Our 36 Best Steak Recipes

For a perfectly tender and crusty steak, chefs (and brothers) Bryan and Michael Voltaggio salt their meat up to 12 hours before and let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator. This step seasons the meat to its core and pulls out moisture for a better sear.

Jaw-dropping centerpiece dishes require two essentials: salt and time. Preseasoning is the simplest thing you can do to make a good piece of meat great.

This steak is based on a recipe from chef Alain Ducasse. Halfway through cooking, these bone-in rib eyes are basted with a mixture of butter, thyme, and garlic, so they're crusty outside and richly flavored.

A balsamic vinaigrette doubles as a marinade here, giving flank steak enormous flavor during a 24-hour soak. Grace Parisi suggests drizzling any extra vinaigrette over the grilled vegetables and the steak.

This great recipe calls for pounded-thin top round steaks that are very quickly cooked, then served in a stack with ample amounts of anchovy-herb butter sandwiched in between the steaks.

Most American cooks buy beautifully marbled rib eye steaks without the bone, but chef Tim Love opts for the heftier bone-in variety. To help keep the steaks extra-juicy, he sears them on the grill, then lets them rest before he finishes cooking.

Chef Nancy Silverton adores Antica Macelleria Cecchini, Dario Cecchini's famous butcher shop in the Tuscan town of Panzano, where she buys thick porterhouses to make this classic recipe. Chef Matt Molina and his entourage prepared the dish on their last night in Italy, marinating the meat in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and rosemary.

"I love skirt steak because it's just fatty enough, and it cooks quickly, which is great for dinner parties," says chef Vinny Dotolo. He serves the steak thinly sliced, with a lightly smoky, tangy paprika butter.

Food columnist Mark Bittman often uses skirt steak, a thin cut that cooks quickly. Don't grill it beyond medium rare, he advises, or it becomes quite tough.

Our national appetite for grilled meat shows no sign of abating. In Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book, pit master Chris Lilly shares his secrets for prizewinning meat—like the beef here, marinated in black pepper and brown sugar.

This recipe from the late chef Kerry Simon pairs porterhouse steak with zucchini, red onion, red bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, and scallions. If you'd like, serve the meal with an Argentinian Malbec.

To make his version of chilaquiles, chef Jamie Bissonnette unabashedly opts for Fritos. "They have great corn flavor, and they are crunchier than I could ever get tortillas by frying them myself," he says.

This bright and fresh chimichurri is used twice: as a sauce for the steak and as a dressing for the accompanying herb salad.

Here, hanger steak gets a flavor boost after marinating in garlic, cumin, and olive oil.

The flat iron steak, which sits on the shoulder blade next to the teres major, is great for marinating and grilling.

Mark Fuller prepares this steak in the spring and summer to showcase the Pacific Northwest's iconic Walla Walla onions and morel mushrooms. The tomato-and-asparagus salad he serves alongside the beef would be wonderful all on its own as a first course.

Steak fajitas are common in the Baja region of Mexico. Here, Food & Wine's Justin Chapple makes his version with smoky paprika and fragrant coriander, as well as an abundance of vegetables.

This summery salad from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple is quick and easy to pull together, and a total crowd-pleaser. It's ideal served with his Grilled and Chilled Beef, but any leftover steak will be delicious here.

Charolais is a breed of cattle from Burgundy prized for its tender, flavorful and marbled (not fatty) meat. Substitute a grass-fed or finished hanger steak to channel the juicy, nutty qualities of the French beef.

Red wine pan sauce is an amalgamation of fond (those browned bits left in the pan after searing meat), shallots, broth, good-quality red wine, and a few pats of butter to bind it all together and thicken it to a syrupy consistency. A perfect interplay of acid from the wine and sumptuous fat, the sauce is an ideal accompaniment to a peppercorn-crusted rib eye steak. The well-marbled cut stays more tender than New York strip, and its rich, beefy flavor infuses the pan sauce. Trim the steak of large pieces of fat and tie it into a round for even cooking.

For her Steak Tartare with Smoked Oyster Aioli, 2018 Best New Chef Kate Williams uses tender beef scraps rescued from butchering rib eyes. Dark green leek tops, often discarded, become the base of her punchy gremolata. The smoked oyster aioli adds muscle and brightness, and it's easy to make (it takes about a minute in a blender).

Pulehu is Hawaiian for "to cook over hot coals." In this grilled steak tip skewer recipe from Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon, a punchy, bright basting sauce of sake, soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry vinegar, garlic, ginger, and scallions flavors the beef. Pulverized toasted barley is the secret ingredient in the sauce—it thickens it and helps it coat the beef so it gets crispy when grilled. Simeon layers on even more flavor into finadene, a soy-based sauce, to serve with the skewers, with the addition of sweet Maui onions and Agrumato lemon olive oil, a citrusy finishing oil produced by pressing whole lemons and olives.

Chefs Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama give tender, marbled grilled Wagyu a hit of savory, lightly sweet flavor from the roasted fig miso sauce. Use any leftover sauce to slather on ribs before grilling. If fresh figs are not available, use frozen figs rather than dried. Just make sure to thaw them beforehand for the best texture.

This simple grilled dinner is all about fresh summer produce. Herbs and smashed garlic quickly infuse charred sweet peppers, capturing their heat straight from the grill.

Cooking tender rib eye, fresh mushrooms, and sweet shrimp tableside makes for an interactive meal. The broth, already seasoned and spiced with fresh aromatics, oils, and sauces, deepens in flavor as you cook vegetables; meats; and, eventually, noodles throughout the night. Keep the broth at a simmer to safely cook each ingredient.

Loaded with pumpkin seed kernels, cashews, and sesame seeds, salsa de semillas is a lesser-known but beloved Mexican nut-based salsa. Here, event producer and Food & Wine Cooks contributor Paola Briseño González pairs it with skirt steak for a meal that's ready in under an hour.

"On a recent trip to Oaxaca, I was mesmerized with the fruity, smoky pasilla de Oaxaca chiles so much that I brought back a bag of the chiles, as well as a basalt molcajete, in my suitcase," F&W Cooks contributor and cookbook author Andrea Slonecker says. The deep flavor the chiles impart to beef is exceptional; if you can't find them, chipotle morita or chipotle meco chiles are good substitutes."

"You may notice that this recipe makes more miso butter than one could conceivably dollop onto a single dinner," F&W Cooks contributor and cookbook author Leah Koenig says. "That leftover butter stores well in the fridge and enhances everything it touches, from grilled fish and pasta to warm biscuits and popcorn. As for the baby bok choy, I can guarantee that leftovers won't be an issue."

Using flat skewers helps the meat char and cook evenly by curbing any rolling around the grill. Be sure to preheat the grill; high, even heat will help guarantee strong grill marks and will caramelize the sugars in the marinade.

This summer cookout showstopper by 2016 BNC member Ravi Kapur, owner of Liholiho Yacht Club in San Francisco, is your umami-packed, Hawaiian-inspired answer to grilling monotony. The glaze comes together quickly, and layers tart pineapple and tangy kimchi onto juicy hanger steak as it grills. It's thinner and runnier than traditional BBQ sauces, so be sure to baste the meat several times while it grills to caramelize the sugars and develop grill marks. Leftover miso compound butter will keep for five days in your fridge and is a transformative addition to seafood, tossed with pasta, or brushed on grilled vegetables.

Focaccia is the ideal crouton for a dinner salad; it's tender yet sturdy enough to stand up to bold ingredients like the steak and Calabrian chile in this recipe.

"Cabbage is a hard sell on restaurant menus, so it's very underutilized but a great vegetable," says chef Craig Koketsu. "This salad is sweet, salty, savory, and acidic. It's so dynamic when you're eating it, even though it's all red." Though it stands alone on the menu at Quality Bistro, we've topped our version with hanger steak for a quick weeknight dinner. While the steak cooks, the cabbage and beets marinate in a tangy mixture of Champagne vinegar and horseradish. Bleu d'Auvergne cheese is worth seeking out for its mild flavor.

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano adds an unexpected hit of nutty, sweet flavor to rib eye steaks marinated in Thai seasoning sauce, white pepper, and soy sauce in this Night + Market recipe by chef Kris Yenbamroong, who named the dish for his father, Prakas. Quickly searing the steaks allows them to develop a dark, flavorful crust before resting, slicing, and finishing them in the pan sauce, where they absorb even more flavor and cook to a perfect medium-rare. Stirring fresh Thai basil into the warm steak and tomatoes just before serving allows it to gently perfume the whole dish.

These quickly stir-fried beef bites deliver all the savory luxury of a steakhouse-caliber steak, without the stress over cooking one at home. The buttery, velvety sauce coats every piece nicely, and the vermouth's herbal richness pairs nicely with the savory Worcestershire. Serve as an appetizer with toothpicks, or enjoy over mashed potatoes or polenta.

Velvety carrot puree, tender pan-seared steaks, and braised cabbage come together in a beautifully composed dish topped with a fresh, punchy cilantro gremolata from 2019 Food & Wine Best New Chef Paxx Caraballo Moll of Jungle BaoBao in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A well-prepared mise en place is the key here: Cut and measure ahead of time to cook and plate with ease. "I love the flavor explosions and textures you get from this dish," says Moll. "Transforming a humble cut of meat, making it delicious, and seeing people's faces and all the great feedback make me proud of this dish. The sweetness of the carrots makes a great contrast with our gremolata, and every bite feels refreshing."

Learning ​​how to reverse-sear means you can serve steakhouse quality meals in your own kitchen. The trick to this ingenious cooking method is to first cook the steak in a low oven, then transfer it to a blazing hot skillet to quickly sear both sides. The result is a steak with a deeply browned crust and an inside that is evenly cooked. This method is especially helpful when cooking thick steaks; it allows the meat to cook exactly to your taste without overcooking or even burning the exterior of the steak.