I sear my steaks to add that wonderful slightly crusty grilled, caramelized, and nutty additional flavor to my meat that is so hard to get even in some fine restaurants. To me, I do not need any additional spices, marinades, or sauces for my steaks. Sea salt and a great sear is all that is required for a fine steak.
I like to start with either a boneless ribeye or strip steak and I like to cut my own to get them at least 1/1/4” to 1-3/4”thick for the best results. I prefer choice or above graded piece of meat if I can find it.
To prep the meat, I take it out of the fridge and wipe it dry with paper towels and place it on a cooling rack to dry and warm up for about 40 minutes. The rack lets air under the meat so any moisture doesn’t puddle under the meat. I usually turn the meat over and wipe it off a couple of times during this 40 minute warm up period as I want the surface dry as moisture is your enemy for a proper sear.
I will be searing these steaks in my Green Mountain Davy Crockett pellet grill and this is how I have it setup for this treat.
I take the two cooking grids out, then both of the “Open Flame Technology Plates” out of the grill. I do leave the diffuser plate in the grill as it is a good base for my black iron griddle. I then place my 10” round Lodge griddle on top of the diffuser plate.
The best temp for searing is about 350 to 500 degrees and to get this on this little cooker and my setup, I find that setting the cooker temp to 375 degrees will produce a griddle surface temp of about 425-450 degrees which is perfect for my steaks.
Since there is such a thin line between searing and charring a steak and charring is not very safe, I finish my prep by sprinkling on a pretty heavy coat of sea salt just before the meat goes on to the griddle. Any other seasonings can burn or give an off taste to my meat.
I place the steak on one side of my griddle and sear it for about 2-3 minutes until it naturally releases from the griddle surface and I turn it over on an unused part of the griddle to finish to cook.
Before starting my second steak, I wipe the griddle off of any remaining moisture from the first steak and then sear the second steak.
I cook my steaks to rare or medium rare and do not need this additional step but if the steak is not done to your liking during the 4-6 minute total searing time, you can add the grid back over the top of the setup to finish your steak.
After a 10 minute rest, these are my seared, browned, and caramelized steaks cooked to slightly over rare and ready for the plate.
Anyway, that is the way I like to roll with steaks on my little Davy Crockett tailgate pellet cooker.
