How to Grill a Steak (Indoors)

As promised, we're bringing you the meat this post. As some of you may know, we used to grill a lot. When we moved to New York City, we found that we were not affluent enough to afford outdoor space to continue these activities, nor were we impervious to carbon monoxide poisoning, so we had to figure out a new way.

The next post will be titled "How to Nap (In a Suitcase)"

After a few weeks of looking around, researching, and all that stuff, we settled on the cast-iron grill pan solution that we've mentioned a few times in previous posts. Our research led us to the Lodge cast-iron grill pan (referral link). We liked the combination of the short sides and the long handle, as well as the fact that it was pre-seasoned and so ready to go right out of the box. So far, the results have been pretty good!

Or... "How to Nap (On a Towel)"

Grilling a Steak (Indoors)
To grill a steak indoors, there are three important steps you must follow. 1)Pre-seasoning, 2) Cooking, 3) Resting. Notice that cooking is only 1/3 of the process!

Pre-seasoning
Let's start with pre seasoning. You'll want to pat down the steak with an ample amount of salt and let it rest for a few minutes. This draws out the juices and let's them mingle with whatever else you season the meat with. Additionally, letting it rest at room temperature makes the cooking process go more smoothly since you're cooking a warmer piece of meat.

Salting the steak. That's a T-Bone, kids, not for the faint of heart.

After you let it rest with salt, you can season with anything else you like, whether it's a barbecue rub, or just plain old pepper. We like just plain old pepper, but occasionally some lemon pepper or some rosemary is a nice touch as well.

Cooking
Next it's time to cook. Depending on the thickness of the steak, you can use just the grill pan, or you can combine the grill pan with the oven. Regardless of what thickness however, you'll want to season the grill pan with a touch of oil and then crank up the heat underneath it and let it get really really hot before you put the steak on.

Searing the steak over high heat will give you those nice grill marks, even indoors.

If the steak is less than an inch thick, you can use just the grill pan, cooking for a few minutes on each side until you're done. If it's bigger than that, pre-heat your oven to 350 while the grill pan is preheating. After searing the steak on one side for 2 - 4 minutes, flip the steak and then move the whole thing - grill pan and steak - into the oven and let it finish in there.

Resting
After the cooking has completed, it's not yet time to eat! This is invariably the hardest part of the process. You have a juicy, hot, lusciously good smelling cut of meat, ideally with beautiful grill marks running across it, and you just really want to eat it. We understand. But you have to let it rest, for about 10 minutes.

The last step is called "resting". This is how you do it.

What this does is it allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, providing an overall better taste and eating experience. It makes all the difference between a steak in which every bite is nice and juicy, and one in which the first cut results in spewing of juices, followed by dry bites.

The Result

So all in all it's a fairly simple process, but following these three steps will allow you to have delicious grilled steak even when you're indoors. Let us know if you have any questions or your own recommendations in the comments!

And dont forget to clean up when you're done!