How To Sear Juicy Filet Mignon On Stove Top in 8 Steps

Last Updated on September 9, 2015 by SteakEat

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This manual explains how to cook filet mignon on stove top in a very simple manner.

Contents:

• Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Utensils
• Part 2: Cooking Filet Mignon on Stove in Skillet – 8 Steps
• Part 3: How to Buy Best Quality Fillet
• Part 4: Pro Cooking Tips & Tricks

Let’s get cooking…

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Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Utensils

Here are your basic ingredients:

• 200g / 7oz round steak (ideally organic grass-fed and matured)
• 1 tbsp ghee/coconut oil
• Pack of kosher/flaked salt
• Freshly ground pepper

And here are your basic tools:

• Thick-walled heavy skillet (forged aluminum is great for its non-stickiness)
• Tongs for flipping the steak
• Instant meat thermometer
• Paper towels

With these at the ready, let’s SteakEat!

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Part 2: Cooking Filet Mignon on Stove in Skillet – 8 Steps

[box title=”Step #1 – Room Temperature” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

Always allow your cut to reach room temperature before cooking begins. There are a few reasons for this.

First it can cut down on cooking time while avoiding a cool center. But more importantly, it insures a more even and balanced cooking service.

A cold steak dropped into a skillet will immediately reduce its heat, causing an imbalance you don’t want.

I always suggest 40 minutes as about right for a 7-oz steak. Some larger cuts actually take closer to an hour, but nevertheless this will help with proper searing to seal in more flavor.

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[box title=”Step #2 – Give Your Cut the Pat-Down” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

One way to insure the coloring you want is to pat down each side of your filet with a paper towel.

This helps draw extra water in the cut away from the surface, leading to a more balanced searing and the coloring you crave.

Avoid a potential mess by staying away from thinner napkins on this.

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[box title=”Step #3 – Get Full Heat to Your Skillet” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

We start the heat at the top level so that your skillet becomes hot through and through, and not just at its surface.

Toss in a tablespoon of ghee or coconut oil and watch for light smoke wafting from the surface. 10 more seconds at this level and you’ll know your skillet is properly prepped.

Take your time with this step, it’s most crucial for a number of reasons including balanced cooking, proper browning and true searing of the filet.

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[box title=”Step #4 – Salt, But Not the Pepper” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

Put the pepper aside for now, we’ll come back to that once cooking is nearly complete.

Season each side of your cut with two 3-finger pinches of the kosher salt. That means your thumb, forefinger and middle finger – and again is repeated for both sides.

Naturally you can adjust this for personal preference or health concerns.

What’s good about the kosher salt is its thickness, and also the less flavor per volume trait.

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[box title=”Step #5 – And Now the Heat…” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

Your steak is seasoned and your skillet has been putting out white smoke for at least 10 seconds.

This means it’s time to slide your filet gently into the center of heating surface where you’ll immediately hear a reaction.

The sizzle should be instantaneous as moisture on the outer surface of the meat begins cooking away.

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IMPORTANT:

Remember our recommended level of doneness here is medium-rare.

This is due to how it maximizes flavor, texture and proper chewiness throughout.

Trust your handy instant-read thermometer to guide you.

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[box title=”Step #6 – When to Flip?” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

3 minutes per side is a very good average for cooking medium rare, assuming you have a strong stove and well-heated skillet.

So 6 minutes in total should provide you exactly the results you want.

Use a kitchen timer if necessary to keep things precise.

Your eventual goal will be to only flip a steak once, just like the pros do it.

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ALSO IMPORTANT:

You should have your meat thermometer standing by about 30 seconds before searing is complete on the second side.

You’re looking for a medium-rare range of 55-57C / 130-135F, which might require tacking on an extra 30-60 seconds on each side to reach optimal readiness.

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[box title=”Step #7 – Take a Moment” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

Board up your steak using the tongs and go ahead and pepper liberally on both sides.

Place it under a strip of foil for two minutes allowing it to soak up all its flavor just a bit longer.

By “resting” the filet, it allows it to calm down a touch so it won’t pop juices too much when sliced into.

You don’t want them escaping to the surface of your plate too early.

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[box title=”Step #8 – Cut the Mignon” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#e5e5e5″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”]

Another way to minimize escaping juices is to cut the steak against the grain of the muscle fiber.

Now you’re ready to garnish it tastefully – and more importantly you’re ready to dig in.

Though the cooking phase is complete, here are a few key considerations to help maximize flavor and presentation.

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Part 3: How to Buy Best Quality Fillet

• Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Utensils
• Part 2: Cooking Filet Mignon on Stove in Skillet – 8 Steps
• Part 3: How to Buy Best Quality Fillet
• Part 4: Pro Cooking Tips & Tricks

In Part 1 we tackled the tips and techniques to have you grilling like a pro – even indoors.

In Part 3 we’ll examine some recipes to really boost your skill…but for now let’s explore what to consider when buying a proper steak.

Unfortunately, there are no tips or techniques to make up for a badly-selected cut of meat, so let’s look at the basics.

What to keep in mind:

• Organic grass-fed. One of the best choices you can make if it’s available to you, this type of steak is often times head and shoulders above other cuts. The difference is of course how the cattle itself was raised, free of heavy growth hormones and antibiotics, and fed a natural diet rather than one pumped full of chemicals.

• Dry-aged and Matured. Many people rave about this technique, especially on a good filet. The process involves minimizing moisture in the cut to help concentrate the flavor, which is scarce in this very tender cut. Maturing can take 2-4 weeks and the results can be thrilling. Give it a go and get a 14- or 21-day matured fillet steak. See how you like it, as it is fairly individual. Also avoid a potential rotten flavor by always trusting a pro to dry-age it for you.

• Weight & thickness. While a one-inch thickness maximum is my own suggestion for a good fillet, a total weight of seven to nine inches is about right for one diner.

Be Prepared With the Right Tools

So you’ve found a great piece of meat and you’re ready to grill it up indoors – what utensils and other items do you need to serve it up like the professionals.

This is your must-have list:

Skillet

Heavier is always better when it comes to the skillet.

A more-weighted pan will hold in the heat much better, insuring the searing effect you want with less variation in the temperature of the cooking surface.

It’s durable and sturdier, and it is a key element to perfecting your Filet.

Most diners appreciate that crusty, brown seared surface of a properly prepared steak. A heavier skillet is one of the secrets to accomplishing this.

I recommend cast-iron, but I hear good things about forged aluminum (I actually use it too).

Either way, pay special attention to the handle, looking for a more-sturdy grip.

A quality skillet can last for years, so don’t pick one whose handle has a shelf life of only a few years,

When purchasing, make sure it fits with the burners on your stove to further insure you maintain that crucial temperature balance across your heating surface.

Tongs

There’s a reason you see top chefs using tongs when they handle steaks, it’s because of the great speed and control they offer.

While they’re not essential, once you use them, they’ll practically begin to feel that way.

Salt

The salt that most steak pros utilize is kosher or flaked salt, known for its thicker weight and muted flavor.

It helps with crusting the surface without overpowering the meat. As such, flaked or kosher is the way to go.

Pepper

Freshly-ground black peppercorns is definitely a choice pick here, though standard table pepper will do in a pinch.

If you are going to use a grinder, do so just before finishing off the cooking process.

Fresh grinding, by the way, goes a long way in adding aroma to your filet, not to mention flavor.

Oil

Go with ghee or coconut oil here rather than the common mistake of using corn oil, vegetable oil or some blended type.

The oil helps with searing, and thicker oils practically boil the meat around them if used too liberally.

I suggest one table spoon of either coconut oil or ghee for a single steak.

Temperature Probe

These handy items will help you insure the steak gets fully cooked, which is important both for flavor and safety.

They also help beginners get a better overall feel for the process, understanding where a steak should be temperature-wise at each stage.

Now let’s turn to some simple but critical tips to help you perfect the process.

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Part 4: Pro Cooking Tips & Tricks

• Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Utensils
• Part 2: Cooking Filet Mignon on Stove in Skillet – 8 Steps
• Part 3: How to Buy Best Quality Fillet
• Part 4: Pro Cooking Tips & Tricks

So now that you’ve seen how technique (Part 1) and the right ingredients (Part 2) can allow for fantastic results, even on stovetop, let’s turn to some further simple methods and recipes that can expand your skill even further.

Tip #1. Test out different marinade options as these add great flavor to your meat, while also tenderizing the filet.

Tip #2. Follow the recommended cooking times whenever a meat thermometer is not available.

Tip #3. This one’s a keeper – add a dab of organic grass-fed butter to the skillet in the final seconds of cooking the second side. Likewise with 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 3 sprigs of rosemary. They help bring the whole flavor package together. Remember not to combine butter with acid-based marinades (such as ones with lemon or fruit additive).

Tip #4. Pre-heating your dinner plates can help guarantee your last few bites taste as delicious as the early ones. Using ceramic plates, just a few minutes at 80C / 180F will do the trick.

Tip #5. If for whatever reason you’re not quite ready to enjoy your steaks right when they’re completed, just pop the whole skillet in an oven preheated to 50C / 120F. This amount of heat will keep them ready-to-eat, but won’t actually cook them further.

Tip #6. The best steak sauce you’ve ever tried might be right in front of you. Utilize those pan drippings from your own filet, even adding 3 drops of lemon juice (again if no butter was used) for a steak sauce experience to dazzle.

Filet Mignon Recipes on Stove Top

Now that you feel comfortable with basic steak skills, you’ll want to improve your technique even further with more specific recipes and methods.

Check out our recommendations below that will keep you cooking like a pro.

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