Prime Time

photography by Barry Wong

Richard Chamberlain knows great steak. In addition to his local meat-friendly restaurant offerings—Chamberlain’s Steak and Chop House and Chamberlain’s Fish Market Grill in Addison—he’s written a book on the subject (The Healthy Beef Cookbook) and is a chef consultant for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. We asked Chef Chamberlain for tips on how to make a perfect steak right at home:

Preparing: “You have to buy a good steak to have a good steak. Look for marbling in the beef. Go for a Black Angus choice—the highest end of choice—or a prime steak. For preparation, use either a kosher or sea salt, which gives a lot more flavor than iodized salt, and coarse, fresh-ground pepper.”

Cooking: “One of the big mistakes in cooking steak is that people don’t allow it to brown well enough. There’s a lot of flavor development in the browning of the protein. Heat a cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat so it’s smoking slightly, then put your steak in the pan with a tiny bit of oil. Don’t turn the steak too quickly, and only turn it once. It’s okay to peek—lift the corner an inch or two to see how the browning is coming along—but if you turn it too much, the pan cools down and the browning process won’t complete. Rather than a using a fork to flip, which penetrates the meat and causes you to lose some of the juices, always use tongs. If the steak is extremely thick, finish it in the oven at 375 degrees. Then to really enhance the taste, sprinkle on a finishing salt from a specialty store.”

Serving: “When steak is cooked at a high temperature, all the juices run to the center. If you allow the meat to rest three to six minutes before serving, the juices can work their way back into the outer parts of the steak. Then when you slice it, you won’t lose all the moisture. How you slice a steak is important, too. If you cut with the grain, it’s going to be very chewy. If you cut against the grain, it will be nice and tender.”

A CUT ABOVE: Local butchers have the best meat around.