How One of NYC’s Best Chefs Cooks the Juiciest Steak

[upbeat music]

The perfect steak for me

has the beautiful golden brown crust on the outside,

perfectly seasoned, of course,

and then when you cut into it, just so juicy and tender.

Mm.

You don't need any fancy equipment.

You don't need a grill.

All you need is a pan and an oven.

All you gotta do is grab a piece of steak and start cooking.

I'm Fariyal Abdullahi, and today, I'm gonna teach you

how to cook the perfect steak in your kitchen.

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Honestly, the way we cook the steak at the restaurant

is not that different from how we're cooking it today.

As long as you have the foundation

of a quality piece of steak,

that's all that matters.

[relaxing ambient music]

So, today, we're gonna be cooking a ribeye.

Sure, you've heard of it.

It's one of the most popular pieces of the cow.

So, here's three reasons why the ribeye

is the perfect cut of steak to cook.

How tender the steak is.

It comes from the part of the cow

that does very little work.

Reason number two, all the marbling.

All these white squiggly lines that you see,

that's fat within the muscles.

And what happens when you cook the steak?

All that fat is getting cooked

and making the steak juicy from the inside.

I mean, come on.

And then reason number three,

this beautiful fat cap.

The fat cap is just more flavor.

It makes it extra rich and creamy.

Before we start seasoning,

just make sure you pat dry your steak.

You wanna get rid of any surface moisture.

Moisture is the enemy of flavor.

When you have moisture on the steak,

what happens when it hits that hot surface of the pan

is it creates steam,

and the steam acts as an invisible shield.

It doesn't allow it to get to the high temperature quickly,

and that high temperature is what gets you that crust

that gives you the extra flavor.

When you have prime steak,

you don't really need to do that much to it,

so for now, I'm just going to season it with salt.

We're gonna season it all around.

You're gonna have to be very generous with the salt,

especially with a thick piece of meat like this.

I like to get mine around two inches.

The thinner it is, the more likely you are to overcook it.

Seasoning from higher up ensures that you're seasoning

more evenly and then making sure

that you season every side of the steak.

Don't freak out.

Even this is not enough salt, 'cause guess what?

Once it's done cooking, we're gonna salt it even more.

The salt having made contact with the surface of the steak,

it's already starting to release the moisture.

So, we have a couple of options.

We can start to cook this immediately,

which is totally fine,

but ideally leaving it for 24 hours

to fully complete releasing all the moisture,

that will give you the best results.

Since I'm cooking it right away, I'm gonna go ahead

and season it with a black pepper now as well.

Whether you're seasoning with salt ahead of time or not,

you just wanna be sure to season with a black pepper

just at the moment where you're ready to cook.

So, all sides perfectly seasoned.

She's ready to go into a hot pan.

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So, it's really important that you're starting off

with a steak that's at room temperature and not cold.

The outside will burn before the internal temperature

of the steak is cooked

if you're starting off with a cold steak.

I'm cooking with a cast iron today.

I would say this is the gold standard.

It distributes heat evenly,

and that gives you an even cook on your steak.

I'm starting off with a really hot pan.

So, I have chef hands.

I'm not afraid to touch the really hot pan.

Another way of telling if the pan is ready to go

is you'll start to see some smoke rising from the pan.

You just want to cover just a base thin layer

to cover the pan.

Canola oil can withstand higher temperatures

of up to about 400 degrees before it starts to burn.

Whereas extra virgin olive oil,

its smoke point is around 325 degrees

before it starts to burn and go bad,

so you want that higher smoke point.

Once it starts to shimmer, that's when you add your steak.

It starts to make these little ribbons.

That's when you know it's ready to go.

[meat sizzling]

You hear that?

That is the sound of perfect searing.

I like to press it down because it helps ensure

you get an even crust across the entire steak.

With a cut this thick about two inches,

I'm gonna cook each side for two minutes,

and then I'm gonna finish the rest in the oven.

Ooh, that smells good!

Time to flip.

[meat sizzling]

You see that even, beautiful, we call it GBD,

golden brown delicious.

Beautiful, beautiful crust.

So, I'm going for medium rare.

That's the internal temperature about 135 degrees.

But once I pop it into the oven,

I'm gonna pull it at around 128 degrees

because you have to account for carryover cooking,

so you have to pull it out about five to seven degrees

before the temperature that you're going for.

Now, it's time to flip again.

[meat sizzling]

Another beautiful, beautiful crust.

So, now we're melting a little bit of the fat cap.

As delicious and buttery as the fat cap is,

you don't want too much of it

because no one wants to bite into pure fat.

Unless you do.

If that's your thing, go ahead.

We haven't skipped a single side.

Every single side needs that love.

I'm gonna turn the heat down just a smidge.

There's more oil in the pan now,

so I'm gonna get rid of some of it

and introduce the butter.

So, we're gonna baste it with butter, garlic, and thyme.

Just for pure deliciousness for about 60 seconds.

All this is for flavoring,

and you get a really nice crust when you're basting.

The thing I love about cooking steak is,

if you're having guests over,

as simple as it is, it can also be such a showstopper.

Everyone is always so impressed

when you cook them a perfect piece of steak.

I like to finish it in the oven because of the radiant heat,

so you're more likely to get an even cook on the steak

throughout the entire steak.

She's gorgeous, but she needs to go in the oven.

The steak is gonna cook 400 degrees

for about five to seven minutes.

All right.

Time to take her out.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and check the internal temperature

of the steak real quick with my digital thermometer.

Because I'm going for a medium rare steak,

I'm gonna pull it out at 128 degrees

because you want it to end up at around 135 degrees.

The reason you wanna let your steak rest

is because when you're cooking the steak,

because the muscles tense up,

all the juices concentrate to the center of that steak.

And what happens when you let it rest

is all the juices redistribute throughout the steak.

And now, while the steak is resting,

I'm gonna go ahead and make my hollandaise.

[relaxing ambient music]

We're gonna make our hollandaise.

Mother sauce, I think it's a perfect addition

to eating a steak.

It's just so rich and buttery and umami,

just complements all the flavors of the ribeye already.

This is a spice that I cannot live without.

Berbere is a spice that is used predominantly

in so many dishes in Ethiopia.

It has a nice little kick to it,

and when you add it to that hollandaise,

it just adds an extra layer of smokiness,

sweetness, all the allium flavor.

It's just gonna pair perfectly with the ribeye.

Traditionally, you make a hollandaise over a double broiler,

but in the kitchen, in the restaurant, the quickest,

easiest way to make a hollandaise is right in a blender.

It's almost a guaranteed way of not breaking it.

We're gonna add almost all of the ingredients,

except for the butter, into the blender.

We're gonna get it nice and blended.

And then I'm gonna add the fat in a very thin stream.

When you're creating a hollandaise,

you're making an emulsion.

In this instance,

we're trying to mix our fat, which is butter,

with our liquid, which is lemon juice.

Those two, they're not friends.

But when you bring in egg yolks,

there's a natural component in here called lecithin,

which acts as a binder.

It basically makes them friends.

It says, Hey, I know you guys don't like to hang out,

but it's okay, it's safe, it's safe.

We can hang out.

And as a secondary line of defense,

we add Dijon mustard

because that also acts as our emulsifier.

So, let's check the consistency.

In the culinary world,

there's a term we use for this called nappe.

You want it to coat the back of a spoon.

That's perfect.

Let's check for flavor.

Mm!

Mm.

That's perfect.

Hollandaise is done.

The steak has rested.

Now, I'm just gonna slice it up and serve it on a plate.

[relaxing ambient music]

You always wanna cut against the gradient

because it gives you a more tender chew.

And then I like to cut on a bias

'cause it gives you a larger surface area.

So, we got that perfect sear.

That crust is nice and golden brown.

It's a perfect medium rare, so it's still nice and juicy.

The moisture's all there.

You can never have too much sauce.

You want every bite of that steak to have some

of this delicious hollandaise.

So, you can just shingle the steak right on top.

And then just a little greenery.

A nice pop of color always makes you more curious

about what you're about to eat.

We're just gonna finish with a little bit of Maldon salt.

So, the finishing salt is just gonna give you

that initial pop of that salty flavor.

This steak looks perfect.

We got the beautiful crust on it

that has that golden brown delicious,

medium rare, just what I wanted.

It's juicy.

It looks tender.

My mouth is watering, I just wanna eat.

[lively music]

Oh my God. [laughs]

Oh my God.

It's seasoned perfectly.

Just the right amount of salt.

Black pepper.

It's so juicy.

And the hollandaise?

[Fariyal applauding]

Baby!

My mouth is watering, like you just wanna keep on eating.

It's such a craveable dish.

And you saw how simple it was.

There really was no fuss.

We seasoned it.

We seared it.

We rested it.

We sliced it.

That was it.

Coach says I need 120 grams of protein a day.

Guess what?

I'm eating steak all day, baby!

[lively music continues]