How to Sous Vide Top Sirloin Steak in Dutch Oven

Last Updated on September 8, 2015 by SteakEat

[nextpage title=”Page 1″ ]

Here I explain how to sous vide top sirloin steak without immersion circulator.

Is it possible to practically not pay attention to steak cooking process and still get an amazingly delicious, succulent and tender piece of red meat?

If you don’t believe in that, try sous vide.

The idea behind this cooking technique is quite simple.

Grab a steak, seal in a vacuum food-safe plastic bag, drop it into a preheated water bath and keep it there for an hour or so.

Once ready, sear the steak to develop browning and you are ready to enjoy.

Now, let’s look at the process: temperature, cooking times and so on…are all included.

Contents:

• Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Tools for Sirloin Sous Vide
• Part 2: Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak in 5 Simple Steps

[wpanchor id=”1″]

Part 1: Cooking Ingredients & Tools for Sirloin Sous Vide

The idea is to explain the METHOD, so I am using a simple salt-n-pepper recipe:

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

And the following tools:

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

Now that we are ready, let’s SteakEat!

[wpanchor id=”2″]

Part 2: Sous Vide Top Sirloin Steak in 5 Simple Steps

Since we are not using immersion circulator, the process will be a bit trickier, but…it’s totally doable.

Let’s get right to it.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”vertical-curve-both” width=”autopx” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Step 1: Prepare Dutch Oven

Pour enough water into Dutch oven – anywhere between 1/2 and 2/3 is perfect.

Set the candy or oil thermometer so that it shows water temperature inside the Dutch oven – there is often a handy clip, which you can use to attach it to the Dutch oven.

Note that you need water to touch, at least, its bottom part.

Once that’s ready, start heating up the water .

I recommend using the actual oven, because it is oftentimes easier to set and control temperature inside it (especially electric, digital ones).

[/dropshadowbox]

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”vertical-curve-both” width=”autopx” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Step 2: Sous Vide Sirloin Steak Temperature

The water temperature must be equal to the steak’s doneness level you are looking to achieve.

So, if you are medium-rare fan, go for 55C / 130F water temperature .

For rare and medium doneness, shoot for 50C / 122F and 60C / 140F respectively.

[/dropshadowbox]

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”vertical-curve-both” width=”autopx” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Step 3: Prepare the Steak

All you need now is to take your top sirloin, place it inside the food-safe plastic* bag and seal it, letting all the air out.

We won’t be using any salt or pepper now. Salt will dry out the surface and take the juices from the steak, while pepper will burn at a later stage, when we’ll be searing our sirloin to develop the browning we’d like to have.

—

* One of the best options is freezer bags. However they are still made of plastic, which causes health concerns… At this stage sous vide community agrees that reusable silicon bags is the way to go.

Advertisement:

[/dropshadowbox]

[/nextpage]

[nextpage title=”Part 2″ ]

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”vertical-curve-both” width=”autopx” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

This is Page of the ‘How to Sous Vide Flat Iron Steak’ guide. Click to Page 1.

Step 4: Sous Vide Sirloin Cooking Times

As a rule of thumb, we cook all steaks up to 1-inch for 60 minutes.

However, in case you need more precision, here are the minimum cooking times listed, depending on your top sirloin’ thickness:

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

Note that you can’t overcook your steak, even if you leave it for 4 hours, as long as the temperature inside the Dutch oven is not changed from the one you set it to.

That’s why you don’t really need to control anything and can just leave and do other things, however…

Truth be said, it is quite tricky (and risky) to live your oven/stove running while you are not there.

This is why I recommend you either get a sous vide minioven or an immersion calculator like this. They are much safer and easier to use than our DIY sous vide technique. 🙂

[/dropshadowbox]

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”vertical-curve-both” width=”autopx” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Step 5: Get the Surface Browned

As soon as the time runs out, take your steak out from the Dutch oven and open up the plastic bag.

All we have to do now is to sear the surface, so it has that browning (i.e. flavor) ready for you to enjoy.

I like prefer blow torch, but using a standard pan-searing technique will do just as fine.

Let’s start with it first.

How to Sear Top Sirloin Steak After Sous Vide Cooking Using Pan

1. Pat dry your steak with paper towels and season it with kosher salt – still no need for pepper.
2. Add the teaspoon of ghee/coconut oil and start heating up the skillet to high heat.
3. Once you notice gentle fumes taking off the skillet’s surface, count till 20 and put the steak inside – this way we can guarantee that the skillet is hot enough to actually sear the meat.
4. Sear the steak for 1 minute per side.
5. Transfer it on to a cutting board or a plate to rest for 3-5 minutes – now is the time to add freshly ground black pepper.
6. Then cut and serve!

Pro Tip: Once you are 30 seconds away from finishing to sear the second side, add the tablespoon of organic grass-fed butter to help develop super rich flavor and even more surface browning.

How to Sear Top Sirloin Steak With Blow Torch

1. Pat dry sirloin top sirloin with paper towels and season it with flaked kosher salt – I recommend 2-3 pinches per side.
2. Light up your blow torch and go around the whole cut, searing its sides until you see the browning developing.
3. Repeat for all the sides, turning steak around.
4. Add freshly ground black pepper on the surface and let the top sirloin rest for 2-3 minutes.
5. Cut & serve!

Caution: Blow torch is not a toy and can be quite dangerous – be careful when using open fire.

Also note that typical creme brulee blow torch is not the same as a pro torch and won’t have enough power to develop that browning.

[/dropshadowbox]

How to sous vide top sirloin steak in Dutch oven?

Now you know. 🙂

Happy Steaks!

SteakEat

[/nextpage]