NY Strip Steak Heaven

Ever since my grilling protege, Brad made steaks for the first time on his kettle, I have been jonesing for a good steak smothered with onions and mushrooms. I told my wife Jenny that I don't care what anyone says, I am having steak for dinner tonight. We went grocery shopping at Meijer, but they did not have any good steaks out. Off to Caputo's we went. I found a family pack of 4 NY strips that looked decent, so I snatched them up.

I went basic as far as seasoning the steaks goes. I only used kosher salt, granulated garlic and black pepper.

Kosher salt really bring out a nice flavor in meat. I seasoned the baby bella mushrooms and onions with garlic salt, chili powder, black pepper and threw butter on top.

One of our friends had told me her husband likes to use a little hickory smoke wood when he grills steak. This sounded so awesome, I had to give it a try. Knowing Jenny and the kids wouldn't like the smokey steaks, I fired up two grills. I used the gas for their steaks and the onions and shrooms. I fired up the little Smokey Joe for my steak.

When grilling good cuts of steak, always grill on high heat and NEVER WALK AWAY FROM THE GRILL FOR TOO LONG. Right Brad? LOL! There is a lot of fat content in beef.  During the cooking process, the fat liquifies and can cause some big flare ups. You have to be ready for the flare ups and move the steak so they don't burn. Anyway, I threw the onions and shrooms on the grill first because I knew those would take longer to cook than the steaks. I let those go for about 5 minutes before throwing the steaks on the gas grill too.

Once the charcoal in the Smokey Joe was ready and the cooking grate was preheated, I threw in a couple of small chunks of the hickory smoke wood. The hickory caught fire and started smoking nice, so I threw my steak on the grill and put the lid on so the steak can catch some of that smokey goodness.

Make sure you only flip steak only one time halfway through cooking. After about 15 minutes on the gasser and 10 minutes on the Smokey Joe, I pulled all the steaks off, brought them inside and covered them with foil and let them rest.

As meat is cooked the proteins shrink and force out the juices which is why the more done a piece of meat is, the dryer it is. Resting meat allows the tissues to relax as it cools and also allows the remaining juices to redistribute back into the meat making it more moist. Covering meat with foil while resting creates steam that helps keeps the meat moist too. Anyway, not long after I brought in the steaks, the onions and shrooms were ready to be taken off the grill.

I was so excited and couldn't wait to tear into this meaty greatness of a meal. I got my steak ready and piled it high with onions and mushrooms.

I had also made a new boxed potato side I had found. It was made by Idahoan and called steakhouse bacon and ranch red potatoes. They were alright.  Not what I was expecting. Normally, I like my steaks rare, but because of using the hickory, I went for medium rare so the steak could absorb more of the smokiness. I cut it open and it was done perfectly.

That first bite was like heaven on earth. The hickory added a really great flavor to the steak. As I suspected, I gave Jenny and Stephanie a sample of my steak and they both didn't really like it. If you have not tried using hickory smoke wood with steak before, I highly recommend it! This was a meal that exceeded my expectations. I cannot wait to make it again! Thank for looking!

Chuck