Don’t be intimidated by bone-in steak cuts – with the right method it’s easy to guarantee perfect steak at home, every time.
Back in the day, I was the person staring at the meat selection at my butcher having no idea what to buy, much less the best way to prepare it. If i knew back then what I know now, I’d have been eating a lot more steak! Honestly, it seemed so much more complicated than it actually is, you just have to know what to do!
Snake River Farms asked me to create an easy step-by-step guide to cooking their incredible Wagyu NY strip to show folks how simple it actually is to achieve a perfectly medium rare steak. This baby is an American Wagyu steak, which is graded as SRF Black, which is actually higher than USDA Prime. Marbling is what we call all the tiny white seams in the meat (aka intramuscular fat), and the more marbling in a steak, the more intense the flavor will be.
I already ran through how to do so on your grill (using a massive Tomahawk as an example), but this method is done in the kitchen with a pan/oven combo. Here’s how it’s done:
Start with good quality meat.
Yes, you’re not going to be able to afford luxury steaks for every meal, but if you’re gonna do it, do it right. Price is generally directly proportionate to taste and tenderness, which is going to have an effect on the finished result. Whatever you end up buying, you must use steaks that are at least 1 inch thick to use this reverse sear method effectively. Any thinner and it’s just not going to work right.
Season the steak and prepare the cooking rack.
First and foremost, preheat your oven to 250f. Prepare an oven tray by covering it in foil (to catch any messy drippings) and placing a cooling rack on top. The rack allows air to circulate on both sides of the steak so you don’t need to flip it. Pat your steak dry with paper towel, and season liberally with salt on both sides. Quick note here – I only like to season with salt because pepper can often burn at the sear stage, so you can add it at the table. Now, put the steak straight into the oven.
Cook steak until the internal temperature reaches 130f.
The steak will take anywhere from 45-65 minutes to reach temperature, so start checking it about the 40 minute mark just to keep an eye on it. Better to be under than over! You’ll need to use a precision thermometer like a Thermapen to check the internal temperature, precision at this stage will completely determine the final outcome of the cook. Once it reaches a medium rare 130f, remove from the oven.
Rest your steak.
Don’t freak out, it’s not going to look very appealing at this stage. Now that your steak has completed the long cook, you’re going to wrap it in foil and let it rest for at least 15 minutes. Here’s the really cool part about this method – because you’re resting your steak now, you’ll be able to eat it piping hot after it’s been seared, as there will be no need to rest a second time!
Sear the steak in a hot skillet.
Get a skillet super, mega, uber, seriously hot. Have I made this part clear? A smokingly hot pan is key for the sear. If it’s not, you’ll either overcook the edges to compensate, or end up with an underwhelming exterior. Once it’s very hot, drop the steak in cook for about a minute on each side, no more. You can flip back to each side for a further 30 seconds, but don’t cook it longer than this. To finish, use tongs to hold the fat side down in the pan, to render and sizzle any extra fat.
Enjoy your perfectly medium rare steak.
That’s it, you did it! Now you can sit back and enjoy a perfectly cooked (and piping hot!) steak.
