Cooking · Pan and oven together
Steak in the oven
A steak cooked in the oven is best seared first in a very hot pan and then finished at about 200 °C / 400 °F, or warmed slowly at 120 °C / 250 °F and seared at the end; the oven alone, at moderate heat, cooks the inside but gives little crust. Both combined methods work best for steaks 3 cm / 1¼ in or thicker, pulled at 51–52 °C / 124–126 °F for medium-rare.
At a glance
- Best for
- Steaks 3 cm / 1¼ in and thicker
- Sear, then oven
- 200 °C / 400 °F, 4–12 min
- Low oven, then sear
- 120 °C / 250 °F, 25–50 min
- Pull (medium-rare)
- 51–52 °C / 124–126 °F
- Least useful
- Oven alone at moderate heat
Why the oven needs a pan
An oven heats with hot air, which transfers heat to food far more slowly than a hot metal surface or glowing embers. That gentleness is useful inside a thick steak, where it cooks the centre evenly, but it is too weak to brown the surface quickly: the browning that gives a steak its flavour, the Maillard reaction, needs a dry surface above roughly 140–150 °C / 285–300 °F, and in a moderate oven the meat is overcooked before it gets there.
So the oven works for steak only in combination with a short burst of fierce heat from a pan or a grill. The two practical orders are sear first, then oven, the restaurant method, and oven first, then sear, the reverse sear. For steaks thinner than about 2.5 cm / 1 in the oven adds little: a hot pan alone is faster and better, as described in cast-iron steak.
Method 1: sear, then oven
- Heat the oven to 200 °C / 400 °F. Salt the steak, ideally 1 hour or more ahead, and pat it dry.
- Heat an ovenproof pan, preferably cast iron, with a little oil until it smokes lightly.
- Sear the steak 2 minutes per side, and the fat edge for 30–60 seconds, until deeply browned.
- Put the pan in the oven and cook until a thermometer in the centre reads 51–52 °C / 124–126 °F for medium-rare (see the table for times).
- Rest the steak on a rack for 5–8 minutes; the centre will rise by 3–5 °C / 5–9 °F.
Method 2: low oven, then sear
For steaks 4 cm / 1½ in and thicker, the reverse order gives a more even pink from edge to edge and a drier surface that browns faster. Put the salted steak on a rack in a 120 °C / 250 °F oven until the centre is 6–8 °C / 11–14 °F below the target, about 41–44 °C / 106–111 °F for medium-rare, then sear it in a smoking-hot pan for 45–60 seconds a side. Because the inside is already warm and the outside has had no time to heat deeply, the steak needs little or no rest. Times and details are in reverse sear.
Oven times by thickness
| Thickness | Sear, then 200 °C / 400 °F | 120 °C / 250 °F, then sear |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 cm / 1 in | 3–5 min in the oven | 20–25 min |
| 3 cm / 1¼ in | 4–6 min | 25–35 min |
| 4 cm / 1½ in | 6–9 min | 30–40 min |
| 5 cm / 2 in | 8–12 min | 40–55 min |
| 6–7 cm / 2½–2¾ in, bone-in | 12–18 min | 55–75 min |
Pull temperatures
| Doneness | Pull at | After resting |
|---|---|---|
| Rare | 47–48 °C 117–118 °F | 50–52 °C 122–126 °F |
| Medium-rare | 51–52 °C 124–126 °F | 54–56 °C 129–133 °F |
| Medium | 56–57 °C 133–135 °F | 59–61 °C 138–142 °F |
| Medium-well | 61–62 °C 142–144 °F | 64–66 °C 147–151 °F |
The broiler
The overhead grill of an oven (the broiler in North America, the grill in Britain and Australia) is radiant heat from above and behaves more like a barbecue than like an oven. With the rack 8–10 cm / 3–4 in below a fully heated element, a 2.5 cm / 1 in steak takes about 4–6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Domestic broilers vary widely in power, so a thermometer matters more here than anywhere else, and the door of an electric oven is often left ajar so that the thermostat does not switch the element off.
Common mistakes
Putting a cold, wet steak into a moderate oven and expecting a crust. Using a thin pan that warps or a non-stick pan that cannot take 200 °C / 400 °F. Forgetting that the pan handle is at oven temperature when it comes out. Timing by the clock instead of a thermometer: ovens run hot or cold by 10–20 °C / 20–40 °F, and the times above are a guide only. Cooking thin steaks in the oven at all. And resting a reverse-seared steak for ten minutes until the crust softens; see resting and steak temperatures.
Frequently asked questions
How long do you cook a steak in the oven?
After a 2-minute sear per side, about 4–6 minutes at 200 °C / 400 °F for a 3 cm / 1¼ in steak to reach medium-rare; thicker steaks take 6–12 minutes. Pull at 51–52 °C / 124–126 °F.
What temperature should the oven be for steak?
200 °C / 400 °F to finish a seared steak, or 120 °C / 250 °F for the reverse sear, where the steak is seared at the end.
Can you cook a steak in the oven without searing?
It cooks, but it stays grey and pale on the outside. Searing in a pan, before or after, gives the crust and most of the flavour.
Should you flip a steak in the oven?
Not when it is finished in a hot pan after searing. On a rack for the reverse sear, turning it once helps it cook evenly.
Sources
4
- McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 2004.
- Myhrvold, Nathan; Young, Chris; Bilet, Maxime. Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Bellevue: The Cooking Lab, 2011.
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart. 2023. www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/safe-temperature-chart
- López-Alt, J. Kenji. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.
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