In the test kitchen, we cook a wide variety of foods and love them all, but among the meat-eaters, a steak dinner will always be a favorite. It’s so simple, and a bit of a meat-and-potatoes cliché (we admit it!), but a big, juicy steak is the perfect combination of familiar, comforting, and fancy. This one is especially so because it comes with some very crispy potatoes and a delightfully garlicky pan sauce.

We cook the whole thing in a hot cast-iron pan, starting with the potatoes. Here, the approach is to get the oil nice and hot, put the potato wedges in, salt them generously — and let them cook for a good ten minutes before you flip them. This creates golden-brown potatoes with a light, crispy crust on the outside and a perfectly creamy interior. Potato heaven!

For the steak, we like a couple USDA Prime Certified Angus Beef® brand rib eyes. As they’re cooking, we melt some butter in the pan, throw in some garlic — and then baste the steaks with the buttery goodness. Basting gives you a fantastic sear, especially with the CAB steaks, which have a lot of marbling. In the butter, they develop a deep, golden brown crust and crispy edges.

Of course, in the process, the steak’s juices mingle with the garlic butter — add a little lemon and some parsley, and you’ve got a wonderful pan sauce. Potatoes love fat, so of course they taste amazing drenched in the bright, buttery sauce. And, oh, those steaks: infused with the aromatic butter, they slice up tender, miraculously juicy, and super flavorful.

This is a perfect dinner for two: easy enough for an ordinary weeknight, and special enough for a celebration. We’d add a hearty kale salad — and, of course, a bottle of wine. (Think big, think red.)

Servings: 2 to 4

Ingredients

For the potatoes:

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 lb medium Yukon Gold or red potatoes, cut into ¾” wedges

½ tsp kosher salt

For the steak and garlic butter:

2 12-oz 1”-thick rib-eye or New York strip steaks, or 1 ½ lb flank steak

1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed

Black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. To make the potatoes: Heat the oil in a 12” cast-iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the potatoes cut-sides down, sprinkle with salt, and cook undisturbed until the potatoes are golden brown and release easily from the pan, about 10 minutes.

2. Using tongs, flip each wedge to the second cut-side and cook until browned and tender, 10 to 15 minutes more. Transfer the potatoes to a serving platter. Wipe out the skillet — you’ll use it to cook the steaks.

3. To make the steaks: Pat the steaks dry with paper towels. Season all over with salt and set aside.

4. Add the olive oil to the skillet, and return the skillet to high heat until the pan starts to smoke just a bit. Carefully place the steaks in the hot pan and sear until enough of a crust has developed that the steaks no longer stick to the pan, about 2 minutes. Flip and sear the second side for 2 minutes.

5. Carefully add the butter to the pan. Tilt the pan so the butter pools on one side and add the garlic to the pool. Using a large spoon, baste the steaks with the garlic butter. Flip the steaks and continue to baste and cook. Begin checking the internal temperature of the steaks at 6 minutes total cook time. Note: medium-rare is between 125° and 130°.

6. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer the steaks to a clean cutting board — reserving the juices in the pan — and let the steaks rest for 5 minutes.

7. Stir the parsley and lemon juice into the pan juices. Let the sauce cool for a few minutes, then taste and season with more salt, pepper, and lemon juice as needed.

8. Cut the steaks across the grain into ½”-thick slices and place them on top of the potatoes. Drizzle with the pan sauce and serve immediately.

Recipe source: The Kitchn

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