Notes
The reverse sear is one of my absolute favorite methods for cooking a large piece of meat. It works with thick-cut steaks, pork chops, whole tenderloins, and a bunch more.
Often when cooking steaks (or similar cuts), chefs will sear the meat in a skillet to develop a crust and then baste the steak in butter or throw it into an oven to finish cooking through internally. This tends to work well for thin cuts of meat that can cook through evenly in a short time, but it’s not as reliable for thicker cuts.
The reverse sear flips this sequence of events— first the meat is slow-cooked in an oven until it reaches the right internal temperature, then it’s seared in a hot skillet right before serving. The gentle, indirect heat of the first step ensures that the steak cooks evenly, and the high, direct heat of the second step ensures you get a good sear.
Any time you cook a steak, you have two goals:
- Cook the meat evenly all the way through without overcooking it.
- Get a really nice crust on the outside.
The reverse sear is probably the most reliable way of accomplishing both of these goals, especially for thick cuts of meat where cooking over direct heat would burn the outside before the inside cooked through. This method gives you much of the precision of sous vide cooking without having to cook your steak in hot plastic.
The reverse sear makes use of a few different techniques and concepts that we’ve covered in the course.
- Utilizing low, indirect, dry heat in the oven allows for gentle, even cooking of the steak.
- Utilizing high, direct heat to sear the steak and develop texture and browning via the Maillard reaction gets us a nice crust.
- Finally, dry brining (where the steak is salted in advance of cooking) gives the salt time to fully penetrate through the meat, resulting in more even seasoning and better texture.
The Dry Brine
Dry brining, at its most basic, is the process of salting meat in advance of cooking.
To do this, you salt the surface of the meat and then allow it to rest in the refrigerator for a period of time until that salt has penetrated and absorbed into the meat. That ultimately results in meat that is more tender, more flavorful, and retains more moisture.
Dry brining is different from wet brining, which involves submerging the meat in a solution of water, salt, and occasionally other seasonings. I personally don’t like wet brining very much— it’s messier, takes up more space, and occasionally even dilutes the flavor of the meat. Dry brining is easier, more effective, and results in a better crust and exterior of the meat after cooking.
When you salt a steak, you draw moisture out from the inside to the surface. With a dry brine, you leave enough time for that moisture to get re-absorbed back into the steak. This carries the salt much deeper into the muscle fibers than if you were to salt the surface and then cook immediately. So you get a more even distribution of seasoning throughout the entirety of the meat, and you get more moisture in the final product.
The salt also helps to break down proteins in the meat. By giving it some additional time to work its magic, you get a much more tender texture.
And finally, because the moisture from the surface has been re-absorbed by the meat (and because you’re not submerging it in water through a wet brine), dry-brined meat forms a better crust and a crispier skin/exterior.
I dry brine any time I’m cooking a big, thick cut of meat. This includes large steaks or chops, whole chickens, roasts, or big cuts that I plan to smoke or braise.
How To Dry Brine
Start by patting your meat dry with paper towels. Then, generously season it on all sides with salt.
Make sure you’re using a salt with a fairly small grind size for this (I like Vera Salt fine grind) as a coarse flaky salt won’t adhere. I never measure this, and I tend to use a generous amount of salt, especially for bigger cuts. General wisdom is 1/2 tsp of kosher salt per pound of meat, but use your best judgement— I probably use a bit more.
To properly salt, take a big pinch of salt, hold it well above the steak, and sprinkle to get a hefty even distribution. Repeat for all sides.
For best results, place the meat on a wire rack-lined baking sheet. This will allow for airflow both under and over the steak, which is important. In a pinch, you can just leave it directly on a tray or plate.
Place the tray or plate uncovered in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours. You want it uncovered so that it gets nice airflow.
Pull it from the fridge about an hour ahead of when you cook in order to allow the meat to come to temperature. Then you’re ready to cook.
A few important notes:
- If you dry brine, you do not need to salt your steak again before cooking.
- You should dry brine your steak for at least 45 minutes ahead of cooking. This is the minimum amount of time required to get the salt to re-absorb. If you plan to cook your steak sooner than that, you should just salt it immediately before cooking.
- Ideally, you’ll dry brine for at least 12 hours. This is how you get the best results. For a thick cut of meat, you can dry brine up to 36 hours, but I find 12-24 hours to be ideal.
- For poultry, you should aim for 12-24 hours of dry brining, and for fish you should aim for 1-2 hours.
Ingredients / Equipment
- 1 large, thick-cut steak (I like doing this for big ribeyes or cowboy ribeyes)
- salt
- ghee, beef tallow, or avocado oil
- a meat thermometer (I like this brand)
- an oven
- a cast iron, carbon steel, or stainless steel skillet (or a hot charcoal grill) for searing
- a sheet tray with a wire rack
Process
Start by pre-heating your oven to 250°F.
Place the steak on a sheet tray or (even better) a wire rack over a sheet tray. Having the steak on a wire rack will allow the indirect heat to circulate underneath the steak even more effectively. (If you dry brined your steak using a wire rack over a sheet tray, you can just throw that whole thing into the oven. Easy.)
Put your steak in the oven and allow it to slow cook, flipping it a few times throughout the cook.
Use a meat thermometer to gauge the internal temperature of the steak. You want to pull it from the oven about 15° below your final temp (since it will continue to cook from the sear and the residual heat).
For medium rare, you want to aim for a final temperature of 130°F. So I pull the steak from the oven at about 115°F when probed in the middle.
For medium, you want a final temperature of 140°F, so I’d pull the steak around 125°F.
How long this takes depends a lot on your oven and the thickness of the steak. For smaller steaks, this can be as quick as 20 minutes, while for larger steaks it may take up to 40.
Next, heat a cast iron, carbon steel, or stainless steel pan over ripping high heat. When the pan is almost smoking, add in a knob of either beef tallow, ghee, or a tbsp or so of avocado oil. Sear the steak on both sides until a beautiful crust is developed (this should only take a minute or two per side).
Alternatively, you can sear it over an extremely hot charcoal or wood grill.
Once your steak is seared, give it a few minutes to rest. You don't need as much rest time for a reverse seared steak because the initial cook was so gentle, but you still want to give it time to relax after the intense heat blast of the sear.
When you're ready to serve, cut the meat against the grain and serve it up. Then enjoy one of the best steaks of your life.
