How To Cook Steak In The Oven (Beginner Friendly Recipe)

Learn how to cook steak in the oven at 400°F (200°C) with this easy step-by-step recipe. Using a cast iron skillet, you will achieve a juicy steak with a beautiful sear that locks in flavor. This recipe is perfect for a weeknight dinner, date night, or special occasion. Serve with your favorite sides, like baked potato wedges and a simple side salad, for a complete meal!

Few things eclipse a well-cooked, juicy steak. With a few handy tips, you can achieve a perfectly tender, restaurant-quality steak at home. While supermarkets usually have a good offering, for top-quality beef, your first stop should be a good local butcher or farm shop. Butchers are highly knowledgeable and passionate—they can advise on cuts, cooking time, and provenance. If possible, buy local, grass-fed, and organic cuts of steak.

A thick-based frying pan, griddle, or cast iron skillet is perfect for steaks. They evenly distribute and retain heat, getting really hot—even smoking a little before the meat is added—to char the meat. This method is quick and easy, starting with pan-searing and finishing in a preheated oven. Pan-seared steak creates a caramelized, crisp crust, and when finished in the oven, it remains tender and juicy inside. This technique works best with thick steaks; thinner cuts may overcook. A perfectly seasoned steak, cooked to your preferred level of doneness, can elevate any dinner into a special occasion.

Jump to:

• Why You Will Love This Recipe
• Quality Steak
• Choose the Right Cut
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Chef’s Tips
• What to Serve With Steak
• Storage Instructions
• What Dessert to Serve with Steak
• Best Wine Pairings for Steak
• FAQ's
• How To Cook Steak In The Oven (Beginner Friendly Recipe)

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• Perfectly Cooked: Achieve a tender steak with a juicy interior and a nice sear on the outside.
• Best Flavor: Using a cast iron skillet and finishing in the oven enhances the steak's natural flavors.
• Accurate Doneness: Monitoring the internal temperature ensures the steak reaches your preferred level of doneness.
• Easy and Quick: This simple steak recipe requires minimal ingredients and delivers great steak in less time.

Quality Steak

• Wet or Dry Aged: Wet aged steak is a process where beef is vacuum-sealed and refrigerated for a minimum of two weeks. Unlike dry aging, wet aging retains moisture, resulting in a tender and flavorful steak. The process is quicker and cheaper than dry aging. Dry-aged steak has been hung in a controlled environment to lose moisture and develop a richer flavor and texture. Dry-aged steaks offer concentrated flavor and tenderness, making them among the best steaks you can buy.
• Wagyu: Known for its rich marbling and buttery taste, Wagyu is a premium choice for a delicious steak.
• USDA Prime: This grade signifies high-quality meat with excellent marbling, ideal for cooking steak.
• Premium Angus: Offers consistent quality and flavor, ensuring a good steak every time.

Choose the Right Cut

• Sirloin: Fatty and full of flavor—great for frying, grilling, or slicing for stir-fries.
• Tenderloin Fillet or Filet Mignon: Expensive, tender, and lean. Ideal for grilled dishes or raw meat preparations like carpaccio and tartare.
• Ribeye Steak: Perfect for grilling or barbecuing. Rich marbling makes it exceptionally flavorful.
• T-Bone Steak: Grilled hot and fast. Contains a strip of sirloin and a chunk of tenderloin (filet mignon).
• New York Strip Steaks (Kansas City Steak): Well-marbled and succulent, excellent for oven cooking.

Ingredients

• Sirloin Steaks: Choose thick cuts for best results; thicker steaks cook better in the oven.
• Olive Oil: Helps to sear the sides of the steak and adds flavor.
• Butter: Adds richness and aids in achieving a good sear in the hot skillet.
• Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper: Season steaks generously for enhanced flavor.
• Optional Aromatics: Fresh sprigs of thyme or rosemary and garlic cloves for added flavor.

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Optional Preparation Step: Dry Aging the Steak

• Dry Age: For an enhanced depth of flavor, dry age the steak by placing it on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and refrigerate, uncovered, on the top shelf for 24 hours. This step helps concentrate flavors and dries out the surface for a better sear.

Preheat the oven

• Preheat the oven: If you plan to finish the steak in the oven, preheat to 400°F (200°C).

Prepare the Meat

• Remove from the fridge: Take the steak out of the refrigerator 45 minutes to 1 hour before cooking. This allows it to come to room temperature, which helps it cook evenly.
• Dry the steak: (If you didn’t dry age the steak) Pat the steak thoroughly dry with paper towels to remove any moisture. This ensures a beautifully crisp sear.

• Season: Salt both sides generously, rubbing the salt into the meat with your fingertips. Let the steak sit, allowing the salt to enhance its flavor.
• Heat the skillet: Before cooking, heat the skillet and add olive oil and butter to a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Allow it to heat until shimmering and very hot.

Sear the Meat

• Place the steak in the skillet: Carefully lay the steak into the hot skillet.

Chef's Tip: Avoid overcrowding; cook one or two steaks at a time to ensure a strong sear.

• Sear on each side: Sear for 2-3 minutes per side until a deep golden-brown crust forms. Use tongs to flip, and baste the steak with the butter and oil as it sears.

Tip for Beginners: Press lightly with tongs—resistance indicates a rare steak, while a firmer feel means it’s closer to medium.

Cook in the Oven (Optional)

• Transfer to the oven: Place the skillet in the middle of the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 4-8 minutes, depending on the steak's thickness and desired doneness.
• Use a thermometer: Check the thickest part of the steak with a digital meat thermometer to determine when to remove it from the oven. 

Refer to the temperature chart below for your preferred doneness level.

Temperature Chart

• Remove from oven : Transfer the steak to a cutting board or baking tray and loosely tent with foil.
• Rest for 5-10 minutes: This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the steak for maximum flavor and tenderness.

Serve and Enjoy

• Slice against the grain for tenderness and serve with your favorite sides

Tip for Extra Flavor: Add a pat of Herb Compound Butter or sprinkle freshly ground black pepper over the steak before serving.

Tips for First-Time and Experienced Cooks

• First-Time Cooks: Use a thermometer for accuracy, and don’t rush the searing process. Let the skillet do the work to achieve a beautifully browned crust.
• For Experienced Cooks: Experiment with basting aromatics like garlic or fresh rosemary or thyme to the butter-oil mix during the final minute of searing for a flavor boost.

Chef’s Tips

• Room Temperature: Bringing the steak to room temperature ensures even cooking.
• Cast Iron Skillet: Retains heat well, providing a good sear.
• Dry Brine: Seasoning ahead allows the salt to penetrate, enhancing flavor.
• Marbling: Choose steaks with good marbling for a juicy steak.
• Maillard Reaction: The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring the addition of heat. Like caramelization, it is a form of non-enzymatic browning. Browning, or the Maillard reaction, creates flavor and changes the color of food. Maillard reactions generally only begin to occur above 285°F (140°C). Until the Maillard reaction occurs meat will have less flavor.
• Use the Internal Temperature, Not Cooking Time as a guide: Use a digital meat thermometer for accurate doneness.
• Thickness of Your Steak: Thicker cuts require more cooking time; adjust accordingly.
• Butter When Searing: Adds richness and helps in browning.
• Resting: Let the steak rest to allow juices to redistribute for maximum flavor.

What to Serve With Steak

• French fries for a classic steak frites.
• Crispy oven baked potato wedges.
• Roast potatoes, olive oil mashed potatoes, or creamy potatoes au gratin.
• Grilled asparagus, sautéed mushrooms, roasted vegetables, carrots with honey and thyme glaze, or French green beans almondine.
• A green salad with apple cider vinaigrette adds freshness to your meal.

Storage Instructions

Fridge

• Perfectly grilled steak is best enjoyed fresh. It is easy to overcook steak when reheating. Store leftovers in an airtight container for 3-5 days. Use in salads, sandwiches, or tacos.

Freezer

• Raw steak can be frozen for 3-4 months. We don’t recommend freezing cooked steak as the texture changes and not for the better.

Reheat

• Place leftovers in a baking dish with a little beef stock or water at the bottom. Seal with aluminum foil. Reheat in the oven for 10 minutes at 250°F (120°C).

What Dessert to Serve with Steak

• Something Chocolaty: Indulge in Chocolate Ganache Cake or Chocolate Mousse.
• Tangy Citrus: Try Key Lime Pie or Orange Panna Cotta for a refreshing finish.
• Refreshingly Fruity: Enjoy a Blackberry and Apple Crisp or Pavlova with berries and lemon curd.
• Totally Decadent: Treat yourself to Italian Tiramisu or a No-Bake Cheesecake.

Best Wine Pairings for Steak

• Sirloin: Syrah, Tempranillo, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
• Ribeye Steak: Cabernet Sauvignon, Valpolicella, Zinfandel.
• Porterhouse and T-Bone Steak: Nebbiolo, Shiraz.
• Filet Mignon: Merlot, Touriga Nacional, Pinot Noir.
• Strip Steak: GSM Blend (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre), South African Bordeaux-style blend (Merlot, Cabernet, Gamay).
• Flank and Skirt Steak: Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Grenache.

Dry Red Wines: Leaner cuts of meat pair well with lighter wines, while richer, fattier cuts match with high-tannin wines that cut through the fat.

Chardonnay: Provides a crisp contrast to the richness of the meat.

Rosé: A dry, full-bodied rosé complements a fatty steak just as well as a red.

FAQ's

Cooking steak in the oven at 400°F (200°C) is a simple and effective method to achieve a delicious steak with a perfect sear and tender juicy interior. With the right cut of meat, a hot cast-iron skillet, and careful monitoring of the internal temperature, you can easily enjoy a restaurant-quality meal at home.

Next time you're craving a juicy steak, try this oven method and elevate your dinner to a special occasion. Don't forget to share your experience in the comments below!

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The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.