How to Sous Vide Rib Eye Steak Without Immersion Circulator

Last Updated on September 9, 2015 by SteakEat

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This cooking guide explains how to sous vide rib eye steak without using expensive immersion circulator.

Could you ever believe that for a restaurant-class steak, all you need is a plastic food bag and a bit of warm water?

Get ready for excellence every time – this is what sous vide is all about.

The method is simplicity in itself – place your rib eye inside the plastic bag, sealing it to let all the air out, put in a warm water bath and cook it for an hour or so. Then quickly sear it in skillet and you are ready to enjoy your sous vide rib eye steak.

Contents:

• Part 1: Required Ingredients & Cooking Utensils
• Part 2: Sous Vide Rib Eye Steak in 5 Steps

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Part 1: Required Ingredients & Cooking Utensils

The goal of this guide is nothing but explaining the actual cooking technique, that’s why we are using a simple recipe, where nothing can go wrong.

All you need is:

• 1-inch thick rib eye steak
• 1 tsp ghee or coconut oil
• 1 tbsp organic grass-fed butter
• Kosher/flaked salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

And these cooking utensils:

• Dutch oven
• Food-safe plastic bag
• Oven-safe candy/oil thermometer
• Paper towels
• Blowtorch or Skillet
• Meat tongs

Note that any oven-safe saucepan will do fine, so Dutch oven is not a must.

Have these ready? Let’s SteakEat!

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Part 2: Sous Vide Rib Eye Steak in 5 Steps

Even though sous vide can be seen as a time-consuming cooking method, the good news is that you don’t need to be there all the time.

Let’s look at the method closely.

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Step 1: Set the Dutch Oven

Fix candy or oil thermometer on the Dutch oven (they often have attachment clips) and pour in enough water to at least cover the bottom part of the thermometer. Also remember that there should be enough to also fit the steak.

Now start heating up the oven and place the Dutch oven inside.

I recommend oven (instead of stove top), because it’s generally easier to control the temperature inside it.

Plus they are safer, if you decide to leave for a bit.

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Step 2: Cooking Temperature

What’s the temperature for a perfect sous vide rib eye steak?

It depends, on what level of doneness you are looking for.

So, if you are like me, you’d pick 50C / 122F to shoot for rare.

If you are into more thoroughly cooked steak, choose 55C / 130F or 60C / 140F for medium-rare and medium respectively.

This is the temperature you need to maintain during the entire cooking process, so check your thermometer regularly.

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This is Page 2 of the ‘How to Sous Vide Rib Eye Steak’ guide. Click to Page 1.

Step 3: Preparing the Rib Eye

Now it’s time to put the steak inside plastic*, food-safe bag, which you can seal, letting all the air out.

We are not using any salt or pepper now, because one will dry the steak out, while the second will burn at high heat, when we need to pan-sear the steak.

—

* Even food-safe freezer bags were reported as not entirely safe from the health perspective.

At this stage reusable silicon bags is considered the safest option.

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Step 4: And Sous Vide…

Now that we have the temperature set up and the water is ready, put the steak inside the water bath and close the oven again.

Remember, if the temperature is fixed at the certain level (e.g. 50C / 122F for rare doneness), rib eye can’t get overcooked.

Having said that, there are minimum cooking times, which are subject to your steak’s thickness.

Here is what they look like:

Thickness                           Cooking Time

0.25 inches                        23 minutes
0.5 inches                           31 minutes
1 inch                                   60 minutes
1.5 inches                           1 hour 45 minutes
2 inches                               2 hours 50 minutes
2.5 inches                           4 hours 15 minutes
3 inches                               6 hours

It follow that we need to cook 1-inch thick rib eye for at least one hour, but…if you leave it there for two hours, it won’t overcook.

Instead you might even find a more delicious, tenderer steak.

Remember to control water temperature.

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Step 5: Sear & Brown Rib Eye

Once you are done, all we need is to sear the rib eye, so that it develops a proper steak-like browning on the surface.

I love using blowtorch for that, but a standard stove top skillet is perfectly fine.

Let’s look at it first.

Searing Rib Eye Steak on Stove Top After Sous Vide

1. Open the plastic bag, transferring the steak onto a cutting board or a plate.
2. Pat its surface dry using paper towels and season with Kosher salt – now is the time to do it.
3. Add the teaspoon of coconut oil/ghee to the skillet and start heating it up on stove top at max heat.
4. You will soon see fumes taking off the skillet’s surface, take another 20 seconds and place the rib eye right inside.
5. After you hear gently sizzling, set the timer – all you need is 1 minute per side.
6. Flip the steak using meat tongs and repeat for the second side.
7. Once the time runs off, transfer the steak on to another plate (no cross-contamination please) and let it rest for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add aromatic freshly ground pepper, cut and serve!

SteakEat Tip: Once you are 30 seconds away from finishing with side #2, add the tablespoon of organic grass-fed butter and use meat tongs to flip your rib eye. It helps to add extra flavor and surface browning.

Now – my favorite – the blowtorch…

Searing Rib Eye Steak With Blowtorch After Sous Vide

1. Open the plastic bag, transferring the steak onto a cutting board or a plate.
2. Pat its surface dry using paper towels and season with Kosher salt – now is the time to do it.
3. Light your blowtorch and set it to max power.
4. Start searing the sides and flip the steak around to reach everywhere – that’s why I like blowtorch so much.
5. After you are done, let the steak rest for 2 minutes and season it with freshly ground black pepper for the aroma.
6. Cut across the grain and enjoy.

Caution: Please be careful with blowtorch – open fire is a dangerous thing.

SteakEat Tip: For this blowtorch trick to work, you’ll need a powerful, professional torch – creme brulee versions won’t work.

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How to sous vide rib eye steak without immersion circulator, suing simple tools?

I hope this guide was helpful. 🙂

Happy Steaks!

SteakEat

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