How to Cook Steak

June 7, 2023

by HelloFresh How to cook

A tender and juicy steak is the perfect delicacy all year round. When cooked right, you can guarantee that you and your guests will be left wanting more.

There are a few recommended guidelines to stick to when it comes to cooking the perfect steak – whichever cut of meat and method of cooking steak you choose. This is where this handy, step-by-step guide to cooking steak and steak cooking chart comes in.

What types of steak are available?

The most common cuts of steak are:

Sirloin – cut from the sirloin section, near the rear
Ribeye – cut from the centre of the rib section
Fillet – cut from the lower middle of the back
Rump – cut from the hindquarters

Beyond the most common cuts of steak, there is a world of delicious steaks on offer. Some of these cuts of steak include:

Strip / New York Strip – cut from the short loin
Tri-tip / Santa Maria Steak – cut from the bottom sirloin, near the rear
T-bone / Porterhouse – cut from the short loin, always sold on the bone
Tomahawk – cut from the fore rib with the entire rib bone left
Skirt – cut from the plate section of the belly
Flank – cut from the belly, but further back towards the rear
Hanger – cut from the plate or belly section
Denver – cut from the shoulder
Flat Iron / Feather – cut from the shoulder

What are the different doneness of steak?

Whether you prefer your steak rare, well done, or somewhere in-between, all different steak doneness can be achieved by altering the cooking time of a steak.

Rare steak
Rare steak has spent the least time cooking. It is red, shiny and very soft to touch.
Medium-rare steak
Medium-rare steak is deep red to pink, and soft and bouncy to touch.
Medium steak
Medium steak is pink in the middle, and firm to touch.
Medium-well done steak
Medium-well done steak is light pink in the middle, and firm to touch.
Well done steak
Well done steak has spent the most time cooking. It has no pink and is firm to touch.

Medium well-done T-bone steak

How to prepare a steak for cooking

Before you cook your steak, season the steak using extra virgin olive oil (around three tbsp per steak), ground black pepper and sea salt to add flavour. Before cooking, remove the steaks from your fridge to allow them to come up to room temperature. HelloFresh Recipe Development Manager, Mimi Morley, suggests that bringing meat to room temperature ensures a juicy, flavoursome steak, which would have a very different taste if cooked straight from the fridge.

A few minutes before cooking, brush each side of your steak with one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil.

How to cook steak

There are two main ways you can cook steak at home: pan-fry and oven-bake. Your steak cooking times will vary depending on whether you want your steak to be rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well done or well done. See our steak cooking chart below for steak cooking times.

1. How to pan-fry steak

Place the pan on high heat. When oil is just about to smoke, add your steak. Cook for the times stated below in our steak cooking chart. Don’t be afraid to add a little more salt at this stage.

2. How to oven bake a steak

Sear the sides of your steak using a very hot pan, just until it’s darkened and the bottom starts to pull away, making it easy to flip. Once you’ve seared the steak, you can finish it in the oven. For thicker cuts of steak, cook in a preheated oven at 225°C for 10 minutes per side, flipping ithe steak onto the other side halfway through cooking. Thinner cuts can handle the same heat for about six minutes per side, again flipping halfway through.

Steak cooking chart

For the perfect steak, follow the steak cooking chart below, altering timings slightly depending on thickness of chosen cut. HelloFresh Recipe Development Manager, Mimi Morley, explains that optimum internal temperature can be checked simply by using a cooking thermometer, and checked against the chart below.

Steak Doneness	Internal Temperature	How it Will Look	Cooking Time (per side)
Rare	120°C	Red, shiny, very soft to touch	1½ – 2 minutes
Medium-Rare	130°C	Deep red/pink, soft and bouncy to touch	2 – 3 minutes
Medium	135°C	Pink in the middle, soft to firm to touch	4 – 6 minutes
Medium-Well Done	140°C	Light pink in the middle, firm to touch	6 – 8 minutes
Well Done	150°C	No pink, firm to touch	9 – 10 minutes

To make the steak cooking process easier, you can invest in a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature. If the core temperature (where the steak is thickest) is 60°C for 45 minutes, 65°C for 10 minutes, 70°C for two minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds and 80°C for six seconds, then it has reached its optimum temperature and is ready to eat. The full surface area must be seared with the colour changed from red to brown.

Cooked steak with cooked vegetables