Are you thinking of the best way to reheat sliced steak? How about the best way to reheat steak on the grill? We’re covering the essentials of reheating tough steak in today’s special Steak Blog, just for your steak heads out there!
How to Reheat Steak
Steak is one of the most luxurious items on any restaurant menu, and it’s no secret that people look forward to it the most when they eat out. We also know that if you are having your steak “to go” when you can’t finish it, it will likely be less palatable the next day after reheating. So what’s the game plan if you want your steak to at least be half as good as your memory of it when you ordered it last night at the restaurant?
Is it a good idea to reheat steak in a frying pan?
Using a pan to reheat steak is fine, as long as you know what you are doing. The best approach for steak reheating in a pan is to take things slowly and to calibrate your expectations. There is no way that you will be able to retain the super juicy properties of cooked steak, especially if you have placed it in the refrigerator overnight, and the meat has toughened somewhat because of the chill of the fridge. Second, to maintain the integrity of the meat and to avoid overcooking it too much, you will have to circulate heat through the meat very slowly with low heat. Give your steak a few minutes to slowly heat up again before taking the meat out of the pan and letting it rest. Again, expectations play a huge role in your satisfaction with reheated steak. A reheated steak might retain some of its juiciness if it was served rare or extra rare in the restaurant, as additional heating might make it medium or medium-rare.
Reheating a steak too quickly will likely blacken the outer layer too much, and you will end up with meat that is gummy and lacks flavor. We also recommend chopping up reheated steak and adding it to freshly made dishes, instead. That way, you can get the remainder of the awesome flavor without worrying about whether or not the steak is going to be as juicy and fresh as it was before.
What’s the best way to heat leftover steak?
The best way to heat leftover steak based on how it maintains the juices inside and the crispiness of the steak on the outside is the oven to the stovetop method. Here’s how it works: set your oven to 250˚F and place your steak on a cooling rack on the topmost level of the oven. Feel free to add a baking sheet below the steak. The cooling rack will remove the necessity to flip the steak while it’s being slow-cooked inside the oven. Leave the meat for 25 to 30 minutes and just let the low-heat roasting do its thing. The indirect heat is going to introduce heat into the meat at a rate that’s just fine and dandy. After half an hour, grab the reheated steak and place it in a pan. Add one to two tablespoons of cooking oil and set the stove to medium-high. You will need just 60 seconds on each side of the steak to achieve an excellent sear. Remove the meat quickly and allow it to cool before eating. The rest time for this type of reheated meat is five to ten minutes. Feel free to cut it up after resting, as it is finally ready to go.
Is it possible to reheat meat without causing it to dry out?
Reheating meat is tricky business, mainly because it requires impeccable timing and knowledge of how heat interacts with meat. If you are after juiciness and flavor, the method that you choose must be fine-tuned, so you do not inadvertently dry out your meat. But let’s say that you don’t have access to a stove, a pan, or an oven. What do you do? Perhaps you can use your microwave to reheat your steak. However, what about the risk of overheating it and turning it into a hard piece of meat?
The trick is to be careful throughout the reheating process. Place your steak on a microwave-safe plate and set your microwave to medium-high. Every 30 seconds, you have to flip the steak, so it doesn’t dry out. The reheating process will take about 90 seconds, with three flips in total. Make sure that the microwave is off when you are flipping and do not leave any metal utensils inside the microwave oven while you’re heating anything there.
If you perform the reheating process properly, even in the microwave oven, you will get a juicy and fresh-tasting steak. The crispiness, however, may not be achieved because there is no direct heat on the outer surface of the meat, unlike when you do it on the stovetop on a pan. Nonetheless, people will still salivate over the perfect juiciness of your steak.
The final method takes a bit longer but may provide better results with larger steaks. The sous vide method uses slow-cooking to introduce heat while retaining the juices.
Begin this method by taking out your steak and placing it in a resealable plastic bag (like a zip lock bag) with a pat of butter. Allow the steak to attain room temperature. Make sure that the bag has been squeezed out adequately, so there’s almost no air inside.
Set up your sous vide machine and cook your steak in there for six to eight minutes. Be sure that the temperature is set to 120º – 130º F. The reheating will succeed, and the juices will be maintained in the meat. If you want a sear, however, you will have to perform the searing separately on a pan. Sear both sides for approximately 60 seconds, and you’re ready to eat your steak.
