Cook The Perfect Ribeye On Your Flat-Top Grill With The Ideal Temperature And Oil

Flat-top grills are great for searing steaks like ribeyes, and there isn't much of a learning curve when transferring your skills from the stovetop. The upside of using a flat-top to cook a steak isn't so much about flavor, since it's basically just a big griddle and isn't going to make your steak taste different than one made in a pan. Instead, it's more about space, with the size of a good flat-top grill making it easier to handle food, cook more steaks at once, and reducing the amount of splatter you have to clean up. And you won't be heating up your house and filling it with smoke on a hot summer day. All you need to make an ideal ribeye on your flat-top is a 450 degree Fahrenheit griddle and neutral cooking oil.

Why 450 degrees? That's right around the same temperature your pan would hit if you were searing a steak on the border of medium-high to high on the stovetop. That level will cook your steak through to medium rare before overcooking the outside too much, while still forming an excellent browned crust. The high heat also promotes the Maillard reaction, which is what causes the browning process and adds so much flavor to your ribeye. While the reaction kicks off around 250 degrees Fahrenheit, it really gets going above 350, so going up to 450 really pushes flavor development to its peak. Go too far above that temperature, and you risk burning the outside of your pricey steak. While getting to exactly 450 degrees on a flat-top grill will be tough to measure without a temperature gun, preheating the surface at medium-high for 15 minutes should get you there or close enough.

The only other essential thing for a steak on a flat-top is some oil, and maybe a little butter if you want. Fat serves a few functions on a hot surface like this. For one, it will help your ribeye brown faster and form a better crust. It also creates a more even, complete crust, because it helps get heat into those little crevices on the uneven surface of a steak.

Because you'll be searing at quite a high temperature, you want a cooking oil with a high smoke point. Cooking at temperatures above the smoke point of an oil or butter can produce bitter flavors. So the best option for your griddle on a higher heat is avocado oil, which has a neutral flavor that won't alter the steak much and has a smoke point of 520 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don't have avocado oil, there are a few other options that can work, including peanut oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil, which all have smoke points at or just above 450 degrees.

If you like a little butter flavor with your steak, it's best to just add a small pat at the end of cooking, as butter has a very low smoke point around 350 degrees. And despite what some people will tell you, combining butter with a high smoke point oil doesn't raise the smoke point of butter; the butter just burns in the oil. But there is no need to overcomplicate things anyway; with a ripping hot flat-top grill and a little oil, your ribeye will already be amazing.