How to BBQ Steak

Steak is one of the best things to cook on your BBQ. The high temperature of the BBQ means you can give your steak a fantastic sear and plenty of colour on the outside, whilst still being rare (or however you like it!) on the inside.

When cooking steak on the BBQ, make sure you go for something thick cut, 1-1.5 inches at least.

Ribeye is our favourite steak to cook on the BBQ as it's fattier, which means more flavour, but sirloin works well too, just make sure it's got good marbling throughout the steak.

When cooking steak on the BBQ, your choice of charcoal is as important as your choice of steak.

Steak isn't cheap, so if you're going to treat yourself and spend money on good quality steak, don't let it be tainted with chemicals from cheap 'instant light' charcoal. 

We use British, restaurant grade lumpwood charcoal which means there are no added chemicals, so you get a hot, clean burn to get that gorgeous sear, and a perfect Maillard reaction without that horrible artificially smelling smoke imparting a weird taste on your food.

If you want to learn how to cook a perfect steak on your BBQ, we recommend watching the video - it's less than four minutes long!

Dry brine the steak with salt and leave in the fridge overnight. Make sure you pat or rub the salt in and if you're using nice thick steak, don't forget to season the edges.

Take the steak out of the fridge around an hour before you want to cook it so that it can warm up to room temperature.

Before we can cook the steak, we need to set up the BBQ.

Put around half a chimney starter's worth of unlit charcoal on one half of your charcoal grate in your BBQ, then fill a chimney starter and get it lit. When it's ready, pour the lit charcoal out on top of the unlit charcoal and put the cooking grate back on your BBQ. 

Not sure how to light your charcoal BBQ? Check out this article first.

Close the lid of your BBQ and set the top vent to be half open and the vent on the bottom of your BBQ to be almost completely closed.

Finish preparing your steaks by patting them down with kitchen roll and making sure they're really dry, then rub on some oil - I prefer British rapeseed oil.

Open the lid of your BBQ and, using tongs, place the steak on the cooking grate on the hottest part of the BBQ, directly above the lit charcoal.

Move and turn the steak over frequently with the tongs - we're looking for a good sear all over the steak, not gridlines!

Fat from the steak will probably drip through the BBQ grill onto the charcoal below causing flames to flare up. If this happens, just move the steak out of the way of the direct flame until it dies down - you don't want to be cooking in the direct flame.

Once you have a good sear on the outside of your steak, move it to the 'indirect' side of the BBQ, ie. not directly above the burning charcoal.

Probe it regularly with a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature, and pull the steak off the BBQ when it hits the right temperature.

Rest your steak for around 5 minutes before cutting. Resting is such an important part of cooking steak so don't get impatient and skip it!