Difficulty: moderate

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Active cooking time: ~15 minutes

Intro to steak:

I will preface this by saying this is a very basic guide for steak. Although there are many different cuts of steak out there, most will turn out great if you follow this guide, however, the time may need to be tweaked depending on the thickness, fat, and cut.

Cooking a steak happens in a few parts: There’s searing, internal cooking, and flavoring. Flavoring almost always comes last but depending on the technique you use internal cooking and searing could be done in either order. The recipe below will start with searing.

Searing is what locks in all the juices and creates the outside crust that holds a ton of flavor after being browned on the pan. Searing happens very quickly and generally, a steak only needs to be seared for a few minutes on each side. If you’re making a pan sauce to accompany your steak, searing is also where you’ll build up fond on your pan that will create a great flavor base for your sauce. Because you need high heat to sear, do not use butter as your cooking fat for this step. Stick with olive oil or even butter a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil that can handle higher heat than olive oil.

The next part is the actual internal cooking. Just searing a steak on the pan won’t cook it all the way through. But cooking a steak on a pan until it is fully cooked will result in a burnt or overly charred outer crust. So, to achieve the perfect balance, we cook the inside of a steak in some kind of circular heat system. Most often it’s an oven but a sous-vide or even an air frier can also work. This phase of cooking will ensure the steak is cooked through on the inside but not burnt on the outside. Make sure you pre-heat your oven or whatever other cooking appliance you’re using in this step before you sear so you can go right from the stove to the next step.

Finally, there’s flavoring. This can happen in a few forms. You can place flavored butter onto a hot steak and let the butter melt into it. A lot of times, the steak will be put back into the pan after baking with garlic, herbs, and butter and will be basted for a few minutes with the flavored butter before it’s taken out to rest. If basting, as this recipe uses below either keep the heat very low to ensure you don’t burn the garlic or continue cooking the steak or leave the heat off if you used the same pan in the oven and it’s still warm. This part is not about cooking the steak any longer so it doesn’t need additional heat.

Ingredients: (1 serving)

• 1 6oz filet

• 1-2 cloves garlic

• 3 tablespoons butter

• Handful of any hearty herb, like thyme or rosemary (in a pinch, parsley can work as well)

Preparation:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350-degree F. Take filet out of the fridge and let it come to room temp for 10-15 minutes

Step 2: Season filet generously with salt and pepper (if time permits let the seasoned steak sit for an additional 10-20 minutes before cooking)

Step 3: Heat an oven-safe pan with olive oil on high heat (if you do not have an oven-safe pan, warm a sheet pan in the oven while searing the steak and transfer it to the sheet pan for baking). Once oil is hot, reduce heat to medium and immediately add steak to pan and sear each side for 2.5 minutes. Hold steak upright to sear edges for 30 seconds each

Step 4: Put pan in oven for 3 minutes

Step 5: Remove pan from oven and while pan is still hot, add butter, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. Wait for butter to melt, then tilt the pan and using a spoon baste the steak - meaning scoop up the melted butter and drizzle it over the steak to flavor it. Baste for a few minutes

Step 6: Allow steak to rest for at least 10 minutes

Serving: Serve immediately plain, with choice of sauce, or remaining herb-garlic butter