Garlic Butter Steak

Do you think that great steaks are available only at restaurants? You are wrong. This garlic butter steak recipe transforms budget-cut steaks like flat iron and top sirloin, making the meat as tender and flavorful as any steakhouse entree. The secret ingredient: butter.

Steaks like ribeye and New York strip are highly marbled with fat, which helps tenderize the meat as it melts. Our garlic butter steak recipe uses butter to achieve a similar goal with leaner steaks (but you can use the technique to improve any steak recipe). The rich, creamy butter enhances the meat’s texture by keeping it moist as it cooks. Meanwhile, the milk solids in the butter brown and caramelize, giving the pan-seared steak an incredible crust and a toffee-like flavor.

After the steak is cooked, butter comes to the rescue once again. Almost every restaurant where I’ve worked has finished its steaks with a pat of compound butter or a ladleful of clarified butter. (It’s one of those steakhouse secrets the chef might not want you to know.) A dollop of garlic butter for steak gives a glossy sheen and releases an intoxicating aroma. There’s no way this steak won’t taste as good as it looks (and smells!).

What is butter steak?

It refers to the method of cooking steak in butter, and it’s also another name for flat iron steak or top blade steak. This steak comes from the top shoulder blade muscle of the chuck, or the front shoulder of the cow. Chuck is known for being a tough cut that’s usually braised, but the top blade muscle is tender enough to pan-sear or grill.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened, divided
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 beef flat iron steak or boneless top sirloin steak (3/4 pound)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Steak: 

Look for a 3/4- to 1-inch thick steak with good marbling. Flat iron steak and boneless top sirloin steak are great options for butter steak. These cuts are leaner than ribeye or New York strip steaks but have a beefier taste.

Salt and pepper: 

The garlic butter gives the steak plenty of flavor, so we limit the seasoning to salt and pepper. 

Garlic butter: 

A compound butter gives pan-seared steak the steakhouse treatment. The combination of creamy butter, aromatic garlic, and herbaceous parsley pairs perfectly with beef.

Directions

1. Mix 1 tablespoon butter with parsley, garlic, and soy sauce.
2. Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the remaining butter over medium heat. 
3. Add steak; cook until meat reaches desired doneness (medium-rare, a thermometer should read 135°; medium, 140°; medium-well, 145°), 4-7 minutes per side. 
4. Serve with garlic butter.

Recipe Variations

Use another flavored butter: There are so many great flavored butter recipes, and you can use most of them with steak. Experiment with roasted garlic, blue cheese, Worcestershire sauce, or fresh herbs like rosemary.

Turn steak into steak bites: If you don’t like to mess with cooking a whole steak, turn this recipe into steak bites. Cut the steak into bite-sized pieces, and sear them in batches until they reach the desired doneness.

Butter Steak Tips

➤Boneless, quick-cooking steaks are the best types of steak to cook in a skillet. Ribeye or New York strip steaks are popular because their high-fat content keeps the meat rich and juicy.

➤When it comes to seasoning meat like steak, we keep it simple with salt and pepper. Salt pulls out moisture through a process called osmosis, tenderizing the muscle fibers and enhancing the meat’s flavor. Just make sure to let the meat stand for at least 45 minutes so it has time to absorb the seasoning. 

➤When learning how to pan-sear a steak to ensure it turns out juicy and tender, you’ll need to evenly sear the steak to seal the juices inside. To do this, avoid moving or turning the meat until halfway through cooking time. Then, let the meat rest after cooking to redistribute the juices throughout the meat.