How to Reverse Sear a Steak on the Grill

A reverse sear is the normal order of steak cooking turned around. Instead of searing first and finishing gently, you bring the inside up to temperature slowly and then brown the outside at the very end. For a thick steak it is simply a better method, and it is the technique that most reliably turns a two-inch ribeye from an expensive disappointment into the best steak somebody has cooked at home.

The reason it works is thickness. Weber puts it plainly: most steaks up to an inch thick can be cooked over direct high heat, but thicker steaks need finessing. Sear a two-inch steak from raw over a hot fire and you are asking one heat source to do two contradictory jobs — brown a surface in minutes while warming a center that needs much longer. The outside overcooks into a gray band before the middle catches up.

Which steaks this is for

Use the reverse sear on anything over an inch thick: a thick-cut ribeye or New York strip, a tomahawk, a filet, a thick sirloin, a tri-tip. Below an inch, skip it — a thin steak will be cooked through before the gentle stage has achieved anything, and you lose the crust you were trying to protect. Our guide to steak cuts covers which cuts come thick in the first place, and how to grill a steak is the simpler method for everything thinner.

The temperatures

There are two numbers in play and they do different jobs. The first is the doneness temperature you want to end at. The second is the pull temperature — lower, because a steak keeps cooking after it leaves the grill, and because you still have the sear to come.

The pull column is Weber’s rule of about 10°F below target, applied to each doneness. The finished column is a doneness preference rather than a safety rule: the USDA’s safe minimum internal temperature for whole cuts of beef is 145°F, followed by a three-minute rest, and anything under that is a choice the cook is making. The USDA is also clear that color is not a reliable test of doneness — which is why this method depends on a thermometer rather than on cutting into the steak to look.

Two zones, and why the lid matters

Everything here needs a grill set up with heat on one side and nothing on the other. On charcoal, bank the coals to one half of the bowl. On gas, light one or two burners and leave the rest off. Weber’s reverse-sear instruction for a kettle is to start the steak over the side without charcoal.

Keep the lid closed during the gentle stage. An open grill with the heat off to one side is not an oven, it is a draft — the steak loses heat from above as fast as it gains it from below, and the stage takes forever. With the lid down, the dome holds warm air around the whole steak. Our direct vs indirect heat guide goes further into the arrangement, which is the single most useful thing to understand about a grill.

What to look for in the gear

This method is almost entirely free. It needs no accessory a grill does not already have, with one exception and one optional extra.

The exception is a thermometer, and it is not optional. The entire method is built on a pull temperature, and without a probe you are guessing at the one number that decides the outcome. Look for an instant-read that reads in a few seconds, and get a thin probe tip — a fat probe leaves a visible hole and lets juice out. A leave-in probe is the step up: it reads continuously, so you watch the climb toward the pull temperature instead of opening the lid repeatedly.

The optional extra is mass for the sear. If the grill cannot get properly hot — a pellet grill topping out at 500°F, a tired gas grill — cast iron on the grate stores far more heat than the bars do and will brown a steak when the grill alone will not. And a long pair of tongs is the difference between turning a steak over a 600°F fire and flinching at it.

How to reverse sear a steak, step by step

1. Salt and let it sit. Season generously with coarse salt. If there is time, do it 40 minutes ahead or more; if not, do it now.
2. Set up two zones. Bank the charcoal to one side, or light only some of the burners. Weber starts the steak over the side without charcoal.
3. Cook gently, lid down. Put the steak on the cool side and close the lid. Check with a thermometer in the thickest part, not near the edge or a bone.
4. Pull it about 10°F early. Weber’s rule is to cook it to about 10 degrees of the target temperature before searing — so roughly 120–125°F for a 130–135°F medium rare.
5. Sear over the fire. Move it directly over the hot coals or burners and sear each face until the crust is deep brown. This is fast — stay with it.
6. Rest. Weber rests the steak about 10 minutes once it reaches its final temperature. Then cut against the grain.

The mistakes that spoil it

Starting with a wet surface. A damp steak steams before it browns. Pat it dry before the sear, and expect a better crust if the gentle stage dried the surface out a little.

Searing too long. The inside is already where you want it. Every extra thirty seconds over the fire is thirty seconds of overcooking from the outside in.

Guessing the pull temperature. The whole method is a number. If you cannot measure it, cook the steak the ordinary way instead — our guide to using a meat thermometer covers where the probe goes in each cut.

Trying it on a thin steak. Under an inch, go straight over direct high heat. The reverse sear has nothing to offer a half-inch steak.