Name: Huge T-Bone Steak
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 57 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 2 (16-20 oz each) T-bone steaks, 1.5 inches thick; generously kosher salt; to taste freshly cracked black pepper; 1 tbsp neutral oil; 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened; 2 garlic cloves, finely minced; 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped; 1 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped; 1 tsp lemon zest; for finishing flaky sea salt

Huge T-Bone Steak

Prep

45m

Cook

12m

Total

57m

Bigly says

T-bone. T-BONE! Two steaks. Two steaks in one. On one side of the bone — the strip. On the other side — the tenderloin. You are getting a New York strip AND a filet mignon, in a single cut, separated by a bone, for the price of one steak. This is the best deal in the entire meat case and I cannot understand why anyone orders anything else. It's a scandal. It's been going on for years. Other so-called steak experts will tell you porterhouse is better because the tenderloin section is bigger — and yes, fine, technically true, a porterhouse is just a T-bone with a bigger filet — but the T-bone is the people's steak. Tremendous portion. Tremendous flavor. Tremendous.

Hand on heart, the best T-bone of my life was cooked over hardwood coals in a backyard in Texas in August. The pitmaster, a man with the hands of someone who has broken at least one car door in anger, didn't say a word. He salted it, he let it sit, he laid it on the grate, he flipped it once, he pulled it off. He handed it to me on a white plate with NOTHING — no sauce, no butter, no garnish, no $12 strawberry — and that steak ended a conversation I was having about whether grills are better than skillets. They are. For this cut, they are. End of discussion.

The trick — and this is going to sound crazy but stay with me — is that the tenderloin side cooks FASTER than the strip side. Different muscles. Different fat content. Different timing. If you put the steak on the grill flat, the filet overcooks while you're waiting for the strip to finish. So you angle the steak. The bone toward the hottest part, the tenderloin AWAY from the heat, and you let geometry do the work. Restaurant chefs cut this corner. Don't. Five extra seconds of thought, and you get both sides perfect. Easy math.

Ingredients

2 (16-20 oz each)T-bone steaks, 1.5 inches thick
generouslykosher salt
to tastefreshly cracked black pepper
1 tbspneutral oil
4 tbspunsalted butter, softened
2garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tbspfresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tbspfresh chives, finely chopped
1 tsplemon zest
for finishingflaky sea salt

Steps

1
Salt the steaks generously on all sides 45 minutes before grilling. Let them sit on a rack at room temperature.
2
Mash the softened butter with the minced garlic, parsley, chives, and lemon zest. Set aside on a piece of plastic and roll into a log. Refrigerate.
3
Prepare a charcoal grill with a hot zone (full bed of coals) and a cooler zone (no coals beneath). For gas: heat one side to high, leave the other off.
4
Pat the steaks completely dry. Brush lightly with oil and grind black pepper over both sides.
5
Place each steak on the grill so the strip side is over the hot zone and the tenderloin side is over the cooler zone. The bone acts as the divider.
6
Sear 4-5 minutes without moving, until deep grill marks form and the steak releases easily.
7
Flip, keeping the tenderloin side over the cooler zone. Cook another 3-4 minutes.
8
Check internal temperature on the strip side: pull at 125F for medium-rare (the filet side will be a touch less, which is correct).
9
Transfer to a cutting board and rest 8 minutes.
10
Cut each side of the bone off as a single piece. Slice the strip section across the grain into thick pieces and slice the tenderloin section the same way. Reassemble around the bone on a serving board.
11
Top with a thick slice of the herb butter and a pinch of flaky sea salt. Serve immediately.

One more thing

Set it on a wooden board with the bone in the middle, slices fanning out on either side. People will gasp. Let them gasp. Grilled corn on the cob, a wedge of charred lemon, an ice-cold beer — that's the whole night. Don't overthink the sides. The steak is the headliner and everyone in the room knows it. Don't say I never gave you anything.