How to Cook the Perfect New York Strip Steak
On May 28, 2024
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Strip steak (also called a New York Strip Steak, or New York Strip) is a beautiful cut of beef that requires little more than high heat, simple seasoning, and some solid technique. In this post, I’ll give you the tools to cook a better-than-restaurant quality strip steak at home.
Perfect Grilled New York Strip
This recipe for cooking New York strip steak is inspired by Tyler Florence’s steakhouse. He seasons massive porterhouse steaks with only salt before searing at extremely high temperatures and then sprinkling with cracked black pepper after cooking. I took similar principles and adapted them for home cooking (because we don’t all have access to $5000 professional salamander machines in our backyards), so you can cook your own perfect New York strip steak at home.
When the process is this simple, you need to make sure your ingredients are high quality. Use a bright red steak that is at least 1.5 inches thick. Season with coarse kosher salt or sea salt. Fresh crack your black pepper, if possible. When you focus on meat, fire, and simple seasoning, you’ll be happier with the result than if you had purchased an expensive steak from a restaurant.
What is a New York Strip Steak?
A strip steak is cut from the short loin of the cow. This muscle doesn’t do too much work, making the strip steak a rather tender cut of meat. It’s not quite as tender as the nearby tenderloin, but it’s still a great option for a nice, typically boneless steak that cooks evenly and quickly with a great beef flavor and nice chew.
Strip steaks have many names, including Kansas-city steak, New York strip steak, top loin, and a hotel-style steak. No matter what you call them, they are delicious and tender and a popular restaurant steak. Strip steaks are best when they are well-marbled with nice, white fat weaving through the muscle of the steak.
Garlic Thyme Resting Butter
This simple compound butter is the perfect finishing touch for your grilled New York strip steak. The combination of garlic, thyme, and Worcestershire sauce adds a burst of flavor that complements the rich, beefy taste of the steak. Here’s what you’ll need:\
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
- salt and pepper to taste
Simply mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl, and you’re ready to go. Place a dollop of the butter on your serving platter before grilling the steaks, so when they come off the heat, they can rest directly on the butter, allowing it to melt and infuse the steak with incredible flavor.
How Long to Grill Strip Steak
When it comes to grilling New York strip steaks, temperature is as crucial as time. For this recipe, I’m grilling at a super high heat. You’ll want to get your preferred grill up to around 900 degrees F, then give your steaks 2-3 minutes per side directly over the heat. Make sure you use a reliable, instant-read thermometer, and use this temperature guide to know when to pull your steaks to nail your desired doneness level.
- Rare: 125 degrees F
- Medium Rare: 135 degrees F
- Medium: 145 degrees F
- Medium Well: 155 degrees F
- Well Done: 160 degrees F
How to Cook New York Strip Steak
You can always use the Reverse Sear method for New York strip steaks (I’ve detailed that method HERE), but that process takes quite a bit of time and effort. Sometimes the best things in life are simple and allow the flavor of the beef itself to shine through. I think the best way to cook a NY strip steak is with salt, pepper, a little butter, and a screaming hot grill. Here’s my method for cooking New York strip steak:
- Season the steak. When you are 30 minutes out from grilling your steaks, remove them from the fridge, season both sides with kosher or coarse salt, and allow them to come up in temperature.
- Preheat your grill. Preheat your preferred grill to High heat, aiming for around 900 degrees F on the grates.
- Prep the butter. Combine all ingredients for the compound butter in a small bowl and spoon butter directly on the serving platter underneath where the steak will be placed.
- Grill those strip steaks. Place the steaks directly on the grill grates on a diagonal. For med rare: cook 2-3 minutes then rotate 45 degrees (for those beautiful criss-cross grill marks) and grill another 2-3 minutes. Flip the steaks and repeat on the other side. Grill for more or less time depending on your preferred doneness.
- Remove from heat and rest. Remove the steaks from the grill and place them on the buttered serving platter. Allow them to rest for 8-10 minutes.
- Slice and serve. Slice the steaks and sprinkle with black pepper just before serving.
Tips for Making Strip Steak
As I mentioned earlier, strip steak is extremely easy to make and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients or fuss. With this in mind, here are some of the most important things to focus on when grilling strip steak:
- Get your grill hot, hot, hot. Turn on your grill as high as it’ll go, and make sure to allow the grill to fully preheat before cooking your steaks. A nice, hot grill is key to ensuring these steaks cook perfectly and remain nice and juicy.
- #restingbutter. That compound butter? It’s just a tiny bit magic. By placing your hot steaks directly on the butter while it rests makes for the most flavorful steak ever. Do not skip this step. This resting butter is a complete game-changer, and you’ll never eat strip steaks without it again.
- Use a reliable thermometer. Make sure you are using a trusty meat thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature of your steaks while they are on the grill. My family prefers steaks cooked to medium-rare, but as always, cook to the doneness you prefer. I highly recommend cooking your steaks to medium-rare or medium for maximum flavor and juiciness. Anything over medium begins to dry out and become tougher to chew.
More New York Strip Recipes
Now that you know all the ins and outs of this tender and flavorful cut of steak, you’ll be grilling up New York strip steaks all the time. Whether you want to try different seasonings, cooking methods, or want it in a larger cut, I’ve got options for you in the Hey Grill Hey app. Check out a few of my personal favorites here:
New York Strip Steak Recipe
When you finish devouring this incredible grilled New York Strip, tell me about how good yours turned out in the comments. If you loved making this recipe, give it a 5-star rating. And if you still can’t get enough steak, then head over to The Grill Squad. I’ve got multiple detailed video courses on steak, and all your other favorite smoked and grilled meats.
The mission of Hey Grill Hey is to help you become a backyard BBQ hero so you can feed the people you love. Be sure to give me a follow on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on all the latest recipes, behind-the-scene fun, and tips. And don’t forget to check out my BBQ 101 series and much more on my YouTube channel.
Strip Steak
Video
Ingredients
- 2 strip steaks
- 1 Tablespoon Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub or salt and pepper
Garlic Thyme Compound Butter (optional)
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter softened
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- Kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Season the strip steaks. 30 minutes prior to grilling, remove your steaks from the refrigerator, season on both sides with the coarse salt and allow to come up in temperature.2 strip steaks, 1 Tablespoon Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub
- Preheat the grill. Preheat your grill to High heat. You're looking for temperatures around 900 degrees F on the grill grates.
- Make the compound butter. Combine all ingredients for the compound butter in a small bowl. Place one spoonful of butter directly on your serving platter underneath where each steak will be placed. Do this before you get your steaks on the grill so when they come off, you can set each steak on a spoonful of the butter. Set aside the remaining butter for the top of the grilled strip steaks.4 Tablespoons salted butter, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, Kosher salt, black pepper
- Grill the steaks. Place the steaks directly on the grill grates at a diagonal. For a medium rare steak, cook 2-3 minutes, then rotate 45 degrees and grill for 2-3 more minutes.
- Finish grilling the steaks to your preferred doneness. Flip the steaks over, cook 2-3 minutes, then rotate 45 degrees and grill for 2-3 more minutes. Increase or decrease cooking time as needed to reach ideal internal doneness. For a rare steak, cook to 125 degrees F, Medium Rare to 135 degrees F, Medium to 145 degrees F, Medium Well 155 degrees F, Well Done to 160 degrees F.
- Place the steaks on the resting butter. Remove the steaks from the grill and set each steak on the dollop of prepared compound butter.
- Rest the steaks before slicing and eating. Let the steak rest for at least 8-10 minutes before slicing. Sprinkle with the black pepper just before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
**We originally published this post in April 2018, but we recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. However, the recipe remains the same.
Made these tonight on my charcoal grill. Used a fork to spread the butter on the steaks in the last few minutes while they were still on the grill and they came out fantastic! Recommend turning the steaks every 2 minutes for a less done steak. Turned mine every 3 minutes and were more done than we like but excellent flavor. Will be using this recipe from now on, thank you!
Awesome!! Thanks Anthony!!
We made this steak just as the recipe recommends. It was an excellent steak…paired with a beautiful Cabernet and roasted butternut squash – it was better than any fine dining steakhouse in Charleston! Thank you for posting!
Thanks so much Lynne!! And hopefully a lot cheaper than the steakhouse!!
Great recipe especially the butter my only problem I had was at the temperature of 900 plus degrees it caused my gardening gloves to catch fire which was a momentary setback. Steaks came out great.
Oh no!! Sorry about the gloves!!
That’s the key issue: gardening gloves don’t do well with 900 plus degrees.
I made this tonight as a nice meal for me and my husband & oh my goodness! It is the best steak I have ever made. I was out of propane so couldn’t grill it so used my cast iron skillet with butter and some oil & it still turned out with so much flavor & very tender. I didn’t have thyme so used oregano for the butter mixture. I will definitely be making this again.
Thanks so much for your comment Leshae!! I am so happy it turned out so good for you!!
Hi I tried your recipe and it turned out perfectly. I just change a little bit by seasoning the beef with pink salt then putting the blue cheese on the top of the steak. The below is still same butter mix as your recipe. Thank you so much! Everybody love it.
Love the blue cheese addition!! Sounds like they will be back for more! Thanks for your comment!!
The Garlic Butter mixture was the ticket for me. I’ve recently used the Oven/Sear method for my steaks as they’ve turned out PERFECT and literally impossible to mess up. The Garlic Butter rest and on top was the cherry on top. Thanks again!
Thanks so much Mike!! I can’t get enough of butter and garlic, they make everything better!
Have you ever tried putting the steak in a smoker with high smoke and low temperature to add some flavor?
Also, the rage here is sous vide cooking, especially steaks. I season, bag, cook, then sear for the final finish.
Would appreciate your comments on both!
You can definitely do a reverse sear method on the steak and add some smoke like I do in the following recipe. I have had Sous Vide and it definitely is all the rage right now, personally I prefer the old school hot grill method myself. https://heygrillhey.com/grilling-the-perfect-steak/
Hey Grill Hey my steaks were awesome. I always thought I needed a bunch of different seasonings! Not. I followed the recipe to the T. Including the butter. I have a charcoal grill. It probably wasn’t as hot as 900 degrees. But it worked. Mmm mmm good!!!!!
Awesome! This makes me so happy! Thanks for your comment!
Came out great
I dont have anything that hits heat like your side grill. Any other suggestion?. Most of the time I do a reverse sear.
Fabulous looking steaks though!!
Try a cast iron skillet that has been preheated as high as you can get it! I always get a nice crust that way.
Outstanding! My gas grill caught on fire in the first few minutes but it ended up being a blessing in disguise as the steaks had a nicely seared outside. Everyone loved them!
Oh man! I’ll bet that was fun for a minute!
what happened to the remaining butter mixture
Spooned on top of the hot steaks while they rested.
Cooked it exactly per your instructions I was certain that it would be to well done but I stuck to your script and got the perfect medium rare most tender results. Thank you
That’s fantastic! Way to nail it!
I’m going to try this tonight. I am afraid though because every time I follow a steak recipe, I overcook them. 5-6 minutes per side seems like a lot at that high temperature. I will probably just reduce the time and hope for the best. I am curious to what I have been doing wrong when grilling steaks.
Always go by temp and not time!