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Air-Fryer Steak with Garlic-Herb Butter
Updated April 4, 2024
![Air-Fryer Steak with Garlic-Herb Butter](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/09/28/multimedia/EP-Air-Fryer-Steak-vbkt/EP-Air-Fryer-Steak-vbkt-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1¼teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Kosher)
- ¾teaspoon brown sugar
- ½teaspoon black pepper
- ¼teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1(12- to 16-ounce) boneless steak, such as sirloin, strip or ribeye, about 1 inch thick
- Olive oil, for brushing, or olive oil cooking spray
- Flaky salt, for serving
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter (½ stick), softened
- 3garlic cloves, grated
- 1½teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1½teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 1teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1teaspoon lemon zest
- ½teaspoon flaky salt
For the Steak
For the Garlic-herb Butter
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring steak to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Heat air fryer to 400 degrees, if preheating is recommended.
- Step 2
Combine salt, brown sugar, pepper, coriander and paprika in a small bowl. Pat steak dry with paper towels and brush with olive oil. Rub the spice blend all over the steak. (Steak can be seasoned and left uncovered in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.)
- Step 3
Transfer the steak to the air fryer basket. Cook for 5 minutes. Flip the steak and cook to medium-rare, 3 to 5 minutes more. (Remove the steak from the air fryer once an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part reaches 130 degrees; it will increase 5 to 10 degrees while resting and eventually climb to 135, or medium-rare.). Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, make the garlic-herb butter: In a small bowl, combine butter, garlic, parsley, thyme, rosemary, lemon zest and flaky salt until well combined. (Any leftover garlic-herb butter can be kept in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 1 month or frozen for up to 3 months.)
- Step 5
Add a spoonful of the garlic-herb butter on top of the steak, sliced or unsliced, and top with any leftover chopped herbs, pepper and more flaky salt, if desired.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
How can I make this vegan?
I'm sure the comments about this one will be well-reasoned and level-headed!
What can I substitute if I dont have an airfryer or steak?
Serious substitutions here; most important that I had rwo inch-thick bone-in pork chops. Didn't have thyme, coriander, lemon or flaky salt. But still, wow... One surprise: we very rarely use raw garlic in anything and it really stood out (in a good way). And don't plan on kissing anyone later who didn't share this meal with you. ENERGY SAVER: I put the little Pyrex dish with the herb butter behind the air fryer and the hot blown air did the melting! OK, that's obsessive...
What I love here is the simplicity and ease if you've brought your steak up to room temp in advance and your steak is not super-thin. Be sure to test the temp at 5 mins and adjust accordingly. Extremely useful technique overall. I've done this a few times - working up from a real-cheap cut to a much more expensive cut. Helps keep my mostly-vegetarian kitchen mostly grease-free.
This worked surprisingly well for a relatively thin sirloin. It didn’t have the nice crust you get with other methods. But it was fast, energy-efficient and easy to clean up, and the steak came out perfectly medium-rare after 9 minutes without setting off any smoke alarms.
I'd crank the heat up to 500 or more. Also, if it's a strip steak, I'd lean into a rosemary and lemon based chimichurri.
John, I don't have an airfryer or steak, but I'm going to try making it with a chicken breast in my microwave.
I'm going to admit, the air fryer has produced one of the best steaks I've made at home. I grill, smoke, reverse-sear, cast iron butter baste, etc, etc. But. My brother and I got a couple of 1.5" prime, well-marbled ribeyes. Seasoned well overnight in the fridge. Used the "grill" setting, med-high. and had temp probes set to 125 degrees. Flipped maybe at 80 degrees. The crusty sear is something hard to recreate. I've made other steaks that stopped conversation, but not with that crust.
My steaks were a little thin so they cooked faster. Subbed Penzeys Chicago Steak seasoning and only made 1Tbsp of butter and it was a thoroughly enjoyable, quick and easy main dish.
I was a bit disappointed in this. No crisp-crusty surface on the steak, as you’d get with grilling, which I feel is one of the best parts of steak. Maybe that’s asking too much of an air fryer. We have a built-in air fryer in our oven (Frigidaire “Professoonal”) so maybe it’s not as good as stand-alone ones -? Also, cooked ~3/4” sirloin steaks for 5 then another 5 mins but it was still rare in spots. Again, maybe that’s our air fryer. The spice rub was ok but didn’t really shine through for me.
does this stink up your air fryer/oven from the grease? i havent had great luck doing meats in my breville in this regard....
This was so good. Air fryers vary, so check the temp before you think it's done. Mine took 5 min and then 2 min to reach medium rare.
I’ll do this for Valentine Day for my wife. We’re elderly, so there’s only the two of us. Buying all the fresh spices isn’t practical, so I’ll just use reduced amounts of dried of which we have plenty. We have an air fryer, but cooking the steak in a cast iron skillet is also an option. Either way, it will be medium rare and done with love.
Dear NYT: I never cooked steak before. Thank you for this SUPER easy recipe. I made it for Valentine's Day and it turned out great!!! Yes even I can cook steak now!!
This worked surprisingly well for a relatively thin sirloin. It didn’t have the nice crust you get with other methods. But it was fast, energy-efficient and easy to clean up, and the steak came out perfectly medium-rare after 9 minutes without setting off any smoke alarms.
Serious substitutions here; most important that I had rwo inch-thick bone-in pork chops. Didn't have thyme, coriander, lemon or flaky salt. But still, wow... One surprise: we very rarely use raw garlic in anything and it really stood out (in a good way). And don't plan on kissing anyone later who didn't share this meal with you. ENERGY SAVER: I put the little Pyrex dish with the herb butter behind the air fryer and the hot blown air did the melting! OK, that's obsessive...
The recipe calls for 8-10 minutes in the air fryer and then 10 minutes of rest time. Why is the cook time 35 min?
I've noticed many of these cook times are off. I can't figure out how they're calculating it.
What I love here is the simplicity and ease if you've brought your steak up to room temp in advance and your steak is not super-thin. Be sure to test the temp at 5 mins and adjust accordingly. Extremely useful technique overall. I've done this a few times - working up from a real-cheap cut to a much more expensive cut. Helps keep my mostly-vegetarian kitchen mostly grease-free.
I'd crank the heat up to 500 or more. Also, if it's a strip steak, I'd lean into a rosemary and lemon based chimichurri.
I'm sure the comments about this one will be well-reasoned and level-headed!
G Mac: This comment is perfect!
How can I make this vegan?
What can I substitute if I dont have an airfryer or steak?
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