How To Cook Steak On Stove & Finish It In The Oven

Last Updated on December 4, 2018 by SteakEat

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This guide explain how to cook steak on stove & finish it in oven to medium-rare level of doneness.

The awesomeness of this method  is hard to overestimate.

It combines the best of two worlds – high heat searing for browning purposes and low, gentle oven heat for finishing the steak.

It is especially good for thicker steak cuts, because they are especially prone to burning when being cooked on stove top only.

Contents:

• Part 1: Necessary Ingredients & Tool
• Part 2: Cooking Steak on Stove & Oven in 8 Steps

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Part 1: Necessary Ingredients & Tool

The purpose off this manual is to explain the actual cooking METHOD, so the recipe is nothing but salt and pepper.

Here is what you need:

• 230g / 8oz 1-inch thick steak (any will do)
• 1 tbsp ghee/coconut oil
• Kosher/flaked salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

And the tools:

• Thick-walled heavy skillet (forged aluminum is great for its non-stickiness)
• Paper towel
• Tongs
• Instant-read meat probe (or an oven-safe meat thermometer)
• Oven tray (optional, if you have an oven-safe frying pan)
• Tin foil (optional)

Once you are ready…let’s SteakEat! 😉

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Part 2: Cooking Steak on Stove & Oven in 8 Steps

Before we dive into the process, I want you to know that…

It can be a bit complicated and you might end up with something you didn’t want (happened to me many times), but don’t feel bad – it’s totally normal.

So keep practicing and it will work out! 🙂

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1. Warm the Steak Up

Cooking process always start with this step – get the steak out from the fridge 40 minutes in advance.

Steak requires this time to get to the room temperature and we need this for two reasons:

1. It helps the surface browning to develop much better.
2. The cooking itself is more even.

If you have a massive steak (or even roast), it will need even more time – up to 2 hours.

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SteakEat Tip:

If you are like me, you wont have these 40 minutes very often.

That’s why I tend to put the steak on to a microwave-safe dish and warm it up in the microwave on the lowest power setting (not defrost though).

Get the microwave running for 3-5 seconds and then flip the steak.

Repeat the cycle for 4-6 times and your steak will be warm enough in less than a minute.

Pay attention though – you don’t want to cook it there! 🙂

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2. Dry the Surface With Paper Towels

Use tapping motions – it works really well.

Remove all the excess moisture from the surface.

Got no paper towels?

You can try using one-layer tissues or even baking paper.

Avoid toilet paper, because it loves sticking to meat.

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3. Get the Oven Heating Up

Oven finishing is the stage #2 of our cooking process, but we need to prepare it now.

Set the temperature to  130C / 265F with the fan option (or 150C / 300F without the fan).

It might seem low and cooking will take a bit more time, but the slower we do it, the more flavor and tenderness stays inside the steak.

This temperature is the best of two worlds – fast enough and keeps most of the flavor inside the steak.

Also, if you are not using an oven-safe frying skillet, prepare the oven tray now.

Cover it with tin foil, because you’ll be transferring your steak on it later on (it helps cleaning).

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This is Page 2 of the ‘How to Cook Steak on Stove & in Oven’ guide. Click here for Page 1.

4. Add Salt but Not Pepper

Before we start heating up the skillet, we need to add Kosher/flaked salt.

I recommend 2-3 pinches per side as a rough guideline to begin with. It’s totally adjustable…

I don’t recommend adding pepper now, because it will burn at high heat (ground pepper burns especially good).

Seasoning ready? Next step…

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5. Skillet Searing the Sides

Set the stove top to maximum heat.

Now add the tablespoon of ghee/coconut oil inside the frying skillet and place it over the heated stove top.

Heating up the skillet to the appropriate temperature is super important.

If it’s not hot enough, your steak will boil (not sear).

If it’s too hot, it will burn setting off your fire alarm.

Once I have the oil added I wait for the light fumes to start lifting off the skillet’s surface.

I then count till 20 to make sure the skillet is really hot.

Then I carefully put the steak inside the skillet.

Gentle sizzling?

Everything is going right. 😉

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6. Searing & Browning the Sides

How long to sear the sides for?

This time we only need 1 minute per side.

This is enough to develop surface browning and we want to do it as quickly as possible in order to keep it tender and juicy.

So, use the meat tongs to flip the steak when cooking it on stove top and, once you have cooked it for 2 minutes in total, skip to the next step…

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7. Time to Oven Finish

Already two minutes? Good!

Now we transfer the steak right into the preheated oven, but before that – grab the meat probe and check the temperature inside the steak.

We are going for 55C / 130F. This is medium-rare doneness level (50C / 122F and 60C / 140F are rare and medium, respectively).

You’ll find that you are still quite a bit away from it…and that’s exactly what we need.

Now, take the steak (either in the same pan or in the tray you’ve prepared earlier) and put it inside the oven.

How long to bake it there for?

From my experience around 20-30 minutes, but I am not a substitute for your meat thermometer, so trust me not! 😉

I recommend you check it every once in a while, but don’t expect the temperature to jump up.

It’s a not-that-fast process…

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8. Season With Pepper, Rest & Cut the Steak

Once the reading shows medium-rare (i.e. 55C / 130F), take the steak out from the oven.

Season it with freshly ground pepper (finally) and cover with tin foil for 3-5 minutes.

This is the time it needs to rest in order to stabilize the temperature between the inside and the surface.

It’s a small trick to help keep the juices inside.

Finally, cut it!

Enjoy. You deserved it. 😉

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How to cook steak on stove and in oven to medium-rare doneness level?

You’ve seen the method…

Happy Steaks!

SteakEat

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