This Is Giada De Laurentiis' Trick For Making Steak In A Cast Iron Skillet

One of the very best ways you can use your cast iron skillet is to sear a steak. But is searing in a cast iron skillet really the best way to cook steak? While every chef seems to have their own preferred steak-cooking method, some don't actually involve a cast iron skillet at all. Those that like to make use of cast iron for wrangling red meat tend to have their own tricks of the trade, and the one that keeps coming up the most lately is the "reverse sear," which involves a quick sear on a cast iron pan before finishing in the oven.

But cooking show host, cookbook author, chef, and FOF (Friend of Flay), Giada De Laurentiis has a trick for making steak in a cast iron skillet that doesn't require turning on the oven at all (unless you insist on well-done or medium-well-done steak, in which case, no judgment here). De Laurentiis recently posted a ribeye cooking tutorial on Instagram, but here's all you really need to know (via Yahoo).

Giada De Laurentiis has turned the reverse-sear on its head with a recent Instagram post explaining her trick to making the perfect steak in a cast iron skillet (via Instagram). Rather than quickly searing the steak before popping it in the oven to finish, De Laurentiis does the whole thing on the stove using nothing more than the intense heat of the skillet and ... patience. 

It's simple, really. After massaging olive oil and Kosher salt onto both sides of a thick steak and heating the cast iron skillet to a hot enough temperature that the heat can actually be seen coming off it, De Laurentiis tosses the meat onto the hot pan and proceeds to do absolutely nothing — for anywhere from three to five minutes. That's how long it takes for the salt, oil, and meat proteins to develop into a perfect crust. And that crust is everything, according to De Laurentiis, because it literally suspends the steak slightly off the hot pan. 

After developing the crust on the first side, she flips the steak over and repeats the process, after which she takes the steak off the heat and lets it rest for 20 minutes. "Do not move it around. Do not flip it early," De Laurentiis clarifies. "You want to leave the meat alone." 

While the cast iron is incredibly efficient for searing steak, here are the foods you should never cook in a cast iron skillet.