How to Make Great Indoor Steaks

We love all steaks in the test kitchen, from thin, meaty skirt steak to a giant porterhouse, but what’s great about thick-cut steak is it takes longer to cook through, so you have time to develop a really flavorful, charred crust without overcooking the interior—as long as you follow the techniques laid out in this class, that is. And it’s just that contrast of chewy-crisp exterior and a succulent, juicy center that makes thick-cut steaks stars in our book—and worthy of a class of their own.

We get it, the spatter and smell of cooking steak on the stove top can be a nonstarter, but we’ve developed a couple of clever techniques to get around this. One is the reverse sear, where you start the steaks in a low oven and finish them in a hot pan; the heat of the oven dries out the exterior of the steaks so that when seared there’s much less moisture, therefore much less spatter. For the second method we start steaks in a cold pan—trust us here—and slowly bring them up to temp. By flipping often we’re able to develop a crust with minimal mess. So don’t fear the spatter!

Whenever possible we prefer to season steaks with plenty of salt and let them sit for a bit—an hour does the trick but you can go as long as 3 hours. When the moisture on the surface of the steak dissolves the salt it is then pulled into the meat through osmosis, thereby seasoning the meat all the way through, not just on the surface. This salting period also dries out the surface of the steak for a batter sear. But we get that this level of planning ahead isn’t always realistic, so in those cases just salt really well and consider a spice rub to send the flavors home.

Au contraire! It may not have the drama of the licking flames of a grill, but this is no sad hunk of meat thrown into a pan and plunked on a plate. Once you have the basic techniques down there’s really no end to how you can dress up your steak. Our Thai chili butter is an unexpected yet delicious topper, and a pan sauce zinging with mustard is sure to wake up your taste buds. Or how about a southwestern spice rub teeming with cumin, cinnamon, and chili flakes? And look to the recipe lesson for Garlic Steaks to learn how to dress up a New York strip with ingredients you probably have in your pantry right now.