Side Orders: Don’t think too much about steak

There’s a lot more to grilling a steak than tossing it on the fire and flipping it a time or two. There’s an art to it that seasoned cooks know well. But for those less accomplished, Chattanooga grilling guru Kent Whitaker offers a few tips to get your grilling season off to a smokin’ start.

“I think the biggest problem people have when grilling steak is that they mess with it too much,” he says. “It’s just like cooking in the kitchen on a skillet. Prep the steak, preheat the grill, then turn it as few times as possible and let it rest before serving.”

Sounds simple, right? But there are a few more tips to it, Whitaker notes.

* Keep the temperature constant – not too low, but not so high that it turns your steak to charcoal on the outside, but red as a beet on the inside.

* Don’t trim off all the fat. In a day when fat is a huge issue, you still want to leave some on for the best flavor. Cut away the big chunks of fat, but leaving a bit around the edges allows fat to drip down onto the coals or into the drip pan, adding flavor to the smoke. Better yet, leave all the fat on the steak, then remove it before plating the meat.

Whitaker says one of the first pieces of advice he remembers about steaks came from a chef in Nashville when he worked as prep cook during high school.

“He said, ‘If you want a tender steak, buy a tender cut.’ I admit that sometimes you can make a tough cut more tender, but it’s probably done with a combination of marinade, pounding and cross-grain slicing, which is still awesome!”

So for this master of the grill, ribeye steaks are his go-to cut.

“Ribeyes offer a great combination of texture, meat, marbling and flavor,” he says. “But if you’re looking for a price-busting alternative, ask your butcher or meat guy for chuckeye cuts. They are very similar to ribeyes, only cheaper.”

To marinade or not to marinade. Aye, there’s the rub. Whitaker marinates most of his steaks with concoctions as simple as olive oil, fruit juices and beer.

“You can marinate for flavor or marinate in order to make tough cuts more tender,” Whitaker says. “Most marinades sold in grocery stores today seem to be quick-and-easy versions that concentrate on adding deep flavor fast.

“Marinades that are used to make meat more tender often require more time to work. The actual marination process involves chemicals reacting between the marinade and the meat, resulting in the tissue and fibers breaking down. That requires a bit of time.”

His favorite recipe? It involves both a slow oven and hot grill:

Kent’s Low and Slow Oven-to-Grill Steaks

Inch-thick ribeye steaks

Marinade of choice

Salt, pepper and your choice of seasonings

Butter

Splash steaks with a hit of marinade, then gently rub them down with salt, pepper and your favorite seasonings.

Let them rest on a broiler drip pan or rack on a deep cookie sheet. Heat oven to 250-275 degrees. You want a very slow cooking process that starts to cook but does not overly heat the steak or trigger excess browning or contraction. Basically, you get a nicely warmed steak that’s ready to finish off on the grill.

Bake for 45 minutes or to an internal temperature of 145 degrees for a 1-inch steak or an hour for a thicker steak. Remove from the oven and let the steak rest for 10-15 minutes. Look for the juices to ball up on the surface. Light the grill and get it good and hot while the steaks are in the oven. Toss steaks on high-heat grill for just a couple of minutes, long enough to brown the skin and get some grill marks. Only turn once. Top with a bit of butter before serving. The end result is a beautiful medium to medium-well steak.

Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.