Few dishes come close to a perfectly grilled steak.
With the right technique, you can enjoy juicy and flavorful meat that will impress guests and family whenever you fire the grill up.
Whether you’re cooking over charcoal or gas, there’s an art to searing the perfect steak.
From rare to well done, following our simple cooking guide will ensure the best results, every time.
Heat is Everything When Grilling Steaks
Your outdoor or tabletop grill is the best place to cook the perfect steak.
Temperature is everything when cooking with this ingredient, and if you get things right, you’ll be dealing with a fair amount of smoke.
Outdoor cooking is more convenient than cooking over a pan in your kitchen.
To get started, you’ll want to get your grill as hot as it can go.
If you’re working with a hooded grill this will be much easier.
You’ll be able to put the top down, fire up the burners or charcoal, and wait for the temperature gauge to rise.
Your temperature should be anywhere between 450° to 500° F to cook a great steak.
If your grill doesn’t have a temperature gauge, keep it burning on its highest setting for around five minutes.
This will give the cooking grates plenty of time to heat up and create the perfect sear marks.
If you use a grill with an infrared searing station, heating times will take under a minute.
The high temperature of an infrared burner is ideal for rare and medium-rare steaks with a beautiful brown sear.
Unless you have a lot of experience on your grill or in a commercial kitchen, you’ll want to use a meat probe thermometer to check the steak as it cooks.
Your grill temperature gauge will indicate ambient heat inside the grill, but it won’t give you any idea of the meat itself.
Cooking times can vary depending on how hot your grill can get. Ideally, you want to cook fast and evenly.
Grill Temperature Guide for Steak
Popular cooking temperatures range from rare to well done.
How well you cook your steak comes down to preference, but most professionals agree that medium-rare offers the perfect balance of flavor and texture.
If you don’t like your meat on the redder side, you can move up to medium-well.
The more you cook your steak, the more moisture you will lose.
A reliable meat thermometer is an essential tool for every home cook.
Push the probe into the center of the meat and you’ll be able to take an accurate reading.
Every grill is different, but a simple accessory like the Proaccurate Meat Thermometer can help you to get an accurate temperature to overcome any guesswork with cooking times.
- Rare steak is cooked to around 125° F at its center.
- Medium Rare is cooked to around 135° F.
- Medium is cooked to around 145° F.
- Medium Well is cooked to around 155° F.
- Well Done is cooked to around 175° F.
You should only need to flip your steak once to get it crisp and seared on both sides.
Let the steak rest for around three to five minutes before serving.
The steak will keep cooking when it is taken off the grill, and waiting to cut into the steak will help to retain moisture.
With Experience, You’ll Be Cooking Steak Like a Pro
It can take a while to get used to your grill.
The above grill temperature guide for steak will help you to overcome the learning curve.
By understanding cooking temperatures, you’ll soon be producing results that are better than your favorite steakhouse restaurant.