Wanna Do A Great Ribeye On My Big Green Egg

[BradNorthGA]

I'm wanting to do a Ribeye, and I have been reading about how to do steaks and reverse searing on the site here. However, my cooker is a Big Green Egg, which cannot do 2-zone cooking so I am wondering how I should proceed. The review here for Big Green Egg mentions the "Eggspander" working quite well, but that's $160 which is a lot of money for me right now to be honest. If I must, I could save up.

What I am leaning towards is this, which I copy-and-paste from Meathead's article on how to grill better-than-steakhouse steaks:

"On a kamado, remove the meat and put it on a platter. Lift out the deflector plate. Open the lower vent all the way and get the coals good and hot. Use a hair drier in the bottom vent if needed. Lower the cooking grate as close to the coals as possible. an put the steaks back on. Lid open."

Very tempted to try that, but I was wondering what y'all thought? Or any other advice?

Also this might be a really dumb question...but would it work to simply do the 225 degree first part on the Big Green Egg, then move it inside on throw it on a hot cast iron skillet on the oven for sear? Probably not, but I figured I'd ask because I'm trying to learn

Thanks in advance!

[Jfrosty27]

Absolutely you can use a cast iron skillet to sear. If fact that is one of the best ways to do it. However be aware that there will be smoke to contend with. Have whatever vent fan you have running on high!

[Panhead John]

Agree with Jfrosty27 You can even do a Blackened Ribeye by doing it on the CI afterwards, if you have a good blackened seasoning. Just get the CI smoking hot first. Those are really tasty!

[bbqLuv]

it's hard to blacken steak and keep MR. They be good.

[smokin fool]

I don't know how adjustable the BGE is but on my BKK I can raise the fire bowl and lower the cooking grate so gain 5 inches or so.
Crank open both dampers, it'll hit 6-700 degrees.
Never considered CI, there'd be third degree burns involved.

[BradNorthGA]

BGE not that adjustable, I think I'd have to do what Meathead described in my quote above instead if I did it all on the BGE

[Huskee]

You can sorta do 2-zone on a round kamado by using distance, (which is basically what Mh is describing) it's just not possible to do 2-zone simultaneously as we all know. But cast iron is a kick-butt searing setup. I LOVE to do my steaks on my pellet cooker and sear in the house in a CI skillet. It rocks. And you can still smell it tomorrow morning when you come to the kitchen to make coffee!

[ecowper]

Get a Weber chimney and a cheap grate. Get some charcoal roaring hot in the chimney, throw the grate over it. WHen the steak is cooked to your IT preference on the BGE, throw it on the chimney and sear

[BradNorthGA]

How much charcoal would I put in the chimney, fill it all the way to the top?

[Oakgrovebacon]

1/2 full is enough-it will be very hot with the chimney draw feeding the fire

[scottranda]

BradNorthGA 1/2 is fine. 3/4 and full is better. But you can experiment.

[Panhead John]

Let us know what you decided and how it turned out. Remember.....you can always microwave it for that really good sear!

[jhoskins]

Panhead John you and your microwaving steaks man

[Panhead John]

I have reasons. The more people who do that....the better my steaks look at SUWYC.

[xaugievike]

I'll echo the spirit of the advice you got above from Ecowper....but I got a Smokey Joe to do the job with.

[ecowper]

yeah, a smokey joe would do the trick, too

[BradNorthGA]

Another question I have as I prepare for this...

My favorite local butcher often has the "tomahawk ribeye" on display behind the counter. Does the reverse sear method described on this site work just as well if the ribeye still has a bone in it, or am I best off going with boneless ones?

[scottranda]

Works the same!

[Panhead John]

+1

[ecowper]

works great on bone in ribeyes! ANd the tomahawk just looks cool

[bbqLuv]

Big Green Eggs and Ham. I should say it was a rib eye, by the way. To Grill, a steak is to make it great.
I enjoy them medium-rare paired with a PBR if you dare.

[bardsleyque]

you live near one of the micro brew mecca's and wax on about PBR...

[Panhead John]

Brad. Get the Tomahawk Ribeye. Do the reverse sear. You will get many oohs and aaahs from the crowd. Between rare and medium rare

[Smoldering Flea]

Will the cast iron pan fit in the egg? If so, why not just use the cast iron skillet as your deflector plate? Put the pan on the grill grate. use a wire rack, smaller grill grate, metal skewers laid across the top of the pan etc., to lift the steak off the pan (preferably above the lip of the pan) and cook indirect. then just throw the steak on the pan when its time to sear.

But to answer your first question, there's nothing wrong with finishing indoors.

To answer your second question, I don't think bone-in or boneless DIRECTLY matter. I suppose it indirectly matters insofar as a bone-in tomahawk is probably thicker and the bone will cause more uneven temperature because the bone will insulate the nearby meat. Both would benefit from reverse sear vs. traditional.

[BradNorthGA]

That might work, I can do a test fit

[Smoldering Flea]

just to be clear, in between the indirect step and the searing, you will need a few minutes to throw the vents open, hair dryer, etc. and get the charcoal and pan hot enough for the sear. If you do do that, my experience is that you will want to make a few degree upward adjustment in the indirect target temp to account for the meat cooling before the sear step.

[Uncle Bob]

We each bring a different pov to deciding on how to solve "problems". My first question would be, "how often do you plan to do steak?" If your answer is "regularly", then it's probably worth your time to spend a little to make the job more enjoyable/easy. With all due respect to MH, while his method you've posted is viable, it seems mighty fiddly compared to what you could do.

Last night I posted up a response to another member here about my Golden's Cast Iron kamado. It just so happens I included commentary on just your topic; CI Cooker - Pitmaster Club (amazingribs.com)

While this cooker comes with the components you have options as well.

A quick look on Amazon shows that cast iron fuel bowl dividers, as well as stainless baskets, would give you the ability to create 2 zone cooking, and replace the ceramic plate setter with cast iron. Roughly $100 in parts to have a set up similar to what I described in the linked post. And these parts aren't unitaskers so would have value for other styles of cooks you may want to do. Food for thought.

[Smoldering Flea]

I don't think the original poster mentioned the size of their egg. But if it is a large or smaller, i would not go down the path of dividing the fuel box. the grill area is already on the smaller side at 260". I don't think you'd want to halve that. As a large BGE owner, i think you have to go vertical with an adjustable rig or some other kind of setup.

[BradNorthGA]

It's the Large BGE

[Mosca]

Add lump until it is just a couple inches below the top of the fire ring (this will be important later).

Settle your temp at 225. Using the deflector plate, put your ribeyes on the grate and cook them to 110 or so.

Remove them from the grate, pull the plate, open all the vents and let 'er rip. The coals should be just those couple inches below where the grate is going to go. When it gets hot enough to melt your face (700+), put the ribeyes back on the grate (at the lower level) and, using gloves and tongs, flip them every 15 seconds until the exterior looks like you want it to.

[Henrik]

This exactly ☝️. Low n slow, then sear. On the same grill. I own a BGE, have done this countless times. Always works.