A few months ago, I made homemade steaks for the first time in my life, along with steamed vegetables and baked potatoes for sides. I followed these instructions exactly and ended up with some pretty tasty steaks (and for cheap, too!). Apparently the secret to juicy steaks is — and I never would’ve guessed — salting them heavily for about an hour before grilling, then rinsing off all the salt, and then patting them really really dry and searing them on a hot pan. Right. Of course.
So yeah, this is what you do (and I take no credit for this… I just find it hard to read the recipe with all the pictures and commentary in between):
INGREDIENTS: STEAK
- 2 steaks, approx. 1.25″ – 1.5″ thick (any of the following will do: Filet, Sirloin, Rib Eye, Porterhouse, T-Bone and NY Strip)
- Fine sea salt
- Black pepper
- optional: mashed garlic, rosemary, other herbs/spices
INGREDIENTS: GARLIC-HERB BUTTER
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1-1/2 tbsp fresh herbs, finely minced (parsley, tarragon, oregano, basil all work)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, mashed
INSTRUCTIONS
- Garlic-herb butter:
- Combine all ingredients.
- Spoon onto a sheet of aluminium foil.
- Roll and shape it into a log.
- Refrigerate to firm up, at least 30 minutes.
- Store for up to 3 days before serving.
- Steak:
- Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt per side.
- For every inch of thickness of the steak, let sit at room temperature for an hour, e.g. let a 1.25 inch steak sit for 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Add herbs/spices as desired.
- Rinse all salt off from both sides, pat very dry with paper towels on both sides.
- Season with freshly-ground black pepper.
- Grill to your liking.
- Top with the garlic-herb butter.
And all of this for less than ten bucks! (I used top sirloin.) Also, sometimes I just use the garlic butter to fry the steaks, because crispy garlic pieces are super tasty!
