Grant Crilly

Chimney charcoal starter

Charcoal

Charcoal grill

Spray bottle

10-inch Cast iron skillet

Digital instant-read thermometer

Unsalted butter

Ribeye steak(s)

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Rosemary

Bay leaf

Lemon

Flake sea salt

Skillet size: Before you begin cooking, check that both ribeyes can fit snugly in the skillet you’re using, preferably a 10-inch cast iron skillet. If the steaks are too large, find a pan just large enough to fit both together. If using a larger pan, you will need to use more butter.

Before we begin

Steak name: Ribeye
 
Category: Trophy
 
Also known as: Rib steak, Delmonico, côte de boeuf, entrecôte
 
Comes from (primal): Rib
 
Price: $$$$ 

Tenderness:🍴🍴🍴🍴

Flavor: 🥩🥩🥩🥩 
 
Serve temp: Medium

Ideal steak to ask for: Cut from chuck end, ribs 5 to 8
 
Ideal thickness: 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick
 
Ideal weight: 455 to 575 g; 1 to 1 1/4 pounds each

Ribeye at a glance

Watch Grant break down a boneless rib roast into ribeye steaks. Check out our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/cuts">Cuts catalog</a> to learn more about ribeye steaks and other beef cuts.

Ribeye butchery

Not all ribeyes are created equally. Steaks cut from the chuck end have a much bigger spinalis dorsi “cap” muscle. And there’s nothing more delicious than the rib cap, no cap. When picking out a steak at the butcher counter, ask for a ribeye cut from the chuck end, from ribs 5 through 8.

Selecting the best ribeye in the butcher case

Light a large chimney starter filled 3/4 of the way up with charcoal. When coals are lit and mostly covered with gray ash, spread evenly over 1/3 of coal grate to create a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/two-zone-grilling-guide">two-zone grilling setup</a> with a large cool zone. Set grill grate in place, cover grill, and open lid vents completely. Heat for 5 minutes. Once grill is hot, remove lid and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tips-tricks-season-your-grill-so-food-won-t-stick">clean and oil grill grate</a>.

Set up a workstation next to the grill with all of the tools you will need and mise en place.

Prepare two-zone grill

Setting up your grill with a large cool zone is important for this technique.

The cool zone needs to be able to accommodate the cast iron pan with melted butter, which is where the steaks will finish gently coming up to temperature. You’ll also need room for the steaks themselves during the searing stage, whenever you need to move them from the hot zone of the grill to avoid flare-ups.

If your cool zone is too small, not only will you struggle to find space to rest the steaks during flare-ups, the temperature of the butter in the cast iron pan will be harder to control.

A larger cool zone

In a 10-inch cast iron pan, melt butter on the cool side of the grill, adjusting pan position as needed to ensure butter doesn’t boil.

Melt butter

While butter is melting, season steaks evenly on all sides with salt and pepper. Place steaks on grill grate directly over coals on hot side of the grill and cook, flipping, rotating, and moving steaks frequently until well-charred on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes. Throughout the searing process, move steaks between hot and cool zone of grill as needed to mitigate flare-ups.

Sear ribeyes on hot side

Flames licking up over steaks on a hot grill may look cool, but flare-ups can and will coat pricey, beautiful ribeyes in bitter-tasting soot.

Flare-ups are cause by rendered fat from the steaks dripping onto hot coals. The best way to manage them is to remove the steaks from the hot zone of the grill and wait for the flames to die down, but <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tips-tricks-control-flare-ups-for-better-grilled-meats">a spray bottle of water also helps</a>.

If you do experience some bad flare-ups that result in soot-covered steaks that are still near-raw, don’t panic. Give the steaks a quick rinse under warm running water to remove the soot. Sounds weird, but it works! Pat the steaks dry with paper towels and get them back on the grill. 
 
{activity:5ufWf2uibEQWvGBrHDZV9s}

Control flame flare-ups on your grill with this simple tip.

Tips & Tricks: Control Flare-Ups for Better Grilled Meats

How to manage flare-ups (and get rid of soot).

Transfer steaks to pan of melted butter along with rosemary and bay leaves, nestling the steaks so that they are mostly submerged in butter. Place a probe thermometer under the steaks to monitor the butter temperature.

Continue to cook on cool side of grill, flipping and rotating steaks in pan several times and adjusting position of cast iron pan as needed to keep butter temperature at or below [f 160], until thickest part of steaks registers target pull temperature on an instant-read thermometer, 20 to 30 minutes.

Squeeze lemon over steaks and add lemon pieces to pan. Remove from heat.

Pull temperatures:
 
[f 120]: Rare
 
[f 130]: Medium-rare
 
[f 140]: Medium (our favorite)

Finish steaks in warm butter on cool side

Once the steaks reach your preferred doneness, you can pull the pan off the grill, and the steaks will stay warm and ready for service for up to 30 minutes.

However, if you can dial in the temperature of the butter to your pull temperature, the steaks can rest in the butter for a much longer time, and they’ll only get more tender (sort of like melted butter sous vide). This is easier to do with a probe thermometer placed under the steaks.

Keeping the steaks warm

Transfer steaks to cutting board along with herbs and lemon pieces. Using a sharp knife, separate the ribeye cap from the ribeye, and slice steak against the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Return steak to cast iron pan. Strip rosemary leaves from stems, and sprinkle over steak. Nestle lemon pieces back in pan, and sprinkle steaks with sea salt (if using). Serve.

Slice and serve

Grilled ribeye is best served immediately. Steak can be cooked through Step 4 and held in warm butter off-heat for 30 minutes, or up to 1 hour if you can hold butter temperature at your target steak pull temperature.

Make-ahead and storage

The ribeye is one of the most desirable “trophy” steak cuts, with its ample amount of intramuscular fat and two tender and beefy muscle groups, the longissimus dorsi (the “eye” of the ribeye) and the spinalis dorsi (the “ribeye cap”). Since it’s such a rich cut, it tastes amazing when given a nice char on the grill. However, its fattiness makes grilling tough—all that fat causes flare-ups as it renders, and you don’t want a beautiful char to be marred by the taste of burnt soot. This technique maximizes the utility of a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/two-zone-grilling-guide">two-zone grilling setup</a>. Frequently moving the steak around on the hot zone of the grill gives you great charring without uncontrollable flare-ups. Once charred, the steak is slowly brought up to serving temperature in a just-warm butter bath set up in a cast iron skillet on the cool zone of the grill, which gives you precision control over doneness. A scattering of herbs and big squeeze of lemon juice adds brightness to the perfectly cooked, perfectly charred steak.

Grilled and Butter-Rested Ribeye Steak