Rib eye steaks, competition style

Evenly cooked medium, yet nicely charred

(Based on champion pitmaster Harry Soo’s techniques)

Trim excess fat from ribeyes. (Ribeyes should be inch and a quarter to inch and a half thick, at least). Place the steaks in a baking pan or foil pan.

Dry brine the steaks by dusting with kosher salt and setting the steaks to rest in the fridge for at least a couple hours, although overnite is preferable.

Remove from fridge and begin seasoning as follows:

Pour a liberal douse of Head Country Marinade over the top of the meat. (You could probably substitute other soy based marinades, such as Mr Yoshida sauce)

Evenly sprinkle some Butchers BBQ Phosphate TR powder lightly over the meat. (as if adding salt, not thick like a rub)

Do a light sprinkle of ACCENT.

Now add your favorite steak rub. Include some Worchestshire sauce or powder. Maybe some Shitake Mushroom powder.

Seasoned steaks ready for reverse sear

(Or make your own steak rub: one part salt to 3 parts pepper, some garlic and onion powders, a dash of paprika, and some heat such as cayenne pepper or chili powder, maybe even cinnamon or ground coffee). Go easy on the salt; the steaks have already been dry brined so the meat is salty.

Pat down the rub; do not massage in the rub.

Flip the steaks and repeat all of this on the other side.

Cover the pan with foil. Place in fridge and allow to rest for one hour.

Remove steaks from pan and place in smoker or (indirect heat) charcoal grill. Make sure to include a pan of water inside the grill for moisture. Water should be over the heat; meat is on grill side away from the heat if using a grill. We want to slow roast the meat; not to char broil it.

Note: do NOT use a water pan if smoking in a pellet smoker. The excess humidity is not needed and can damage the integrity of your pellets.

Smoke at around 225-250 degrees. Flip the meat around every 15 or 20 minutes. Use an instant read thermometer probe; we are looking for around 110 internal temp for the steaks. Do NOT overcook!

Remove the steaks and place back in the pan.

Time to sear! Heat your GRILL to 550 to 600 degrees. Use a set of GrillGrates aluminum searing plates over your grill’s original grates in order to achieve the best cross-hatch grill marks. Use a laser thermometer to insure that your grates are evenly heated, and that the sear rails are close to 600 degrees.

Get a timer ready on your smartphone! Place the steaks on the hot grate and sear for 70 seconds. Flip the meat and sear the other side. Keep track of the time; exactly 70 seconds. While the second side of the meat is cooking, baste the steaks with a clarified and/or infused butter (infuse w garlic and rosemary). If you can, use actual rosemary twigs as your basting brush!

At the 70 second mark, flip the steaks again. Baste w butter. At 70, flip for the final time, and baste. When you flip, rotate the steaks around 90 degrees to achieve a nice cross-hatch grill mark pattern.

Remove the steaks and allow to rest in the pan. As the meat cools, it will re-absorb its au jus.

The target temp for the fully cooked steaks is around 130-135.That should give you a nice, even juicy pink but not red interior (a perfect medium). Allow to rest until temp is down to 120; then serve and eat.

Of course, if you prefer your steaks more rare, then cut back the cycles from 70 seconds to 60 seconds or so.

You should take one steak and cut it into smaller pieces so that you can do a couple “test cooks” to work out the best searing times for your grill, temps, and thickness of meat.

At home, I slow roast my steaks on a pellet smoker initially. And then transfer them to a red hot, flaming hibachi for the final sear.