How to Reverse Sear a Steak | Serious Eats

If you want perfectly cooked steaks every time, with almost no gray band of overcooked meat beneath the surface, the reverse sear is the best method to use. It works for any thick-cut steak—strip steak, ribeye steak, porterhouse steak, tomahawk steak, T-bone steak, tri-tip, and filet mignon.

Simply start the steak in a low oven, let it cook slowly until it reaches your desired internal temperature, then sear it in a screaming-hot pan or on the grill to quickly put a beautiful burnished crust on the exterior. Alternatively, you can do this entirely on the grill using a two-zone fire, starting the steaks on the cooler side and finishing them on the hot side. Either way, it's easy and nearly foolproof, and it delivers absolutely stunning results.

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[hankbrown]

Just used this recipe for dinner. Oven temp was 275F. Used a remote meat thermometer and baked the 1.25" thick 20oz boneless ribeye until it read 120F internal temp. That took about 45 minutes. Then seared for about a minute on each side with some extra for the edges. It was perfect. Great recipe and great video. Thanks.

[jeremyv.]

I absolutely love when people don't mention at all what the temp is they set their ovens too, it's so great, I love it

[alanthomas]

Convection ovens are even better for drying the surface if you have one. Have to set it low though, I’ve done as low as 175. Also, I don’t know why no one talks about this, but this method also works with pork chops (no, you won’t die. Just aim for 130 in the oven and you’ll get to 145 on the sear, it’s perfectly safe)

[retroflashbackdude]

Did my first reverse sear with a top sirloin a few days ago. Cooked it rare and did the final stovetop sear in a pan with duck fat and fresh rosemary. Came out perfect, nice and rare on the inside and an excellent Maillard reaction on the outside.

[Bostonaholic]

Instead of guessing how deep to put the probe, you can get it exactly by finding the center with the probe on the outside, marking the depth with you fingers. Then when you insert the probe into the steak, only go as deep as your fingers are holding onto the probe.

[birdlaw]

If you want steak medium rare, i recommend pulling at 100F for the sear and baste. You want to buy yourself more time to baste and build your crust. Reverse sear can be faster and more efficient, esp. if you do it in a toaster oven. You can go from fridge to toaster oven to pan versus waiting for the steak to come to room temp. Build your butter baste in a little bowl in advance by mixing thyme/rosemary, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and the butter/ghee so it is ready to drop in the pan.

[Paelorian]

I watched this video while eating a reverse-seared rib eye I made. I suggest taking the steak technique in the video up a notch by further drying the exterior of the steak in the oven for a faster, stronger sear and minimal band of overcooked meat around the center of the steak. There's quite a gradient in this video because they looked rather wet coming out of the oven and so required more time in the pan to sear. The quickest way to get a dryer steak is to cook at a lower temperature. I cook at 170°F, my oven's minimum temperature. I cook it on a toaster oven size rack and sheet pan atop baking steel at the bottom of my oven, because the top of the steak dries faster than the bottom and cooking at the bottom rack minimizes this. The baking steel helps keep the temperature of the oven even. At 170°F, one-inch thick steaks take 90-120 minutes for medium-rare. Thicker steaks or more well-done steaks will take longer. Another way to get a drier steak, and I like to combine both methods, is to put the seasoned steak in a rack in you refrigerator for a few days. Keeping it elevated on the rack so that air circulates beneath will keep it from spoiling for probably at least a week usually. But after one night or a few days it will be pretty dry, at least on top. The salt will have also been absorbed into the meat which tastes nice. Since this steak is pre-dried before cooking begins it will come out fairly dry even at 200°F. When I have the time, I pre-dry and cook at 170°F. After a few seconds in the hot thick pan heated just below the 500°F smoke point avocado oil (checked with a cheap infrared thermometer, ghee and canola also work well with their 450°F smoke points) the steak is deep brown and beautiful. Kenji would say (as in his Serious Eats guide to this method) that such a long cook also contributes to flavor since there are hours of enzymatic activity in the meat before the sear, especially productively in the low oven as the meat slowly heats up. Eh, maybe. I wouldn't say it tastes dry-aged, but I think there is a difference in that direction and better than other home-aging "hacks" I've tried (like koji-based methods: I tried powdered koji rice, shio koji, and miso and was consistently disappointed by the hype). I'd have to cut a steak in half and cook one half reverse-sear and the other fast (like straight in the pan) and do a direct blind comparison tasting of the steak centers to find out for sure if slow-cooking really produces substantial aged flavor.

You can make great steaks just flipping them in a pan or by other methods, and I have, but since I switched to reverse-sear I consistently eat the best sears I've ever put on meat and have much more evenly cooked interiors than sous vide (because the sear is so much shorter). It's the best way to cook a steak, and it's also easy and with little clean-up. I season a steak, put it on a little rack and pan in the fridge, and in a couple of hours or a couple of days I put that pan in a low oven with a timer. Then I check the temperature and put on a quick sear. It's only a few minutes work, though the oven cooks slowly. I have a probe thermometer but I don't use it because the reverse-sear is so forgiving that I've never overcooked my steak. I'd have to leave the steak in for like another 45 minutes to get it to medium. And you can always cool the steak a little before searing if you do cook it a little much in the oven.

This is not a bad introductory video. I was worried that I forgot to watch the video before cooking my steak, and so might have missed out on a tip to try, but this video didn't change my recipe or technique. It's such a simple method, there's not much to change. Timing simply improves with experience. The most experimenting I do wish with different spices for seasoning. Salt and pepper always, usually garlic powder, and there's a rotating cast from my spices depending on my mood: ground coriander seeds, onion powder, mushroom powder, dried thyme, dried oregano, smoked paprika, a few drops of liquid smoke. This is all rubbed on before cooking. After cooking, usually a steak sauce and if I'm feeling fancy some roasted garlic cloves or tomatoes.

[MMa-jr]

Wooow perfect cooking..
I think it will be delicious 👌🏻

[daviddemaria]

I tried the reverse sear in a cast iron pan but the pan was on a propane grill, which i was able to get up to about 650 degrees. Doing this outside came in real handy for the reaction when the meat hits the pan 😊 1 min each side is all that’s necessary.

[mra]

I did this by accident at home a while back and I nearly cried because the steak was so good 😂😂

[RuthTorrez-xirn]

Que bien cocina Daniel ... Delicioso 😅😅

[Neighborhood_Bully]

Since I do NOT own a thermometer I let the steak rest after the oven phase. This seems to ensure the center finishes cooking off of the residual heat and the actual sear process itself won't create a massive gradient. Of course I have only used this to cook steaks to my usual preference of rare. Seems to work well though I really should invest in a thermometer due to the occasional mucked up steak cooked to medium. (makes face)

[miketexas]

The thought of leaving my beautiful ribeye in an oven for an hour is terrifying.

[wayz]

Glad I saw the 1 minute ad on how to reverse sear a steak right before watching this video.

[thebiohackinglab]

good way to take this to next level -- instead of the oven, smoke them first at about 220 degrees to get a nice smoke flavor and then sear them in the cast iron pan. This combines the great smoke flavors of grilling with the great searing of cast iron while also implementing the reverse sear. Best way imo.

[AXLee]

I don’t think you mentioned the oven temperature to set. I’m assuming anywhere from 225°-250°F

[HD-oneg]

I like to put in the oven at 200* until the internal temp reaches 100*., about 30 minutes for a 1 1/4” steak. That gives you a little more wiggle room with the searing process. It can overcook very quickly in a hot pan.

[jimmyrrpage]

So I said this in a comment on a recent Serious Eats article (the one about sous vide peanut butter steaks) under NateHevens, but never got a response...

I'll try again here...


I think y'all should do a scientific (like... *actually* scientific) steak-cooking showdown. The goal would be to figure out, as objectively as is possible (obviously allowing for the fact that it's fully subjective in the end), what the genuinely best method to cook a steak is.


And compare every method that a home cook can reproduce in their kitchen or outdoor grilling area (so no car engine steaks or shit like that). So sear, reverse sear, oven, sous-vide, open flame, grill, smoker, air fryer, cast-iron pan, carbon steel pan, nonstick pan, etc, etc, etc. If it's a method of cooking steak that a home cook could reproduce, then it's added to the test.

Of course, as always, the steaks would all have to be as identical as possible... same grade and cut, same seasoning levels, same amount of rest time, etc.


Kenji absolutely has to be involved, but bring in guests as well... Adam Savage, the dude from Sous Vide Everything, maybe a few actual scientists...


The article should be written like a (easily readable) scientific article, broken up into the abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, etc. Show graphs, numbers, all that fun shit. Accompany it with a video to show the process in full. Don't do the short video thing, though. Make it a YouTube documentary! Do interviews, in-depth breakdowns, and all that fun shit. Provide recipes for each method used. And, of course, crown the winner, the rank the rest from best to worst.

I think it'd be a fun, fascinating, and potentially controversial experiment. Do it!

[ItsTwal]

"Im also going to add a thyme of sprig" lmao

[DavidD-bguo]

Keep an eye on your meat. Great advise for anyone around heat.