While the Big Green Egg does low and slow and hot and fast, I think some people still find that grilling the perfect steak on the BGE can be a little daunting. Most people most likely started out on a different grill and worked up to a Big Green Egg, and had their previous grill tuned in for the perfect steak.
The egg is different because you will sear, and then close her down. Unlike other grills where you may go to direct to indirect after searing, the egg needs to be shut down while the meat “rests”. Essentially, you will sear and then roast the steak in your egg; which is the same way they will cook your steak at a nice restaurant.
Take a look at the guide below to help you determine what temperature your steak should reach! If you are wondering about what internal temperatures other proteins should meet, check out my BBQ Calculator! To determine what temperature your meat is at, I recommend using an internal read thermometer, such as Thermapen.
How To Grill The Perfect Steak on The Big Green Egg
Ingredients
I typically use a nice and thick dry aged New York Strip from Snake River Farms. They offer the best tasting steaks I have ever had and fortunately, ship directly to your door.
Instructions
Heat your egg to 600 degrees. Meanwhile, rub your steak with olive oil (to lock in moisture and adhere the spices), bourbon smoked sea salt, and ground bourbon smoked pepper.
Make sure your grill grates are well oiled so the meat will not stick.
Grill steaks on each side for 2 minutes. Next, shut the daisy wheel and bottom vent so no air can enter of escape, and let the steaks continue to roast in the grill for 4 minutes. You will have grilled the steaks a total of 8 minutes once you pull the steaks off the grill.
Pull the steaks off the grill and tent under foil for 10 minutes. Keep in mind that the steaks will continue to cook once they have been taken off the grill so go for a “sooner than later” approach when adjusting cook times for your thickness of steak. A steak has reached medium rare when the internal temp has reached 130 degrees. I recommend using an meat thermometer to check doneness.
How do you grill your perfect steak? Do you have a favorite rub or spice you use? Tell me about it! 🙂
Note, I paired this steak with crumbled blue cheese, grilled cherry tomatoes and arugula salad.
Notes
Times should be adjusted to thickness of your steak and preferred doneness. This timing is for a 1″ + New York Strip at Medium/medium rare. I recommend using the Thermapen to check internal temps as a full-proof method for measuring temperature.
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Damn that looks good Robyn!
For my steaks, it depends. For ribeyes, I like doing them direct like this.
For fillet and strip, I have grown to liking the reverse sear for the ultimate steak experience. Admittedly it’s a bit of a pain on the Egg, but it’s worth it.
Chris, how do you do the reverse sear on an egg? Do you just put all the charcoal to one side? I am a big fan of the reverse sear as well but do it on my weber. Interested to see how you do this method on the egg!
This steak looks awesome. Grand Western Steaks are the best. In my opinion it it hard to beat a steak cooked on the BGE.
After a lot of trial and error, I’m sold on making a blackened version using a cast iron griddle: Blackened Redemption.
Just steak, butter, salt, pepper, and heat. A little bleu cheese topping would be perfect.
I love cooking on cast iron. Such great flavor.
I must say Robyn, you really make that look strip look good! Thanks for using Grand Western Steaks!!!
Mike
Hi Robyn,
Thanks for the recipe. One mistake in the that nearly turned into disaster is that you list medium rare is 145. It’s 125. I was using my thermometer and the steak looked done at 125 and it was. Maybe even a little overdone! 145 would have no pink whatsoever.
Thanks for the info Sam. I’ll look into this. I usually shoot for 145 for a nice medium/medium rare but maybe I should look to 125 as a good starting point.
I actually reverse seared last night on my egg and my filets turned out perfect. Best steak I’ve ever made on my egg.
You’ll need some accessories. I have a large egg, a spider, a 13″ cast iron grid, and a plate setter.
In other places, I’ve seen people recommend stabilizing the egg at 250 and roasting with a temperature probe until your steak gets within 10 degrees of the final temperature.
I was more concerned with being able to rapidly get my egg into inferno mode, so I got a pretty good fire going to about 400 and then shut the vents down to where I’d normally do low and slow. It dropped to around 300 when I began roasting and didn’t get much below that.
I had the Spider in with the 13 cast iron sitting on it, putting it just above the coals.
I had the plate setter in legs up with the regular grate on top of that, so that the steaks were cooking indirect.
Once the steaks reach temperature, I took them off, and foiled them, then took out the regular grid and plate setter off and set the vents for inferno and waited 10 mins. Temps got up to 650 and then I seared for about a minute and a half on each side.
Only thing I would change is next time I would only sear a minute. My steak turned out closer to medium well than the medium I was aiming for, but it was still juicy and tender with a nice crust.
Winstonf- Reverse sear is the way to go!!! glad it turned out. We reverse sear everything.
Thanks Robyn and Winstonf–I tried Reverse Sear for the 1st time today on the BGE. I used Winstonf’s cooking method and I seared for only 1 minute and they were perfect The steaks had a great taste , a nice crust and juicy.
Just got a green egg at Christmas…have a plate setter….what’s a spider? Us there a recipe book anywhere for starters? Thanks…enjoyed reading your comments!
Maggie, a spider is this device you can put in where you also have to buy another grate to go with it so that you can get closer to the coals. I like to keep it simple. Sometimes people get very complicated with these! Put the steaks in to sear at high temp, close it up for the roasting. Depending on the thickness and heat of your egg, you could sear for less time. because the BGE uses a plate setter “indirect heat” is not the same as on other grills. When I do steak I do not use the plate setter on the egg. And keep in mind every time you open the grill you are letting heat out! Good luck!
Maggie- you may check out the egghead forum, lots of good info for you there! Congrats on your egg!