared stakes. Follow these steps and you'll find it not only to be an incredible steak but it will also live up to the idea of being simple to prepare.  This process below assumes a 1.25 thick rib-eye steak.

1.) Take the steak out of the fridge, unwrap it and put it on a plate (being that the steak is raw...use a paper plate or a plate that you do not intend to use with the meal).  Salt and pepper both sides and then place a paper towel over it.  I prefer to use freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Any super market now sells disposable sea salt and black pepper shakers filled up and ready to use.  In my opinion this is just fine.  No need to go by exotic sea salt and black pepper from a fine food store. 

The steak should remain out of the fridge for about 20 minutes.  The objective here is to get the steak somewhere between cool and room temperature.  When a steak comes out of the fridge it is cold.  Cold steaks don't cook well.  The center remains too cold, the marble doesn't turn to juice.

Once you've salt and peppered the steak and it's resting - now cut 1 inch of a stick of butter and let it rest by the steak.

2.) When your steak has been resting for 10 minutes - light your gas grill, turn all the burners on high and place your cast iron skillet right on top of the grill where you would normally cook your food. Close the lid. Wait 10 minutes.

3.) At this point your steak has been resting for 20 minutes and your grill has been heating up. Cast iron heats up fast so at this point the grill thermometer should read about 500 degrees (some vary). Now it's time to cook.

4.) Open the grill and drop the cube of butter on the cast iron.  With a grill fork spread the butter around. Again using the grill fork - place the steak down on the skillet..it should start sizzling well.  Close the lid and wait exactly 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

5.) Open the grill, flip the steak and close the grill.  Wait another 2 minutes and 20 seconds.  I use an egg timer to take the guessing out of it.

6.) That's it!  At this point you should have an excellent medium rare rib-eye steak! Adding or reducing the time cooked on each side by increments of 30 seconds will allow you to cook it rarer or more well. 

This method of cooking will work for any kind of steak cut: New York, Filet Mignon, Porterhouse, etc...

This steak would go great with the following sides: oven roasted purple potatoes and sautéed green beans with sundried tomatoes.