How To: Steakhouse Steaks

I love the steak you get from a good steakhouse: A crusty exterior that's perfectly seasoned, with a tender, juicy interior that melts in your mouth. Some of you may be surprised to know that these steaks aren't grilled, but seared over high heat then finished off to roast in an oven. It's a pretty simple process, actually...and simple enough to execute at home. Let me show you how:

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Wrap a small cookie sheet with foil and place this in the preheating oven and forget about it for the time being.

Heat a large skillet over high heat for 5-7 minutes. While your skillet heats up, prep the meat:

The two steaks at the top of the picture are filets (or tenderloins) and the long steak at the bottom is a ribeye. Filets and Ribeye's are personal favorites of mine. The ribeye has great flavor and marbling and the filet melts in your mouth like butter. (Filets are expensive, but MAN are they worth it on occasion!)

Before you season the steaks, brush steaks lightly with oil all over (didn't get a pic of this step...).

On a plate combine kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper (preferably coarsely cracked).

Roll the steaks on all sides in the salt and pepper. Press lightly to encourage the mixture to adhere. Make sure each steak is evenly coated.

Seasoned steaks ready for the heat!

Place steaks in HOT (the pan will definitely be hot after the 5-7 minutes of heating) pan and sear evenly on all sides for about two minutes per side. (I seared the ribeye last because I wanted to give the filets a head start in the oven since they are thicker and need more cooking time)

Use tongs to help with the searing.

When steaks are through searing, use tongs to place on cookie sheet that has been heating in the 400 degree oven. Side note: If you used a cast iron skillet to sear the steaks you can use that instead of the cookie sheet and place it directly in the oven.

Place one tablespoon of butter on each steak. Cook the filets in the oven for 8-12 minutes for rare (120 degrees if using a meat thermometer) to medium rare (125 degrees) and 12-16 minutes for medium (130 degrees) to medium-well. REMEMBER, these steaks are two inches thick! If you're steaks are thinner, adjust the times accordingly. For example, if your steak is one inch thick, cut the cooking times in half. For the ribeye, which is an inch thick, I cooked it for about 8 minutes and it was medium.

When the steaks have reached your desired doneness or temperature, transfer to a plate...

and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Allow the steaks to rest (it's IMPERATIVE) for 5-10 minutes. Resting will allow the steaks to retain all their precious juices....if you cut into the steaks right from the oven all the juices will literally bleed out. You'll be left with a dry piece of meat that lacks flavor.

After your steaks have rested...

serve and devour! Delicious to be sure.

Recipe:

2 filets, 2 inch thick

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon kosher salt (or any flaky salt)

1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper (coarsely cracked)

2 tablespoons butter

Obviously this recipe can be doubled or tripled depending on how many steaks you want to prepare. Since I had three steaks to cook, I added an additional tablespoon of butter for that steak and made sure to make the tablespoon of salt and tablespoon of pepper, heaping. If you are going to cook four filets, just double the recipe as it is listed above.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten's cookbook HOW EASY IS THAT?

Images by Briana