Cowboy Sous Vide
Howdy, everyone! Thanks for stopping by the website. Today’s video is going to show you how to emulate the French cooking style known as “sous vide.” Now, if you speak French, you know that “sous vide” means “vacuum.” The way sous vide works is that the meat is placed inside a vacuum sealed bag and all the air is sucked out of it. The bag is sealed and kept in a pool of water that holds a constant temperature until the food reaches it’s desired temperature.
Sous Vide is a popular method because the vacuum seal helps break down the steak to absorb more of the seasonings and, boy does it make a tender piece of meat. The thing is, I don’t have a lot of the fancy equipment a sous vide chef uses. I am going to show you how to make a sous vide steak the Cowboy way, and you don’t need much more equipment than a big zip bag, a straw, and a Yeti cooler.
Cowboy Sous Vide
Before we start anything, go on and boil some water and pour it in the Yeti cooler. By the way, Yeti isn’t paying me to say this. The reason I specify to use a Yeti cooler is that it has a rubber seal over the top and it will hold a consistent temperature for a few hours, making this the perfect vessel for cooking a steak sous vide. Anyway, the reason we are pouring the hot water into the cooler ahead of time is that it’s going to pre-heat the cooler. This way, when we put in the water that is just the right temperature for sous vide, the cooler will be hot and will hold the heat.
Tip: Pre-heat your cooler by storing near-boiling water inside before you start.
Before we put the steak in the bag, make sure you season well. Most people over-cook and under-season their steak. Kent Rollins’ Original Seasoning does not cover up the flavor of the steak, it enhances the flavor. Rub the seasoning well into both sides of the steaks.
If you happen to have a vacuum sealer, and I’m sure a lot of you do, you’ll get one of the bags that is made for your machine. Place the seasoned steak inside the bag and seal. If you do not have a vacuum sealer, do not worry. Grab you a plastic zipper bag large enough to hold your steak, and a straw. Zip the entire bag up except for the straw, which should be sticking out from the corner. Push as much of the air out of the bag as you can with the straw. You can seal it up here or even suck the rest of the air out through the straw and then immediately seal the bag.
Tip: You can use a plastic zipper bag with a straw to get all the air out if you don’t have a vacuum sealer.
Now, throw the pre-heated water out of the cooler and bring enough water to completely submerge your steaks to exactly 135-140 degrees F. Pour the water in the cooler, submerge the steaks, and seal the cooler lid. Wait two hours.
Searing the Steak
Once the two hours are up, the steak should be cooked through and tender. The last step is to sear the outside to create a delicious crust. You can do this by preheating your grill really hot – I’m talking about 450 – 500 degrees hot – and searing both sides for a couple of minutes. Or, you can use fire. That’s what I did.
Tip: You can sear your sous vide steak with a direct flame when it’s finished cooking for maximum flavor.
Once you get a good char on the outside of the steak, make sure you let the steak rest for 4-5 minutes. Then? It’s time to dig in.
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Cowboy Sous Vide – Cowboy Kent Rollins
Ingredients
- 2 12 ounce NY Strip Steaks
- Kent Rollins' Original Seasoning or favorite all-purpose seasoning
- 2 to 3 gallons water
Instructions
- Generously season the steaks on both sides with the seasoning and place in a vacuum sealed bag. Note: use only 1 to 2 steaks per bag.
- Boil some water and pour in your ice chest to pre warm it. While the cooler pre-heats, warm 2 – 3 gallons of water to 135 to 140 degrees F. on a stovetop. Pour the water out of the ice chest, then pour in the 140 degree F. water in a Yeti ice chest or an air-tight sealed cooler.
- Place the bags of steak in the ice chest and close the lid, let set for at least 2 hours, do not open the lid at this time.
- Clean and pre-heat the grill to 450 to 500 degrees F.
- Remove steaks from ice chest and bag. Place on the grill. Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until your desired doneness.
- Let rest for 4 to 5 minutes and serve.
