Tender melt in your mouth steak.
The Filet is a steak cut from the tenderloin, it is extremely lean and cooks quickly. It also tends to be the most expensive cut, pound for pound of beef. so getting it right is important. Hint: HOT AND FAST.
Preparation:
- Try to cut your steaks to the exact same thickness and as close to the same size as possible, this will keep your cook time the same for each steak.
- Using a grinder, give each steak a generous coating of sea salt. Wait 5 minutes and then add garlic powder and fresh ground pepper as well (to taste). Then flip each steak over and repeat the process.
- Allow the steaks to sit out at room temp for one hour before cooking them. This will allow for a faster and more even cook, which is very important for this cut, as we don’t want it to try out or get tough.
- While the Steaks are sitting, light your grill (hopefully charcoal) but gas will work too. This Kamado Joe is my personal favorite, a true workhorse. Aim for a temp of at least 600F, I normally do mine closer to the 700F-900F range over direct heat like below:
Depending on what else I am cooking, I will at times use a cast iron surface for my sear as well, like this one here:
Pulling the steaks:
Pulling your steaks can be done by feel (if you have done this a few times) or by temp using something like this: Instant Read Meat Thermometer . I generally cook my Filets to 135F internal temp. Which with a short “rest” time is about medium rare. If you are going to rest the steaks longer, or need extra time to finish other dishes, cook them to a little lower temp, as the steaks internal temp can raise an additional 5 degrees while resting for longer periods. For filets, I normally rest mine for 5 minutes, no more.