Aaron Franklin’s 5 Tips for Grilling a Perfect Steak

A perfectly cooked steak should have a crisp sear on its exterior while remaining tender and juicy inside. Learn how to achieve this cook when you grill steak at home.

1. 1. Keep coals to one side of the grill. Create different temperature zones by keeping your coals confined to one area of the grill. In a charcoal grill, Aaron creates a “cool zone” by placing a log on one side of the bottom of the grill and dumping the coals next to the log. This way, if you’ve already achieved a perfect sear directly over the coals but the meat still feels a little undercooked and spongy, you can move the steak off the coals into the cooler zone above the log and finish it via indirect heat without risk of overcooking the exterior. Or vice versa: you could cook the steak to the desired internal temperature entirely over the cool zone, then move it over the coals at the very end to form the crust (a technique known as reverse searing).
2. 2. Season simply. The purist philosophy of seasoning a steak is to keep things simple and allow the natural flavor of beef to shine. A little oil and kosher salt are all you need. Aaron recommends a neutral oil like grapeseed, which has a high smoke point that can stand up to the hottest points of the fire and a mild flavor that won’t impact the flavor of the beef. Drizzle a little oil on the steak, then season the steak generously with salt well in advance of cooking. Salt draws the steak’s internal moisture to the surface through osmosis. As the moisture rises, it dissolves the salt and creates a brine that breaks down and tenderizes the steak’s muscle tissue.
3. 3. Flip your steak regularly. There’s a school of thought that says once a steak goes on a grill, it should sear on that side for several minutes before flipping. A perfect steak, however, is one that’s evenly cooked throughout, and Aaron makes the point that if only one side of the steak is coming into contact with the heat source for an extended period, then that side is cooking much more rapidly than the other. Plus, fires change as they burn, and no two steaks are shaped exactly the same. He recommends regular flipping and moving the steaks around the grill according to what you think it needs. Again: fire is active, and good grilling means making adjustments depending on how the steak is responding.
4. 4. Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. If you have a lot of experience, you might feel comfortable gauging the doneness of a steak by pressing the meat with your fingers or squeezing it with a pair of tongs. But steaks are cut from all different parts of a carcass, and different cuts of meat respond differently to the touch. The only way to know for sure if your steak has reached your desired temperature is by checking with an instant-read thermometer—but even this is not perfectly accurate, as every piece of meat reacts to heat differently. 120°F = rare; 130°F = medium-rare; 140°F = medium; 150°F = medium-well; 160°F = well done.
5. 5. Let your steak rest at room temperature. The muscles in a steak constrict as they’re exposed to heat, so after the steak comes off the grill, give it a few minutes to rest and reabsorb some of the juices that have been squeezed during the cook. For slicing, always cut against the grain of the steak as it will make each bite easier to chew. Season once more with salt—Aaron flavors with flaky sea salt, like Maldon—before serving.

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