Tips & Techniques Grilling Grill the Perfect Steak

Aside from burgers and hot dogs, steaks hit the grill more often than just about anything else. Why? Because it’s just doggone good eating. Here are some tips on how to cook the perfect grilled steak.

T-Bone Steaks with Black-Pepper Butter

Click here for our perfect grilled steak recipe. Skip the steak sauce—a pat of plain or compound butter, like the black-pepper butter featured here, is the perfect finish to a grilled steak. 

Buy Good Meat

Grass-fed and grass-finished beef tastes better and has a bolder flavor that holds up particularly well against the lick of the grill’s flames.

Simple Seasoning

Sprinkle the steak liberally on both sides with salt and pepper when you take it out of the refrigerator, which helps it form a nice crust over the fire. Also, brush steaks on both sides with a little olive oil (not extra virgin). This facilitates the heat transfer, so you get an evenly browned crust and a delicious steak house flavor.

Timing Is Important

There’s nothing worse than a rubbery, tasteless, overcooked steak. Professionals use touch to gauge doneness, and so can you. Touch your index finger to your cheek. When the meat feels this way, the steak is rare. Touch the tip of your nose. That firmness equates to medium. Your forehead is well done. But please don’t go there.

Let It Rest

If you cut into a piece of beef as soon as it comes off the grill, you will lose precious juices. Give the proteins in the steak the opportunity to unwind a little bit from the heat they have just experienced. Let most steaks rest for at least 5 minutes – 10 minutes is even better – to give the juices time to redistribute evenly throughout the meat.