Best Steak To Grill For A Crowd

How To Know When Steak Is Done

The time needed to cook a steak varies depending on its thickness, and how you like it. Dont be tempted to cut into a steak to see if its done. This allows the precious juices to escape, making the meat tough. Instead, press the centre of the steak with the back of your tongs if its medium the meat will spring back. Use this guide for cooking times and to tell when its ready.

Crock Pot Teriyaki Steak

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

Asian flavorings infuse inexpensive, boneless round steak with tons of savory flavor in this recipe that’s simple to prepare using a slow cooker. Let it cook while you go about your day and serve it over hot cooked rice, garnished with optional diced scallions and sesame seeds.

Tips For Grilling The Perfect Steak

• Season, then chill: I apply the same technique I use for getting crispy chicken and turkey skin to grilling this steak: season, then let it chill in the fridge uncovered for up to 48 hours. This essentially dry brines the steak while also letting it air-dry. This approach allows the surface moisture to evaporate while the seasoning has time to penetrate the meat resulting in deeply flavored steak that sears beautifully and develops a nice crust on the grill.
• Start with clean grates: Just like you use a clean skillet with a little oil to cook dinner on the stovetop, you want to start with clean and oiled grill grates.
• To flip or not to flip? Flip your steak to your hearts content. Harold McGee, food science writer and author of On Food and Cooking, discovered that frequent flipping creates a steak that cooks more evenly and quickly than those flipped only once.
• Grilling directly on coals: Raichlen seemingly knows an infinite number of ways to grill meat, and theres one in his new book, Project Fire , that I particularly like: he cooks steak directly on hot coalsno grill grates necessary. I love the idea, and its on my list of things to try in the near future.

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How Can You Tell If Grilled Steak Is Done

• Rare steaks. Soft textured steaks that maintain an indent when pressed will be rare 140°F internal temperature
• Medium-rare steaks. Steaks with a soft and springy feel will be medium rare 145°F internal temperature
• Medium steaks. Steaks with a springy feel will be medium 160°F internal temperature
• Well done steaks. Firm steaks are well done 170°F internal temperature

I recommend removing steaks off the grill when they are around 5° below desired doneness as they continue cooking while resting!

Grilling The Best Steak

I wanted a juicy steak with a nice crust that was big enough to slice and serve family style, and that had a little finesse.

While cooking, I basted the steak in an herbed butter sauce. The sauce added a fresh, light flavor that balanced the richness of the meat. In the end, I had a steak everyone raved about, and that felt special but not overly fussy. It was the perfect main course for my Fourth of July party plans.

Also Check: Frozen Steaks Delivered

More Tips For Grilling Steak

After spending some time cooking steak with LaFreida and talking shop with Raichlen, your correspondent has garnered a few of the finer points in beef preparation and cooking.

• Don’t overdo it with seasonings. A good steak, as any cook worth their salt might contest, is already so rich in flavor that very little needs to be done in the way of preparation and seasoning. Pull it out of the fridge, let it come to room temperature, and season with salt. But don’t overdo it with heavy, preservative-infused seasonings. Also, save the pepper for after cooking, especially when cooking at high heat. Peppercorns have a low burning point and burn over an open flame, leaving behind a bitter flavor that hardly resembles fresh-cracked pepper.
• Temperature is key. Unless you spend your workdays slinging steaks, there’s no real trick to checking the doneness of the steak. Use a good meat thermometer to determine when your steak is done to your liking. Even LaFrieda uses one.
• Use a cooling rack. When it comes time to pull your steak, get it on a resting rack. Letting a steak sit in all of its juices after you’ve worked so hard to build a nice crust is a tragedy.
• Let it rest. LaFrieda recommends pulling a steak and letting it sit for about two minutes before cutting it to allow it the chance to reabsorb its juices. The bottom line is that once you cut into a steak, it stops cooking, so use your best judgment considering your target temperature.

Dont Be Afraid Of Sauces

You know how fancy steak restaurants often let you choose your piece of meat, as well as the sauce you want alongside it? Replicate that experience by putting a simple aioli, a red-wine shallot sauce, or a simple steak sauce on the table. Purists can keep things classic, while others will have options.

Get Some Ideas

• Jam: The New Steak Sauce

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The Best Cut Of Beef For Serving A Large Group

• The Best Cut of Beef for Serving a Large Group

For your next family dinner, consider serving up a delicious cut of Wagyu beef. Your loved ones will adore the uniquely buttery taste. But before you get to cooking, youve got to choose your cut! Which part of the cow will serve your crowd best? Let Lone Mountain Wagyu give you some ideas for the best cut of beef for serving a large group.

Grilling For A Crowd: Easy

* Corn on the cob: Here are 4 ways too cook corn on the cob, including on the grill.* Grilled asparagus: Wash, trim, toss with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and throw on the grill.* Grilled portobello mushrooms.* Grilled potatoes: Precook baby potatoes, season, and finish them on the grill.* Grilled baguette slices: Rub with fresh garlic and butter , grill, and try not to eat before others can have some.* Salad: Dress up fresh greens with one of our favorite spring salad dressings or make the gorgeous Heirloom Tomato Corn Salad at One Hungry Mama .

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Always Set Up For Two

Depending on your steaks thickness, the time it takes to cook it through can vary tremendously.

Now, for any steak you grill, youll want to create a beautiful, dark crust by searing it hot and fast. All that dark brown coloring is extra amazing flavor created by the Maillard reaction.

If you dont get a good, dark sear, you are missing out on bundles of flavor. So you MUST sear your steak with a screaming hot grill.

However, if you cook anything but the thinnest of steaks all the way through hot and fast, you will severely burn the outside and ruin it before the inside has even cooked.

So you need to grill your steak in 2 stages:

• Hot and fast searing over direct radiant heat to get a good Maillard crust for added flavor.
• Slowly over indirect heat to slowly cook it through to the center, without burning the outside.

So you need to set up your grill as a two-zone cooker.

You want to bank all your charcoal to one side of your grill, so you have a very high heat direct radiant side for searing.

Then you want the remaining half of your grill set up with no coals so that you can place your steak away from the heat source.

This indirect cool zone will cook the steak far slower until perfectly done throughout while removing the chance of burning

If you have a gas grill, have a burner on for the high heat zone and a burner off for the cooler side same thing.

So which method should you use, and why?

Best Cheap Steak Cuts You Can Actually Afford To Eat

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Most steaks have a reputation for being the priciest option on the menu and, if youve got your heart set on a dry-aged Wagyu ribeye, then you are going to be paying top dollar for it.

Yet there is more to the steer than just its ribeye, and some of the best cuts of beef fly well under the radar of your local supermarket or steakhouse.

To aid you in your fiscally responsible quest for cow, weve put together this guide to eight of the best cheap steak cuts, featuring some truly excellent, and reasonably priced, pieces of beef. So, read on to find out more about the best steak youve never heard of.

And if you need help to find these value cuts, check out our guide on the best websites to order steak online.

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Often known as the poor mans ribeye, the confusingly named chuck eye steak is the result of butchers slicing a standard ribeye into thinner sections, so there is more to sell .

Just like the ribeye, the chuck eye has a mild buttery flavor and a tender juicy texture and is ideal if you want a little slice of luxury that wont break the bank.

Available for order at Porter Road.

Also Check: Seasoning For Ribeye

Instant Pot Carne Asada

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

When you’re craving carne asada but don’t have a grill, never fear. Instant Pot is here. Of all the things to cook in an Instant Pot, beef is one of the best because tougher cuts of meat do well with searing and pressure cooking, which renders them flavorful and tender. Although carne asada is by definition grilled , you can achieve a satisfying smoky flavor with the use of woody spices like cumin and oregano, which are featured in this recipe. The whole thing comes together in less than 30 minutesâperfect for Tuesday night dinner. Serve inside corn or flour tortillas, as the recipe suggests, or simply sliced and served elegantly on a carving board, with some roasted fingerling potatoes and chimichurri.

Rule #: Break Out The Tuna Cans

Now that we’ve got ourselves a good sear, now comes the trickiest part: Cooking the steak perfectly all the way through. The best way to do this? It apparently involves empty tuna cans.

First, Mullen creates a two-zone fire, moving all of the hot coals to one half of the bottom grate of our kettle grill. We’re creating a zone of indirect heat, in which the heat of the grill cooks through the steak without burning the outside.

The next part’s a little more unexpected. As I watch, the guy fills four empty tuna cans with red wine and crushed garlic, and arranges them in the indirect-heat zone, topping them with sprigs of the same herbs he used in the spray bottle. “I hope this works,” Mullen chuckles.

With our cans in place, Mullen picks up the steak from a cutting board with two hands gripping his grill tongs and places it atop the tuna-can throne we’ve created to finish cooking.

“As the red wine in the cans evaporates, it steams the steak as it cooks,” explains Mullen. “Plus, the cans will collect rendered fat that normally falls onto the fire and creates flare-ups.”

For a minute, we just stare at what we’ve created.

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Rib Eye Steak Sandwiches

Something that is not all that common and will likely blow the minds of your guests Rib eye steak sammiches. Go to your butcher, have him/her thinly slice a rib eye into 1/3-1/4 inch thick sliced of rib eye. Marinade in Adrias , coke, garlic and black pepper. Grill over high heat for just a little bit and then throw then in an aluminum pan with more of the marinade to keep the meat warm and moist. This is not a cheap alternative to cook for a crowd but definitely low maintenance.

Grillin the rib eye slices:

In the pan to simmer. These will get a tin foil cover and be thrown in the oven on low heat. They could be left on the grill but this was shot the day of the 2009 Super Bowl so it was a little chilly outside:

After being in the oven a couple of hours they are ready to serve:

A bun, some cheese, a little mayo for me and I had heaven on a plate:

Serve It Family Style

If you dont want to buy individual cuts for everyone on the guest list, consider buying one larger hunk of less expensive meat . You can slice it up in the kitchen and serve it family style or even pre-plate a few strips for each guest.

This way, its also no big deal if you dont have enough steak knives for everyone! Want to buy some steak knives?

Look here: 10 Great Steak Knives for Any Budget

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Buy Your Meat In Bulk

Theres no doubt that buying meat in bulk saves a lot of money over buying smaller packages, and youll definitely need a lot of steaks to serve several people. You also dont want to run out! A general rule of thumb is about 8 oz. per person you expect at your party. If you have 20 expected partygoers in total, youll need 160 oz., or 10 lbs., of steak.

A couple months ahead of the party, start keeping an eye on sales at the grocery store or butcher shop and buy what you can in bulk. You can keep steak in the freezer, if appropriately sealed, for up to 12 months!

Or, go the easiest route and buy steak online from Chicago Steak Company. We offer large steak assortments to give your guests what they want with the quality they deserve, and you wont have to step foot outside your home. You can browse our full collection online, place an order, and have your steaks show up at your door in a few days.

Steaks Under 15 Inches Thick Sear First And Finish Low

This is the traditional way of cooking steaks, and my recommendation is:

For ANY steak under 1.5-inches thick, sear first, then finish it low. DO NOT use the reverse sear method.

Steaks under 1.5-inch thick cook through very quickly. If you cook them slow first, then sear after, you have a very high risk of raising the internal temperature too high before searing, leaving too little margin to get a good sear without overcooking the center.

This can result in one of two scenarios:

Either your steak is perfectly medium-rare throughout, but with hardly any sear or you have a great sear but had to overcook the center, taking it to well done or worse.

Its all too easy to overshoot your target finished temp or overcook the center if you sear to finish after bringing the center up to temp with thinner steaks.

So for thin steaks, get your sear first, set that right, then finish it low. You have more control, and your success rate will be far higher than the reverse sear method.

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Go Big With Your Sides

If your garlic mashed potatoes have earned you major bragging rights over the years, your moms maple Brussels sprouts are an often-requested recipe, or your sautéed mushrooms are a staple at every holiday, now is the time to bring them out.

You dont need a ton of everything the key is variety. Consider this the Thanksgiving effect: Being able to grab a little bit from around the table makes people feel like they had a heartier, more enjoyable meal than if they just worked through the same green beans and piece of meat all night. Aim for at least three sides.

Beer Can Chicken With A Twist

If you have a relatively stable smoker that holds the temps fairly constant there is no reason you couldnt smoke ribs, brisket, chicken, fatties or a combination of these. If all it requires is adding more fuel or smoke wood every 30-60 minutes and maybe a location adjustment of the meat then smoking these items is extremely low maintenance. Maybe go with a beer can chicken. Or even better the Grillin Fools new and improved beer can chicken beer can chicken stew:

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Rule #: Know When It’s Done

The absolute best way to know when your steak is ready to come off the grill is to take its temperature with a meat thermometer. In this case, Mullen tells me we’re looking for about 140°F to achieve perfect medium, accounting for 5°F – 10°F of carryover cooking that happens even after the steak is off the grill..

But I like my steaks medium-rare, I think to myself. Mullen practically reads my mind and tells me that he prefers to cook cuts that have seen a significant amount of dry-aging time like this one to medium to balance out some of the meat’s inherent funk.

Except that Mullen doesn’t use a thermometer. Instead, he takes a simple metal cake tester out of his apron pocket and sticks it into the meat.

“You cook enough meat and you can feel the temperature you’re going for,” says Mullen.

After a few seconds, he removes the cake tester and places the metal portion against his lower lip, looking off into the distance as he deciphers the steak’s temperature with his mind.

“That’s perfect,” says Mullen in his most Zen moment yet.

Because I’m a mere mortal, I take the meat’s temperature in the middle of the steak with a plain old meat thermometer and see that we are indeed there.