Best Steak Cuts for Pan-Searing

Three things decide whether a cut suits a pan: how thick it is, how flat it sits, and whether it fits without crowding.

What a pan is good at

Unbroken contact. A grill touches a steak in stripes; a pan touches all of it. That is why the best crust most people ever achieve happens in a skillet rather than outdoors.

“And then, you know, let the flavor do the work and don't try to do too much.”

Gray Shipley

The cuts that suit it best

• Strip. The best pan steak there is. Flat, even, and the fat cap renders against the surface.
• Flat iron. Uniform thickness end to end, which almost nothing else manages.
• Filet. Tall and small. Sear the sides as well as the faces and it works beautifully.
• Ribeye, if it fits. Wonderful, but a large one crowds a domestic pan.

The ones to keep out of a skillet

• Skirt and flank. Long, thin and they will not fit. These are grill or griddle cuts.
• Anything bone-in and large. The bone holds the meat off the surface, which is the one thing you were trying to avoid.
• Very thin steaks. They are through before a crust forms.

Thickness is the real variable

“I like a thicker burger. You know, when you get that sear and the crunch and the smash burger, that's pretty good. But I like a good, thick burger.”

Gray Shipley

An inch and a half is the sweet spot. At that thickness you can take the outside to a hard crust while the middle is still coming up, which is the entire objective. Under an inch, the two happen at once and you choose between them.

One pan, two steaks, no more

Crowding is the most common failure. Two steaks in a twelve inch skillet, with space between them, or the pan temperature drops and they steam. Cook in batches and rest them together.

“But if you're not looking for that top-end stuff, the flat iron steak is the second most tender. It's more tender than a ribeye.”

Gray Shipley

Cleaner, firmer, easier to cook evenly

Signature Strip Steak

A dry-aged New York strip with a firm fat cap along one edge that tells you when the pan is ready.

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The one worth knowing about

Signature Flat Iron Steak

Dry-aged flat iron. Gray rates it above a ribeye for tenderness, and it costs considerably less.

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The tender one, and the leanest

Signature Filet Mignon

Dry-aged filet mignon. Very tender, very lean, and the one that needs the most help from fat and heat.

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The method itself is in how to pan-sear steak, the crust physics in how to get a great crust, and the cut comparison in ribeye vs strip vs filet.