Get a good crust on a thin steak

steak

I'm trying to get a crunchy crust on a thin steak – is this possible? Online recipes on pan-searing steaks and basting require a 3/4" inch steak at minimum, but this is pretty hard to get at the supermarket for me. They're generally just under 3/4" and more than 1/2".

I find that the outer edges of the surface of the steak in contact with the pan char far more quickly than the inner area. It doesn't seem to be an issue with the steak curving and doming slightly, since this happens on both sides of the steak.

Any idea why this happens, and how to fix this?

Best Answer

Given the thinness of the steak, you achieve a good crust without overcooking the inside by applying high heat for a few minutes on each side of a thin steak. I would treat it like this skirt steak recipe from seriouseats.com :

Since it's a very long, flat steak, there's a lot of surface area to develop an outstanding crust, but this shouldn't be done at the expense of overcooking the inside, which is easy to do given the thinness. The solution is a blazing hot fire to sear the steak quickly before it cooks all the way through.

The grill is the best place to build up this type of heat, where a chimney full of lit coals piled close together can get you up to 700°F of direct heat.

Fix any doming issues and make sure you have an even, uniform crust by using your spatula to press the cut of meat down evenly or use a grill weight like this one (I'm not affiliated with the listing, just an example).1

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