With Salt, Oil, And A 600-Degree Cast Iron Skillet, You Can Make Filet Mignon Like Alton Brown

When you need to cook an expensive cut of meat like filet mignon perfectly, you need to go to an expert like Alton Brown. Brown, the former "Good Eats" host on the Food Network, has been sharing his culinary knowledge with the world for over 25 years, using a science-based approach to food that takes every angle and variable into account. That kind of precision is what you want with filet mignon. Not only because the cut of steak is expensive, but because it has relatively little fat, and can become tough and dry easily if overcooked. And that is exactly why Brown does a reverse sear in a hot cast iron skillet with nothing but a little salt and oil for his filet mignon recipe.

If you aren't familiar with the reserve sear, it's a method of cooking steaks (and other meats), that involves slowly heating the meat in the oven first, before quickly searing it in a skillet. This method is called a "reverse" sear because the old advice for steak used to be to brown the outside first.

The point of this switch is to cut down on overcooking by minimizing the time spent in the pan. Searing a room temperature steak first means it takes longer to heat the exterior, and evaporate moisture, which all has to happen before your steak starts to brown. During that time the juicy red interior of a steak is cooking through more and more. This causes the steak to cook unevenly, forming a thick gray band of overcooked meat around the outside, even if the interior is a perfect medium-rare.

By slowly heating up a filet mignon in the oven, Brown removes the barriers to quickly browning in the skillet. In his recipe he sets the oven to only 200 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows the steaks to slowly come up to temperature (120 degrees Fahrenheit) without going over target. This also helps you achieve exactly the doneness you want, which is important to not overcook your filet mignon. To do this Brown uses a digital probe thermometer. This is essential for making sure you remove the filet mignon from the oven to sear it at the right temperature.

The only prep beside that is a generous dusting of salt, which filet mignon needs because the lack of fat gives it a mild flavor. As the filet mignon comes to temperature it not only warms up, but the surface dries out in the oven. So when it's ready to sear, you can get a deep, flavorful brown crust on both sides with just a minute of cooking per side.

Then it's time for the actual sear. Brown uses a cast iron skillet that he preheats to a blistering 600 degrees. It takes 10 minutes on high heat, but you can tell for sure by dropping a half teaspoon of water into the pan. It should evaporate in 5 seconds if it's hot enough. The neutral oil gets rubbed on the steak directly, to limit the amount of fat filling the pan. Once the steak gets browned, it's immediately off the heat to rest for up to five minutes. The result is a juicy, rosy red filet, that's perfectly tender all the way through. Exactly what you paid for.