The Reverse Sear
All Recipes, Grate Techniques, Outdoor
Published Apr 30, 2019 | Last updated Feb 17, 2021
Directions
1Remove the piece of meat you have chosen from refrigeration. Remove any packaging and pat dry with paper towels removing as much moisture as possible from the surface of the meat.
2Rub or spray meat with vegetable oil so it has a fine coating.
3Season with salt and spices of your choice making sure to get a nice coating on all sides. Cover meat and let sit at room temperature.
4Preheat your grill or smoker to somewhere between 225°F and 240°F.
5Insert probe thermometer into the thickest section of the meat. Place meat on grill surface. Plug probe into thermometer unit.
6Place ambient temperature probe on grill making sure the probe is not touching the GrillGrates. Plug into thermometer unit. Close the lid of your cooker.
7Allow your piece of meat to come within 10 -15 degrees of your target temperature. If you're shooting for a nice medium cooked piece of beef you will want to remove the meat once the internal temperature gets close to 120°F.
8Once the meat is removed from the cooker go ahead and increase your heat to grilling temperatures. If using a pellet grill turn your controller to its highest setting. If using charcoal you will now be cooking directly over the coals. If using a gas grill you will want to see temperatures of at least 600°F and 700°F on your grills hood thermometer (the GrillGrate surface should be between 550°F and 600°F).
9Place the meat back on your GrillGrates turning occasionally. For a perfect medium cooked piece of beef remove from the grill once the internal temperature is between 130°F and 135°F.
10Remove from your grill and allow to rest for a moment before carving. We do not believe in long rest periods with beef. The longer it sits the softer the coveted crusty exterior will become. Any juice that comes out of the meat once you have cut it up, you can simply pour over the sliced up meat when you serve it.
Ingredients
1 large piece of meat (ribeye, pork roast, strip loin, tenderloin)
1 dual probe thermometer (we like the ET-732 from Maverick)
Look at the beautiful pink interior of this prime rib- the same shade from bumper to bumper!
There is an easy way to take this up a notch further. Use the GrillGrate with the flat side up as a plancha and you can get a better Maillard reaction on the meat.
And, per testing reported by Serious Eats and others, letting a piece of beef sit at room temperature doesn’t do much, you can cook it right out of the refrigerator.
Finally, reverse sear is probably the best way to cook a steak that is at least 1.5- inches thick.
We concur!
I do not understand how you are using the flat grill side. Is it for the searing finish or for the “baking” part of cooking the meat?
We are actually not using the flat side in this particular technique. However, as Robert Points out below, when you go back to do your final sear, you could use the flat side just to get a little more sear/char/crust than the rail side.