Sous Vide Steak

I will be the first to admit that I was very skeptical of sous vide cooking. For those not familiar with this method, you basically cook a piece of food in a vacuum sealed plastic bag in low temperature water for a long period of time, which both cooks food evenly at a perfect level of doneness and retains juice and flavor. The whole thing always seemed like a lot work and extra equipment I didn’t have time or room in my kitchen for. But, sous vide machines nowadays are sleeker, smaller and technologically savvy. The machine itself is a small stick that you can place in a container or pot that you already have. You do need special equipment in addition to the sous vide machine itself — sous vide bags and a vacuum pump. There are plenty of options on Amazon, but these are the ones I used. I use a Joule and it syncs up to an app on your phone so once you place the food in water, the app calculates the time required (depending on what you’re cooking) and keeps a timer for you. In full disclosure, Joule sent me this machine, but I absolutely fell in love with it– I don’t think I’ve ever cooked this much steak. Each steak just consistently turned out so juicy, tender and evenly cooked. I couldn’t believe I went this long without sous vide! And it’s a very forgiving method of cooking– you really can’t F this up. I am a total sous vide convert and today I’m sharing with you how to sous vide a ribeye steak. Some people have recipes that add aromatics or seasoning to the steak in the cooking process but I love just a simple salt and pepper (and truly, you don’t need anything else when you’re using this cooking method) and different condiments and sauces like fresh horseradish, sesame oil, something spicy like Crunch Dynasty or yuzu kosho— hands down my favorite condiment to eat with steak!

Sous Vide Steak

Make the perfect steak with sous vide.

Servings: 1 person

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1 1/2 to 2 pound ribeye bone-in steak (frenched, optional)
• grapeseed or vegetable oil
• kosher or sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• flake sea salt
• 1 piece fresh horseradish (condiment)
• sesame oil (condiment)
• yuzu kosho (condiment)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Season both sides of the steak generously with kosher salt and pepper.
2. Place the steak in the plastic sous vide bag and seal the bag with the vacuum sealer.
3. Place the steak in a container of water or pot of water. Turn on your sous vide machine and place it in the pot of water so it is fully submerged. The app will time the cook time for you for based on weight of the steak. If your machine doesn't automate this, use the chart in the link below under "Notes"
4. Remove the steak after it is finished cooking and pat dry with paper towels.
5. Place a cast iron skillet on your grill, close the lid and preheat a grill with all burners on high for 15 minutes or until the grill is extremely hot. You can also sear your steak on a stove top but it gets pretty smokey, hot and messy so I prefer to use my grill. The grill also gets much hotter than your cooktop.
6. Sprinkle a little flake salt and pepper on the steak. Open the lid and quickly pour a couple tablespoons of oil in the skillet and immediately place the steak on the skillet. Cook each side for 1-2 minutes until a deep brown sear forms. Using tongs sear the outside edge of the steak as well.
7. Transfer to a cutting board and slice. Serve with the various condiments-- grated horseradish, sesame oil, flake sea salt and yuzu kosho.

NOTES

Sous vide cooking time chart

(images by HonestlyYUM)