Alex Guarnaschelli Says To Do This Before Making Sous Vide Steaks

Sous vide is one of the hottest culinary techniques of the moment. The method involves cooking food that's sealed in plastic in a bath of hot water for a long period of time. It's risen in popularity for both professional and home chefs alike because it allows you full control over your food's doneness and temperature. Meaning, you don't have to worry about undercooking or overcooking your food. And the best reason to use this technique? It requires very little effort on your part.

You can sous vide almost anything, from eggs to veggies to meat. You can even sous vide steak, whether it's a ribeye or a filet. Cooking it in a plastic bag allows the steak to soak up all those juices and flavors, resulting in a delicious cut of meat. While it isn't a complicated process, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Here's one of celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli's top tips for cooking steak sous vide.

Alex Guarnaschelli — who you may know as a judge on the Food Network's "Chopped" — is such a fan of the trendy cooking method that she has her own line of sous vide steaks available at QVC. That exact product is what prompted one fan to reach out about how exactly they should prepare steaks sous vide. "I recently bought your [sous vide] steaks from QVC but the instructions don't tell me if I have to defrost before cooking to temp preferred," a user tweeted at Guarnaschelli. Her response was simple and to the point: "Yes. Defrost first."

Here's a fun hack, you can actually use your sous vide cooker to defrost the steak, too. Talk about two birds with one stone! According to Reddit, it takes just a few minutes and you may not even need to set a temperature. Some users say the circulation of the water is enough to slowly defrost your meat.