How to Cook the Perfect New York Strip Steak

On July 15, 2020 (Updated October 02, 2023)

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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.

What is 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.

New York Strip Steak

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.

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 Steak Recipes

Here at Hey Grill Hey, we love grilling steak. If you’re looking for a collection of steak recipes to add to your recipe book, I highly recommend a few of these below:

New York Strip Steak Recipe

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Strip Steak

By: Susie Bulloch (heygrillhey.com)

4.88 from 41 votes

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. I'll give you the tools to cook a better-than-restaurant quality strip steak at home.

Prep Time30

Cook Time12

Resting time10

Total Time52

Servings people

Video

Ingredients

▢ 2 strip steaks
▢ coarse Kosher or sea salt
▢ coarse ground black 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

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.
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.
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.

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**This post was originally published April 2018. It has since been updated with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.

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