Make No ‘Mis-Steak’ – Primal Grill

More thrilling grilling adventures with Steven Raichlen. Find out how to grill the perfect steak, from selecting the right cut to the ideal seasoning.

Credited with reinventing American Barbecue, Raichlen’s teaching style both entertains and educates viewers. From basic charcoal grills to today’s extravagant outdoor kitchens, Steven Raichlen covers all the bases to build confidence and talent at the grill.

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– Korean sesame grilled ribeyes. This is an Asian barbecue treasure. Plate-burying Tubac T-bones, a steak that explodes with flavor. And a sizzling Argentinian filet mignon with chimichurri sauce. A global adventure with an All-American favorite, steak. I’m Steven Raichlen, and from the Tubac Golf Resort in Southern Arizona, it’s time to grill. People may dream of smoking whole hogs, but admit it. What you really want to know is how to grill the perfect steak. Well, today I’m gonna show you the secret of picking the right cut, applying the right rub, and setting up your grill. Make no mistake about it. It’s all about steak.

The idea of a Tubac T-bone was to recreate this incredible Tuscan experience using the flavors of Arizona. Thinly sliced jalapeno chilis, chopped fresh cilantro, thinly sliced garlic, fried in olive oil in a cast iron American skillet and then poured over this crustily grilled steak. First up one deck, a Tubac T-bone inspired

By the classic Tuscan bistecca alla fiorentina, with a Southwestern twist. The T-bone is actually two steaks in one, a meaty, richly flavored New York strip, and a tender filet mignon connected by a T-shaped bone. And I’ve selected steaks that are cut about an inch and a quarter thick.

Next step is to make the rub. It starts with ancho chili powder, add dried oregano, ground cumin, garlic powder, mustard powder, and salt, and mix the ingredients with your fingers to break up any lumps. And what do you notice about this rub? It contains not a wit of sugar.

Now sprinkle the rub on the T-bones on both sides. Steak brings out the inner caveman and all of us. You know, you take a slab of red meat and you throw it on the fire. It’s grilling at its best and its most primal. To generate some smoke flavor, we’ll open this smoker box,

Add some soaked mesquite chips. And as always before putting the steaks on, brush and oil your grill grate, and here’s a neat trick for oiling a grate. It’s a chunk of beef fat. We’re working over a very hot fire here. One Mississippi, ouch. That’s what you need to sear in the grill marks. So put the steaks on the grill. So how do you lay on that handsome crosshatch of grill marks, which is the signature of any master griller? We’ll arrange the steaks on the grill,

Running on the diagonal to the bars of the grate, then give each steak a quarter turn after two minutes. Now another secret to grilling the perfect steak is to leave yourself a safety zone. Don’t overcrowd the grill. That way if you get bad flareups, you can move the steak to a calmer part of the grill. So after four minutes, turn the steaks. And check out those grill marks.

Now while the steaks are grilling on this side, let me show you how to test for doneness. I call it the four finger thermometer at the end of your hands. Touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your index finger and feel the pad

Of flesh at the base of your thumb. In a rare steak it will feel soft and squishy. Now move your thumb over to your middle finger and feel that pad. It’s a little firmer. That is the feel of a medium rare steak. Move it over again to your ring finger.

That pad is quite firm with just the gentlest resistance. That corresponds to a medium steak. Finally, move your finger over to your baby finger. That is the feel of a well done steak. That’s not something you ever want to do, folks. And don’t forget to crosshatch the grill marks

On the bottom of the steak. So to do so again, give each steak a quarter turn, and you see I’ve moved away from the center zone to dodge some of those flareups. I cannot stress the importance enough of not overcrowding your grill. Well, what I look for in a good steak is a crisp, savory crust and a really moist interior. I like my steak a little on the rare side of medium rare. What I like about a steak is its utter simplicity. It’s just about the meat and about the fire.

So give the steak the poke test. It feels like a perfect medium rare, but to play it safe, you can check using an instant read meat thermometer. Don’t insert it in the meat this way. Insert it this way through the side of the steak. What you want is about 130 to 135 degrees.

Remember the steak is going to continue to cook after you take it off the grill. Okay, so these guys are ready. That. And man does that look inviting. Meanwhile, let me show you how to make the Tubac topping. Now another nice feature on a grill is a gas side burner.

I’ve preheated a cast iron skillet, and add about a quarter of a cup of extra virgin olive oil. Then add thinly sliced garlic, thinly sliced jalapeno chilis, fresh of course, and chopped fresh cilantro. Now cook these ingredients together until fragrant and golden-brown. So with the steak you can serve some grilled corn and grilled jalapeno chilis. And our Arizona hellfire is ready. Pour the sizzling garlic and jalapenos over the T-bones.

Tubac T-bone, a steak that explodes with flavor. Let’s see how we did. Beautiful medium rare. Mm. Korean barbecue is really fun to eat. You don’t just get a steak on your plate that you cut into it with a knife and fork. There are probably a half dozen

To a dozen different kinds of kimchis, pickles. There’s a bowl of rice. There might be a little kebab of grilled garlic cloves, or maybe grilled scallions. And you put all of these ingredients together on a romaine lettuce leaf. Talk about flavor. It’s like 4th of July fireworks going off in your mouth.

Bool kogi is a Korean barbecue treasure, a ribeye steak marinated candy sweet in sugar, garlic, and soy sauce. In the US we like our steaks big. The bigger the better. This one proves the old adage, you can never be too rich or too thin. First the steaks.

These are ribeyes, which I asked my butcher to cut one quarter inch thin on a meat slicer. Next the marinade. It starts with soy sauce, chopped fresh scallion, sugar for sweetness, rice wine, sesame oil, which is a very distinctive Korean ingredient, eight cloves of thinly sliced garlic, sesame seeds, and black pepper.

Whisk the ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved. Then pour a third of the marinade into the baking dish. Arrange the steaks on top. And pour the remaining marinade on top. Because these steaks are so thin, they only need one to two hours for marinating. Please remember to marinate them in the refrigerator.

And this is what the steaks look like when they’re ready. Now, two more quick preparations, folks. First the Asian pear dipping sauce. This is an Asian pear, and it’s both sweet pear-like and it has a really nice crunch to it. So one diced Asian pear to this add finely chopped scallion,

Then granulated sugar, rice wine or sherry, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Whisk these ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved. And last of all, a couple of vegetables to throw on the grill. Trimmed scallions and garlic cloves skewered on a tooth pick. We’ll cook the bool kogi on an Asian grill called a hibachi. And this one has a couple of interesting features. A load chute that opens in the front to allow you to add more charcoal, and a damper. The more you open the damper, the higher the heat will be.

First, put the vegetables on the grill. They are fine served at room temperature, whereas the steak should come off sizzling hot. Next, put the steaks on the grill. These only need a couple minutes per side, so don’t forget to turn our garlic cloves and scallions, and our bool kogi steaks. Mm, look at that. You know, folks, they tend to cook a little faster in the center, so don’t be afraid to move the steaks around. The meat is cooked over hot coals and in Korea they always use live charcoal. So what happens is you sort of caramelize the sugar and the soy sauce and the meat acquires almost like a candy crispness. Now, another thing I like about Korean grilling

Is that it’s a very healthy way to eat meat. All the bool kogi ingredients are done. First, take off the garlic and scallions. Then take off the steaks. And here are the ribeyes. Now let me show you how to put this together. First, take a romaine lettuce leaf

And spread it with Korean hot sauce. Then a clove of grilled garlic, a couple of grilled stallions. Grab a steak, and cut it into thin slivers. Place the steak on the lettuce leaves and roll the whole shebang up like a wrap. Then dip it into the Asian pear dipping sauce. Mm. It’s the steak version of health food. As a rule, Argentinians like their meats very simply grilled, but they have one sauce that appears everywhere in Argentina and it’s explosively flavorful. And it solves a very interesting problem. It’s called chimichurri and it’s made by pureeing vampire-defying doses of garlic with chopped fresh parsley,

Olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Whenever Argentinians fire up the grill, you can be sure that steak will be on the menu. Here’s the most tender steak of all, filet mignon. Today it’s prepared gaucho style with a double blast of flavor, a dry chimichurri rub and a fresh chimichurri sauce.

It’s all about the beef on the Primal Grill. First up, the rub. Combine coarse sea salt, cracked or freshly ground black peppercorns, dried oregano, hot pepper flakes, and garlic powder. Mix the ingredients with your fingers, breaking up any lumps. Sprinkle the rub on the filet mignons on both sides. Next up, the sauce. Traditionally, chimichurri is made with flat-leaf parsley. I like to boost the flavor with chopped fresh mint and chopped fresh cilantro. Next, add about four cloves of finely chopped garlic, hot pepper flakes. And salt and pepper to taste. Puree these ingredients in a food processor, adding distilled white vinegar,

A little water, and extra virgin olive oil. Don’t forget to taste the chimichurri for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste. That fresh mint is really nice. Now let me show you two traditional vegetable accompaniments to Argentinian barbecue. The first is grilled eggplant. Start with eggplant slices cut about one half inch thick.

Brush both sides with extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and the other half with sweet paprika. And of course, do the other side the same way. Finally, red bell peppers. Simply brush them on all sides. I have always grilled, and when I used to live in Boston, I would chip the ice off of my grill in February and go out and grill.

But it wasn’t really until I started doing research for my first barbecue book and I started traveling around the world to see how people grilled in other countries that I really came to appreciate the incredible versatility of grilling and broad range of flavors. Argentinians love to grill over wood, which brings me

To this cool wood-burning grill. Now, the way it works is simple. You build a fire in the open fire box, and in the style of Argentina I’m using, oh, now a couple other neat features about this grill. You control the heat by raising or lowering the grate using this flywheel.

The grill grates themselves are these V-shaped channels which funnel the fat into the drip pan. And as always, we start with a hot grill. We clean it with a stiff wire brush, and in Argentina you’ll actually watch guys dip their grill brushes in a bucket of salt water. Then using an oiling cloth

Or a folded paper towel, oil the bars of the grate. First, put on the peppers. And I always like to start by grilling the vegetables. Vegetables are much more forgiving in terms of split second timing than meat. Next, put on the eggplant. And notice I line up the vegetables with soldierly precision. Not only does this look more professional,

It helps the vegetables cook more evenly. Finally, put on the filet mignons. Cooking time for the steaks, about four minutes per side. It’s funny. When I was growing up my mother was the primary grill master in the family and she was a very impetuous person.

She was a ballet dancer, and when she made steak she would light our grill with charcoal and gasoline. She’d take a thick steak and it would spend about enough time on the grill for the outside to become charred black as coal and the inside was just barely shy of mooing.

It’s a method called Pittsburgh rare. So what’s the advantage of grilling over wood? Well, of course there’s the high dry heat that’s perfect for searing the meat, but the wood also imparts a delicate smoke flavor. It’s different than the heavy smoke flavor you find in Kansas City or the American South.

It’s a light smoke flavor and it’s just perfect for beef. You wanna grill the peppers until browned on all sides, and you can see if they’re cooking a little hotter in the back. Don’t be afraid to rotate them to the front. Remember, grilling is an interactive sport. Likewise, turn the eggplants.

When the filet mignons are browned on one side, turn them over and grill on the other. The aroma of the oak smoke is absolutely terrific. So the filet mignons are done. Transfer them to a platter. And now the vegetables. And you can spoon the chimichurri sauce on either side of the filet mignons. Gaucho grilled filet mignons with chimichurri, grilled eggplant, and grilled peppers. It’s an Argentinian tradition. Take a couple of eggplants. If you eat with your eyes, this dish is a feast of color. Mm. The meat is nice and rare, and you know what? The fresh herbs in the chimichurri sauce

Counteract the pungency of the garlic. So there you have it. Tubac T-bone, Korean bool kogi, Argentinian grilled filet mignon. Now you know the secrets of grilling the perfect steak. See you next time. Mm. The chimichurri sauce itself came from another part of Argentina where grill masters combine flat-leaf parsley,

Fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar. My version actually delivers a two punch of flavor. You get the hot pepper and oregano from the dry rub, and then you get this wonderful garlicy parsley sauce that goes on top.