8 Pro Tips for Cooking Steak Indoors
- by Chef David Rose
- Last updated Jul 23, 2024
Grilling steaks is great, but it’s not like the cooks at steakhouses are heading outside. They’re cooking indoors! It’s the best way to build huge flavor and customize what you’re doing for seriously delicious results. These are my pro tips for cooking steak indoors. Yes – yes you – can make an amazing restaurant-quality steak at home.
How to Cook a Perfect Steak Indoors
1. Pans and Equipment
You only need a few simple tools to cook the perfect steak indoors. Start with an aged-to-perfection Omaha Steaks steak and a clean cooking surface. The cooking and searing process goes very quickly, so have everything within arm’s reach to set yourself up for success.
For pan searing, I recommend using a cast iron skillet. Cast iron is great for high heat cooking and provides a nice sear on the steak. It gets smoky when you cook a steak indoors, so a range hood is also important.
2. Choosing Your Oil Properly
Be conscious of choosing the right oil, especially when cooking indoors. Always use an oil with a high smoke point – the temperature at which oil starts smoking. Two oils I recommend with high smoke points are grapeseed oil or duck fat. Both are excellent for high temperature cooking and have great flavor.
3. Choosing Seasoning
When seasoning your steak, the sky is the limit. Let’s start with the basics – salt and pepper. When I’m choosing salt, I look for a nice salt with huge flakes, Kosher or Maldon, and a fresh ground coarse black pepper.
Seasonings vs Rubs
What’s the difference between a seasoning and rub? Seasonings use more powder ingredients. Rubs use bigger pieces of spices and herbs. Both are excellent choices for seasoning a steak if you want to add more flavors.
For a simple pre-made seasoning, try Omaha Steaks Seasoning with onion, garlic, salt, pepper and citrus for contrasting and delicious complementary flavors. For more complex flavor, season with Omaha Steaks Private Reverse Rub. This rub has big chunks of herbs and savory flavor with coriander, dill, and carraway seed.
One of my all-purpose go-to rubs uses salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, a small amount of sugar, and thyme. But be careful not to use a rub with too much sugar because it can burn. Try my simple dry rub recipe on your next steak.
Chef Rose’s All-Purpose Dry Rub
Ingredients
- 2 T. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. ground pink peppercorn
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- ½ tsp. dried thyme
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients together.
4. Dry Brining
Maximize the flavor on your steak with a simple dry brine. This process is simple – salting and seasoning your steak 30 minutes to 24 hours before your cooking time – and the results are incredible. By seasoning in advance, the salt penetrates deep inside the surface of the meat to draw out moisture, tenderizing your steak, and intensifying the natural beef flavors. A dry brine gives you a better sear and deeper flavor. To dry brine a steak, season with the same amount of kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper as normal and coat all sides. Then, place your steak uncovered on a wire rack on a sheet pan in the fridge for up to 24 hours. The wire rack will keep both sides of the steak dry and air circulating around it. For more information, view our dry brining guide.
5. Getting a Really Great Sear
A great sear builds amazing flavor, seals in flavor, and creates texture and contrast. The keys are – make sure your steak is room temperature and dry on the outside before you cook, and always put your steak into a screaming hot pan. You know your pan is ready when you that sizzle or pop and you see oil shimmer and shine. When placing the steak in the pan, always lay it away from you so oil does not splash. Then, take a moment to enjoy that glorious sizzle!
If you want, you can press down the steak down to jump start the searing process. As steak starts to cook, you’ll see brown bits peek on the side and that’s a good sign. Flip the steak when a great crust develops. Use the Omaha Steaks app with built-in cooking timer or this steak cooking chart to estimate cook times. Always double check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer and to achieve your ideal doneness.
6. Tips for a Big Steak – Slow Roasting in the Oven
With a thick steak, like a tomahawk ribeye, you’ll want to use the sear roasting method to ensure you get an incredible crust and achieve the perfect steak doneness. Start with a hard sear on all sides for flavor and caramelization, and then finish low and slow in the oven at 250°F. Check the internal temperature regularly and use the steak temperature guide to achieve your ideal temperature.
7. Arroser with Garlic and Herbs
Arroser is a fancy French word meaning butter basting. This will add even more flavor to your steak. Simply add butter, and aromatics, like garlic, thyme, rosemary to your pan and baste the butter-herb mixture on top of your steak. Butter basting provides a nuttier, deeper flavor and a brown sear for an incredible steak every single time.
8. Toppings and Sauces
The last step is finishing your steak with a topping or sauce. These are three of my favorites, and they’re toppings you’re likely to see in the steakhouse… compound butter, chimichurri, and steak pan sauce.
Compound butter is a butter infused with flavors, spices and herbs. My personal favorite is a garlic herb made with harrisa (a Tunisian chili paste), garlic, shallots, and fresh herbs. Once the butter hits the hot steak, it melts and coats the meat for that incredible flavor bomb.
Harissa Garlic Herb Butter
Ingredients
- 2 T. olive oil
- ¼ c. minced shallots
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp. Harissa paste
- 8 oz. unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 tsp. rosemary minced
- 1 fresh thyme minced
- 1 tsp. Italian parsley minced
- 1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a small saucepan to medium high heat, add olive oil.
- Add shallots and garlic cloves to pan, and sauté about 45 seconds until lightly caramelized and fragrant, add harissa paste, pinch of salt and pepper and sauté an additional 30 seconds.
- Remove sautéed shallots and garlic from heat, and cool to room temperature.
- Once cooled, add to a medium sized bowl, along with room temperature butter, herbs, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until well incorporated with a rubber spatula.
Notes
More Compound Butter Recipes to Try:
Chimichurri
Chimichurri is a straight-forward South American sauce that adds contrast, texture, and flavor to your steak. The sherry vinegar in this recipe will cut through the fattiness of the steak for the perfect bite.
Chimichurri
Ingredients
- 1 c. Italian parsley firmly packed
- 1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 T. sherry vinegar
- 1 Calabrian chile stem removed
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- In a food processor, blend parsley, garlic, and Calabrian chile until finely minced; add olive oil, sherry vinegar, and a pinch of salt and pepper to the food processor and blend until well incorporated.
Notes
Steak Pan Sauce
While your steak is resting, whip up a simple pan sauce made with the steak drippings. You can even use the same pan! You’re going to reduce the steak drippings with beef stock and red wine and finish with butter and fresh until it achieves a nice nappe consistency. Pour the pan sauce over your steak for added flavor.
Steak Pan Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 T. minced shallots
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp. fresh thyme minced
- 1 tsp. Italian parsley minced
- ½ c. Cabernet Sauvignon
- 1 c. beef stock
- 2 T. olive oil
- 5 T. cold unsalted butter
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- After searing steak in pan, reserve pan juices. (*Or, use a fresh pan, if no steak was seared in a pan.)
- Add olive oil to pan, bring to medium high heat, and add shallots and garlic to pan; sauté for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Add wine to pan and cook until reduced two-thirds by volume; about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add beef stock to pan and reduce by two-thirds by volume, and starts to slightly thicken; about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Turn off heat and whisk in cold butter (1 T. at a time) and herbs, season to taste with salt and pepper.
Use these chef secrets for restaurant-quality steak dinner at home. The only thing left is to have meat delivered and stock up on your favorite Omaha Steaks steak and get cooking!
Indoor Steak Cooking Guides:
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