If there’s one recipe I come back to again and again when I want a restaurant-style steak with garlic butter at home, it’s this one. It uses no unusual ingredients or endless cooking times: steak, butter, garlic, and some freshly boiled baby potatoes. What really makes the difference isn’t what you put in the pan, but how you cook it, and here I explain the exact technique I use to get a perfect golden crust and juicy meat in under 10 minutes.
The garlic-butter steak technique: what is "basting"
Before you ask: no, the garlic in this recipe is not confit. Confit means cooking it slowly and at a low temperature in oil for quite a while, and here the garlic is browned in the same pan, in the same minutes as the meat. The technique that makes this garlic-butter steak special has a name in French cuisine: basting (or "arroser").
It consists of basting the meat constantly with its own fat as it cooks. With a spoon, you keep scooping up the melted butter from the pan and pouring it over the steak again and again. The result is a piece of meat flavored inside and out, with a much more even browning than if you made it only on the griddle.
For the technique to work well, the whole garlic cloves (with the skin on, just smashed) and a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme are added to the pan along with the butter, once the meat has been seared on one side. As soon as the butter starts to foam and turn hazelnut brown, it’s time to keep spooning the steak constantly.
One trick that has changed the result for me: using a heavy-bottomed pan that distributes heat evenly across the whole pan, including the sides, like my OXO Mira Series stainless steel. With a base like that, the butter browns evenly without burning anywhere, and the handles stay cool even though the heat is high, which is exactly what this sear needs.
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- 2 steaks of about 250 g each, at room temperature
- 500 g baby potatoes
- 50 g butter
- 4-6 garlic cloves, whole and unpeeled (just smashed)
- 2-3 sprigs of rosemary or fresh thyme
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to make garlic-butter steak step by step
- Put the baby potatoes in a saucepan with cold water and salt (we used the OXO Mira 3-ply), bring to a boil, and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until tender when pierced. Drain them, add a drizzle of olive oil, chopped parsley, and a pinch of salt, and keep them covered so they don’t lose heat.
- Pat the steaks dry with paper towels and season them generously with salt and pepper on both sides. It’s key that the meat is at room temperature before it hits the pan.
- Add a drizzle of olive oil to the OXO stainless steel pan and heat it over high heat until it just starts to smoke lightly.
- Place the meat in the pan and do not move it for 2-3 minutes, until a golden crust forms. Then turn it over.
- Lower the heat slightly and add the butter, smashed garlic cloves, and rosemary or thyme directly to the pan, next to the meat.
- Now you’ll apply the basting technique I mentioned above: as soon as the butter starts to foam, tilt the pan slightly and, with a spoon, keep scooping up the browned butter and pouring it over the steak repeatedly for 2-3 minutes, depending on the doneness you want.
- Remove the meat from the pan and let it rest for 4-5 minutes on a board before slicing, so the juices redistribute properly.
- Slice the steak and serve it with the baby potatoes, with a little of the butter from the pan on top. That’s it, plain and simple—that’s how it’s best enjoyed.
Comments
- Cooking time: as a guide, for a steak about 2.5-3 cm thick, allow 2 minutes per side for rare, 3-4 minutes for medium, and 5-6 minutes for well done. The butter-basting time is added to the initial searing time, not instead of it.
- Why a 3-ply pan like the OXO Mira Series: the aluminum core between two layers of stainless steel distributes heat much more evenly than a single-layer pan, so the butter browns evenly without burning anywhere while you baste. Also, the thick base holds heat better when searing the meat, which is key to getting that golden crust from the very start.
- Storage: leftover baby potatoes will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. If there’s any meat left, it’s best kept whole and sliced just before eating, so it doesn’t dry out.
- Pairing: a young red wine, full-bodied but not too tannic (for example, a young Ribera del Duero or a Rioja crianza), goes very well with the butter and browned garlic in this dish.
