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Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains

Pan-seared strip steak with brown butter

59

New York strip seared hard in a preheated cast-iron pan, then sliced and dressed with butter cooked in the same pan until it smells of toasted hazelnuts. Twenty-five minutes, one pan and no sauce to make beyond the butter itself.

Time
25 min (5 prep + 20 cook)
Servings
2
Per serving
581 kcal
Protein
64 g

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat a heavy cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for a full 5 minutes. Meanwhile, trim the outer fat on the steaks to about 1/8 inch and pat them very dry with paper towel.
  2. Salt the steaks on all sides just before they go in. Add the tallow to the pan and, when it shimmers, lay in the steaks, leaving space between them.
  3. Leave them alone for 4 minutes, until a deep brown crust has formed. Turn and cook 3–4 minutes more. Hold each one on its fat edge with tongs for about a minute, then check the thickest part: it should read 125°F for rosy medium-rare or 135°F for medium; the USDA's safe minimum for beef steaks is 145°F after a 3-minute rest. Move the steaks to a board and let them rest for 5 minutes.
  4. Pour the fat out of the pan and keep the brown bits. Set the pan over medium heat and add the butter. Swirl it for 2–3 minutes as it foams and then quiets down, until the specks on the bottom turn hazelnut-brown and it smells toasty. Take the pan off the heat right away and stir in the pepper.
  5. Slice the steaks against the grain, about 1/2 inch thick, and pour the brown butter over them, along with the juices from the board.

Good to know

Can I use a leaner cut?

Yes. Top sirloin sears the same way and is a little leaner still, at about 66 instead of 59. It has no fat edge to crisp, so skip that part.

I have an hour to spare. Should I salt ahead?

Yes: salt the steaks at least an hour ahead and leave them uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Salting too close to cooking is the one timing to avoid: salt them either right before the pan or at least an hour earlier, because after a few minutes the surface is wet with drawn-out juices.

What if I am not strict carnivore?

A squeeze of lemon into the brown butter, off the heat, sharpens it nicely.

Per

Calories
245
Protein
(45%)
27 g
Fat
(55%)
14 g
Carbohydrates
(0%)
<1 g
of which sugar
<1 g
Fiber
<1 g
Sodium
589 mg

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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How

As written, 1161 kcal goes into the pot and 644 g of ingredients comes out as about 473 g of food: 245 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.