Summer barbecues are a week long feast when people start to use the barbecue more often. It’s a fast, simple and easy way to cook with less washing up and less bother in the kitchen. If steak is your fave bbq protein, here’s our top tips to help you master barbecuing your summer steak beautifully every time.
Bring the meat to room temperature
Ice cold meat on a hot grill makes the fibres in the meat contract as they hit the hotplate and increase the cooking time. So, take your meat out of the fridge and leave it lightly covered on a plate while you prepare the barbeque.
Preheat the barbecue or grill
The meat needs to be seared as it hits the barbeque to seal in all the juices. The less time it spends on the barbecue the better.
Use a tender cut of meat
Porterhouse or Rib Eye, Scotch Fillet and T-bones all cook beautifully on the barbecue. T-bones take a few minutes extra due to the bone.
Lightly oil the meat
Brush your steaks with a little oil to ensure they don’t stick. This prevents flare ups and spattering oil. This is the best time to season it as well. Sprinkle a little sea salt and freshly cracked pepper on it after oiling.
Don’t overcrowd the hotplate and grill
Make sure that the steaks have a few centimetres between them on the grill to ensure the barbecue stays at a hot and an even temperature for cooking.
Turn it over just once
Let your steak cook halfway through and then turn it once to cook on the other side. If you are worried about it burning you can lift a little corner of your steak to make sure it doesn’t get too charred.
Do not constantly poke the meat and do not pierce it
Piercing the meat lets all the juices run out and will leave you with a very dry steak. Leave it on a nice hot place on the grill until it is time to turn it.
Let the meat rest
When your meat comes off the barbecue, you will need to let it rest so the juices stay in the meat. If your steak takes 5 minutes on the grill a 2 ½ minutes resting time sounds good. Wrap it in some foil to keep it warm.
Follow these tips and enjoy a juicy flavourful steak from the barbecue every time!
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Written by Billie Turei
An environmental goddess who loves to spend her weekends drinking wine and perfecting her Master Chef skills, this little foodie can callback any 90’s hip-hop jam and obscure pop-culture references. You’ll usually find Billie eating Thai food and heading off for impromptu road-trips with her squad.
Favourite food to cure a hangover: Hash browns. All of them.
Some great tips. Nothing worse than a chewy or overdone steak.
These tips are perfect with the article on the summer salads to make a great bbq over the summer holidays. helpful tips for preparing for the bbq even if i am not the one cooking on one.
While the BBQ is my husbands domaine, I am sure that these tip could be used when cooking inside with a frying pan too? I can never get them quite right so I will be putting these ideas into practice!
Wow thesw tips are amazing… Im hopeless on the bbq with steak so yay now i might be able to achieve an edible yummy one. So many things ive done wrong haha… Like had no idea steak should be at rrom temp, let the steak sit after cooking and only turn once… Wow!! This article was fab for me thankyou
All great tips, luckily my partner is a chef by trade (currently stay-at-home Dad) so he knows all the tricks and cooks a mean steak 🙂 Letting your meat rest is really important
We have never brushed out steak with oil before cooking so will try this tip and also ensuring the meat is at room temperature great ideas
Wrapping the steak with foil to retain the heat is a great tip! Usually I leave the steak cooking up to hubby but next time we have a bbq I will give it a go myself 🙂
Awesome, I will definitely give the oil idea a spin next time I have steaks for dinner! My steaks tend to stick and it’s frustrating for sure.