Grilling Thick Steaks – The Reverse Sear

  4.8 – 7 reviews  • Steaks

One of my favorite French sweets is clafoutis, which can be made in only 10 minutes and is incredibly adaptable. The other day I gave it a go with blackberries and I loved the outcome!

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 35 mins
Additional Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 50 mins
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  1. 1 cup hickory wood chips, soaked
  2. 1 (2 1/2 pound) 2-inch-thick porterhouse steak, at room temperature
  3. sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  4. 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed

Instructions

  1. Place wood chips in the smoker box of your gas grill according to manufacturer’s instructions.
  2. Preheat one side of the grill to about 250 degrees F (121 degrees C).
  3. Season steak generously with sea salt and black pepper on both sides.
  4. Place steak on the cool side of the preheated grill. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads about 100 degrees F (37 degrees C), 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer steak to a plate. Brush with olive oil and cover with aluminum foil.
  5. Increase heat on the grill to 600 degrees F (315 degrees C) by turning both burners up to maximum.
  6. Return steak to the hot grill and cook until crust forms and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 125 degrees F (52 degrees C), about 3 minutes per side. Transfer steak to a clean plate. Cover with aluminum foil and let rest before serving, about 5 minutes.
  7. You can use a strip or rib-eye steak if preferred.
  8. This recipe produces a medium-rare steak. For rare, drop the meat’s temperature by 10 degrees F in step 6; for medium, raise by 10 degrees F.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 549 kcal
Carbohydrate 8 g
Cholesterol 141 mg
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Protein 42 g
Saturated Fat 13 g
Sodium 244 mg
Sugars 0 g
Fat 38 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Olivia Fuller
The 1st time I didn’t have any hickory wood chips. The recipe was perfect. I did this again with hickory wood chips and also charcoal. Use the two zone method. I used the cool side until a meat thermometer read 100f in the thickest part of the steak. Remove the steak and cover with foil while you crank up the heat adding more charcoal and soaked wood chips. When the heat is really hot, put the steaks on the grill until grill marks are heavy. Internal temperature should read 130f – 150f dependiing on how well you like your steak. ENJOY
Daniel Frazier
My steaks turned out great. These are the best steaks I’ve grilled in the last few years because of this recipe. However there seems to be a mistake. At the end of step 4 it says put the steaks in aluminum foil. Then in step 6 it says put them in aluminum foil again. Since they were already in aluminum foil at the start of step six I tried cooking them through step six in the aluminum foil which was not the intended approach I believe. So I took them out of tinfoil and repeated step six and my steak still turned out great.
Larry Barnes
I love this method of cooking thick steaks but usually use the oven to skillet method. I had two beautiful NY Strip Steaks that were prime and 2” thick. I decided to give this recipe a go. This method is a little unpredictable if yo do not know how your grill will heat. I started with two burners on low of a three burner grill…too hot. Turned off all but one burner and got it to 250 degrees. I also felt that taking the steaks off at the internal temp of 100 degrees was too low from my experience. I waited until they were 115 degrees, turned up two burners to high, rubbed the steaks in olive oil and seasoned them a bit more. By the time I put them on the grill to sear they were pushing 125 which is what I like to see. Seared them for 3 min a side and turned them on their side to render the fatty part. Let them rest 10 min and they were perfect!!! I used a remote temperature probe in one steak the whole time. I would have definitely overcooked them if I didn’t watch it.
Victoria Davis
Followed the instructions on a ceramic Kamado grill and it turned out excellent. Seared it at 400 + degrees but it was plenty hot and used a digital thermometer and probe to get to the correct temperatures in both stages of cooking.
Tammy Walters
I love thick steaks. My uncle (a classically trained chef) taught me this very method years and years ago. He added one thing though…keep turning the steak during the indirect portion of the cooking. Gets rid of that funky line that exists between the cooked meat and the uncooked. Then you do the high temp sear, let it rest a bit and dig in!
Donna Solis
Best steak I have ever grilled. Lots of compliments.
Cassie Watkins
OK…here goes! We are rebels. We didn’t follow this recipe EXACTLY. This is what we did, or should we say DID NOT do: 1.) We did not use a gas grill 2.) We used ribeye and not a porterhouse steak 3.) Our steaks were about 1″ thick and not 2″. Anyway…Believe it or not after all the DID NOTS…We DID use the method in this recipe and the hubs enjoyed the smoke infused flavor. My hubby did the grilling with me as supervisor 🙂 We started with the charcoal on one side of the grill. Got the coals nice and hot and added wood soaked chips in a makeshift pan formed out of foil tossed on top of the coals. Once the coals started smoking we put the steaks on the cool side of the grill. Grilled, covered, about 15 minutes (which was a little too long for 1″ steaks) until they reached 118 degrees. Oops, too long! Removed the chips/foil pan from the coals and tossed the steaks on until seared on one side, flipped to sear the other side. Approx. five minutes total searing time. Steaks were about 150 degrees when taken off. Since we only have a charcoal grill and I will use this method again I will reduce the original smoke time just a bit to make up for thinner steaks. Once done, they were still pink in the center and had a great smoke flavor but feel they were slightly overdone for our tastes. We generally like medium doneness and this turned out more like medium well. Next time I will keep a closer eye on the temp. There will be a next time though.

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top