Who doesn’t love to eat perfectly cooked, juicy, medium-rare steak? If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’m always cooking up a juicy ribeye for dinner. I’ve gotten tons of requests on how I do it, so here you go. If you like to cook or want to learn a little more, I’m always posting stories while cooking!

Since moving into a shoe-boxed sized apartment, and inherently losing my Traeger (the best grill ever, sad!), I had to change the way in which I cook steaks. And honestly, it’s been a blessing because as Amanda says, “I don’t even like to go out and get a steak anymore because we make them better here.” What I did find, was this new little contraption called the Sous-Vide (oooh, ahhh) that I now use religiously.

A little more about the Sous-Vide… The name, which means “under vacuum” in French, refers to the process of vacuum-sealing food in a bag, then cooking it to a very precise temperature in a water bath. This technique produces results that are impossible to achieve through any other cooking method. It utilizes precise temperature control to deliver consistent, restaurant-quality results. High-end restaurants have been using sous vide cooking for years to cook food to the exact level of doneness desired, every time. Yep, all those amazing steaks that were perfectly pink from edge to edge…. Sous-Vide.

Now, I’m NOT bragging here, as it’s all basic technique. Additionally, I’m not saying this is the only way to do it, but it works pretty dang well. Anyone can do this with just a few basic tools! Keep on reading on how to do this perfectly in your own home.

Tools of the steak trade

• Sous vide: I have this one. Using a sous-vide is not a big deal… Really. I got mine on amazon and have had it for about 6 months and used it almost weekly with no problems. You legitimately plug it in, set the temperature, and let it circulate. That’s IT!
• Ziplocks: Im’m not going to link this one. Get you some ziplocks from the store.
• High-Grade Meat: Unfortunately, you can’t out-cook a bad piece of meat. No matter what you do to it, it’s still going be a cheap piece of meat. In my opinion, as important as the quality is the thickness. If it’s too thin, you can’t sear it long enough without cooking it through.
• Olive oil, salt, pepper, butter & rosemary: K.I.S.S.- keep it simple, stupid. The more simple, the better. Too many ingredients in anything and the flavors get muddled.
• Timer: phone, oven, microwave, Alexa, watch, etc. Just time it.
• Cast-iron skillet: There’s a lot of misinformation about cast-iron skillets and how hard they are to use, but it’s legitimately the best piece of cooking equipment in my kitchen. If I had to leave my kitchen with one piece of equipment, this would be it. From baking to browning, searing to sautéing, and everything in between, this is the go-to pan. I have one very similar to this one.

Six Steps to Steak Heaven!

Step 1: Temper your meat & Set your Sous-Vide

Make sure to take your meat out of the refrigerator, and allow it enough time to get down to roll temperature. Set it to 130 degrees and let the temperature come up before starting to cook. In the meantime, you can start all of the other items listed below as well as your other sides!

Step 2: Prep your sealed bag.

This is the most complicated part. NOT! Place your steak, butter (2-3 tbsp), salt, pepper, garlic (1 tbsp), and olive oil (to cover steak) in the ziplock bag and remove all of the air. You can remove the air two different ways. 1- leave a little hole at the edge of the ziplock, suck the air out and seal. 2-The Water Displacement method: leave the same little hole and submerge the bag to said hole and close the seal. Video Instructions here. Hint: you can also use this method for freezing food.

Step 3: Start Cooking!

With your water to temp, place the steak, fully covered, in the water and let the cooking begin! Don’t get too far ahead of yourself… this process takes a long time. I generally sous-vide my fattier steaks for 2-4 hours. The longer the time, the more fat rendered. As you can see with this picture, I didn’t let my water temp get to 130, but I was also starting this at lunch to cook at night and knew there was PLENTY of time for it to cook.

Step 4: Prep Your Skillet

Set your cast-iron on med-high heat (7/10). Remove the steak from the sous-vide, pour excess butter/oil/spice mixture into skillet and let it come up to temp. Hint: I always drop a few drops of water in the oil to check the temperature. If it’s too hot, it will spatter. If it’s just right, it will slightly boil. Be sure to pat your steak dry with a paper towel to ensure you get a strong Maillard reaction, or the Golden Brown Delicious (GBD) reaction as I like to call it! Learn more on that here!

Step 5: Sear you Steak!

After your skillet has reached the desired temperature, it’s time to get that sear going. I start by placing the steak in the skillet and pressing it down gently to make sure it’s evenly contacting the cast-iron. I also put the rosemary on either side of the steak at this point. After 2-3 minutes, or once you get your desired GBD look, flip the steak and give it the same amount on the other side. Also, I like to place the rosemary on the steak and baste it with the extra hot liquid in the pan. Remember that the thicker the steak, the more sear it can take.

Step 6: Rest your meat!

A very simple step that most people miss! Resting your steak allows all of the juices that have pulled to the center of the meat to slowly release back throughout the steak. I know you want to cut into it “just to check the temperature,” but don’t! I generally allow my steak to rest 5 minutes or more as I finish cooking my sides.

That’s it! Now you can slice and serve one of the best steaks you’ve eaten. Again, this isn’t the only way to do it and isn’t the only way that I actually do it. But from an execution standpoint, it’s just about the easiest way to cook a delicious steak!