It’s finally summer. You have friends over, prep all your meat and veggies, bust out the grill, and run out of propane when your steak is halfway done cooking because you forgot to stock up for the first barbecue of the season. Maybe you were even following Hugh Acheson’s 12 essential tips for grilling steak. We’ve all been there. But that steak was expensive and you have guests waiting, so it’s time to improvise. The best way to finish cooking your steak if your grill runs out of propane is to take it to a cast iron pan on your stovetop.
Don’t panic when your grill fizzles out and your steak still needs time to sizzle. A cast iron pan is your best bet because it’s going to give your steak a crispy, flavorful crust similar to what you were hoping to achieve on the grill. It’s also a relatively fast way to finish cooking your steak. You will want to preheat your cast iron skillet over a high heat, drizzle a very small amount of high-heat cooking oil (like grapeseed or canola) to coat the bottom, then simply add your meat. Since it will have rested a bit and continued to cook in the time off the grill, use a meat thermometer while cooking to make sure it does not get past that ideal temperature — about 145 degrees for a medium steak. Sear the steak on all sides, but depending on the thickness of the meat and how far you got on the grill, it might only take a minute or two to finish cooking.
Add flavor to your stovetop steak
While your steak is finishing in the cast iron skillet, add a tablespoon or two of butter to the pan. You can also throw in a clove or two of garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme. Then, take a spoon and baste your steak as it’s cooking, bathing it in the butter, which has become infused with the garlic and rosemary. This is a very easy way to level up your steak (and add some flavor that you would not have even gotten on the grill).
As your steak finishes cooking, resist flipping it too early. As long as the temperature is in a good spot, you will want to wait to flip it ideally until the steak lifts off the bottom of the pan on its own. That’s how you know you have achieved that nice crusty outside layer. Is your half-grill, half-cast iron panic steak going to be the perfect steak? Maybe, maybe not. But if you douse it in butter and keep the internal temperature from rising too high, you will end up with a crowd-pleasing meal.
