Can You Grill A Frozen Steak?

Can you grill a steak from frozen? It's a question that might have wandered through your mind before. Maybe you've got friends coming over on short notice and your fridge is bare. Maybe you forgot all the reasonable ways to defrost meat. Maybe you're just really craving steak, and can't bear to wait hours to defrost one.

When frozen meat cooks (and thaws in the process) it releases a lot of moisture as the frozen water inside the flesh melts. This water bubbles away in a pan, essentially steaming the steak before it gets a chance to sear. Grilling on a grate, meanwhile, ensures even air circulation around the meat and stops your steak from sitting in a puddle of its own juices and getting soggy (and overcooked).

So, if you do it the right way, you absolutely can cook a steak straight from frozen. Sure, it takes a little longer, is a little more labor intensive, and you need to keep a close eye on its internal temperature to make sure things stay consistent, but yes, it's possible to achieve a perfect crispy crust on the outside and a blushing medium-rare within when grilling straight from the freezer.

While you can grill a steak from frozen, that doesn't necessarily mean you should. There's always a chance you end up with that steamed steak we mentioned earlier, so make sure you at least pat them dry to remove some liquid before you grill frozen steaks — moisture is the enemy of crispiness, after all. That way, you give yourself the best chance of maximizing the golden-brown crust you can put on that piece of meat.

While you might achieve a great sear on your steak, you might also find yourself with beef that's tough and chewy. One of the biggest mistakes home cooks make when cooking any protein is not allowing it to come up to temperature — it's why you often hear chefs telling you to take fresh steak out of the fridge well before you cook it. When cold meat hits a hot grill, the muscle fibers contract, resulting in tough, chewy meat; your steak might look perfect, but its texture might suffer. Freezing beef in general tends to affect its quality, so don't expect the best steak of your life. But, if you keep a close eye on the internal temperature and keep the surface of the meat dry, cooking from frozen can still deliver great results.

Cooking a great steak means having control over temperature. When you cook from frozen, it gets harder to maintain a consistent internal temperature. Unfortunately, there's no way of guaranteeing your steak is going to defrost evenly, so cooking it from frozen runs the risk of a steak that's overcooked in spots and practically raw in others.

Choosing the right cut helps. Bone-in meat is generally more tender and forgiving when it comes to overcooking, so a porterhouse or bone-in ribeye might give you the edge when it comes to grilling straight out of the freezer. A thicker steak also helps you out since thinner steaks may not have time to develop a good sear before overcooking, given the inevitable release of moisture from the steak when it hits the heat.

Finally, to ensure your meat doesn't toughen up, consider the reverse sear. This is a great technique to use even if your steak isn't frozen, and involves slowly roasting it in an oven (or over indirect heat on a grill) before hitting it with a hard sear at the very end. This prevents that contraction of muscle fibers resulting in chewy steak, giving your meat a chance to gently defrost, dry out a little on the surface, and leave you with a great crust and perfectly cooked interior!