How to Grill a T-bone or Porterhouse Steak

You’ve just come from the butcher shop with the perfect two inch thick steak that’s going to make you the hero of tonight’s dinner. You definitely don’t want to mess this up, you want it to be the best grilled steak ever, so you hit up the google for advice. You search “How to grill a T-bone steak” or “How to grill a Porterhouse steak” you may even be curious what the difference is. After all, they both come from the short loin.

Well you’ve come to the right place, taking a few minutes to read this blog will have even the novice griller turning out steaks like a professional. Your days of dropping obscene amounts of money at a fancy steakhouse are over, I promise. It’s important to reference the links in this blog that will help you when cooking these premium cuts of meat and become a better griller in general.

Below I’ll outline a very simple step by step process for grilling these steaks and dispel a few myths along the way. In the world of outdoor cooking there are no shortages of opinions about the best way to grill a steak, but you may be surprised at how wrong some commonly accepted “rules” are.

Key Points

When grilling these, or any thick cut of meat, use the reverse sear process described here and here. Searing first to “lock in the juices” is a myth. I have no idea how that rumor started but it’s nonsense for thick cuts of meat.

You don’t have to use a charcoal grill to grill a great steak, that’s also a myth. You can use either a gas grill or a charcoal grill to cook steaks, (you can even use an oven and cast iron pan if you don’t have a grill). Just set either grill up with a direct high heat side and an indirect low heat side of the grill. Ask yourself, how many high end steakhouses use charcoal?

Grill marks from hot grill grates are sexy, but those grill marks are where the flavor comes from. This is as a result of the Maillard reaction and we want that flavor all over the steak, not just in strips.

Have you heard the neighborhood grilling expert claim that when you’re grilling a steak you should “only flip it once” as it cooks? Yeah, also a myth. In fact, flip it and rotate it often when searing, this is how you build that incredible crust that is the perfect complement to the juices inside of the steak.

Resting the steak is essential. Resting is simply leaving the steak alone for a period of time to allow the juices to reincorporate back into the meat. I’ve cut into a steak rested for various lengths of time and find that with a thick cut T-bone or Porterhouse that resting for about 5 minutes is plenty of time.