Perfect Medium Rare Beef Ribeye Steaks on the Big Green Egg Charcoal Grill
Recently, we decided to invest in a “Big Green Egg” Charcoal Grill. The Big Green Egg is a “Kamado” style grill - a traditional Japanese wood or charcoal fired earthen vessel used as a stone or oven. It uses natural lump charcoal to sear, roast, or smoke any meat of your choice. This cooker is so versatile – you can control the heat anywhere from 200 degrees to 750 degrees – and because the ceramic walls insulate the interior so well, it will retain heat and moisture so that your food doesn’t dry out!
At Costco, we bought a 4-pack of Beef Ribeye Steaks. At $9.99/pound, we were able to get a pack of four (1.1 pound each) steaks for about $45.00. Considering how big those steaks were… that ended up being about 6-8 servings of steak, for about $5.50 – $7.50 per 8-10 oz. serving… not bad when you consider how much an 8-10 oz. steak will cost you at a prime steakhouse!
The trick to making an amazing and juicy steak, is to use BUTTER! Most of the prime steakhouses will actually baste the raw (room temperature) steaks with butter before seasoning. The butter helps to prevent the steaks from sticking to the grill, and also adds a wonderful rich taste which enhances the flavor of the seasonings.
Medium Rare Ribeye Steaks:
Make the perfect steaks on your Big Green Egg (Kamado Style) Charcoal Grill. Bonus points if you have a Corgi to keep you company!
- Four 1.5″ thick Ribeye Steaks (4.5 pounds total)
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
- 4 T. unsalted butter, melted
Hardware:
- Big Green Egg BBQ Grill (Kamado Style Ceramic Grill)
- Natural Lump Charcoal
- 2-3 charcoal starters
1. 30 minutes before grilling, remove your steaks from the refrigerator to room temperature. Then, start your charcoal. Put the natural lump charcoal into the bottom of the Big Green Egg (Kamado Style Ceramic Grill). Add 2-3 fire starters into the center of the charcoal and ignite. Close the lid, and wait 10 minutes for the charcoal to burn evenly (Make sure that the vents on the bottom and top are fully open).
Bottom vent open.
Top vent open
2. Heat the Big Green Egg (with upper and bottom vents fully open) to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. While you are waiting for the charcoal to ignite properly, baste your steaks on both sides with the melted butter.
4. Season both sides of the steaks generously with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
5. Once your grill has reached 700 degrees, you are ready to cook your steaks. (Note: For safety purposes, if your temperature is above 300 degrees Fahrenheit, you need to “burp” the green egg before opening it fully. Raise the dome 2-3 inches, then pause for about 5 seconds before fully opening the dome.) Place your steaks on the grill, and close the dome.
6. After 2 minutes, burp the green egg, then open the dome and flip the steaks to an unused part of the grill. Close the dome again, and wait 2 minutes.
7. Then, burp the green egg, flip the steaks one more time, and close the dome. Now you will close the bottom vent fully, and cover the top vent with the ceramic damper top. Allow the steaks to finish for 4 minutes.
Close the bottom vent
Close the top vent with the ceramic damper topper.
8. After 4 minutes, burp the green egg, and open. Remove the steaks to a platter, and cover with foil to rest for 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve! Your steaks should be a perfect medium rare.
I want an EGG. I’m just afraid to ask the going price for the egg. I LOVE BBQ. I just don’t have a great grill and my apartment space is a little limited. This looks great though.
The large egg will cost you about a grand. $1200.00 plus tax after you add a plate setter and maybe a cast iron grate, and an egg ‘nest’ i.e. the stand. You better be ready to cook your own food in lieu of going out to eat a lot.
In an apartment, I would be afraid someone would make off with my grill if I couldn’t secure it in some way.
Bottom line, sometimes I wish I had just stuck with a Weber. Then I completely out-do myself and once again glad I pony-upped the $$.
Let us know what you decide. We will swap failures and conquests here!
X4
First time on the BGE rib eyes, followed the recipe came out perfect. Thank you for the recipe, sorry no pictures they didn’t survive long enough!
Yay! Glad I could help.
Doing ribeyes tonight for the first time. Can’t wait but hope that the grate it came with will be as good as a cast iron grate which will come later. Thanks!
Awesome recipe. We have already used this recipe twice. The steaks were perfect.
Glad it worked out for you!
Hi looking for a bit of help on this.
I tried this recipe on my Kamado but may steaks came out way too charred. They were medium rare on the inside but tasted like eating pure charcoal on the outside.
Am I doding something wrong when lighting my coals as there seemed to be too many flames when putting the steaks on the grill.
Ruined a couple of good ribeyes!
Any advice would be great.
I’m not sure? When we grill, we use a minimal amount of charcoal (Big Green Egg brand natural lump charcoal, not briquettes). Maybe you are using too much charcoal… too much fuel = too much fire?
Personally, I find the big green egg charcoal a little harsh. I like Cowboy Hardwood lump for this. Another thing you might try is that since butter burns at a low temperature, don’t add it until you take the steaks off the grill.
Cowboy charcoal is literally the worst possible brand.
I agree, bob wire, ½ chard 2X4s and tons of nasty smoke. I will never buy it again.
Cowboy, yes anything and every thing off the range!!!!
After closing the cover of my BGE I also close the top vents for a couple of seconds, this will help kill the flames.
Outstanding Recommendations! It was the best cooked steak, so far, on our Egg, thanks to you…Great job and thanks for posting!
You’re welcome!
Absolute perfection!! Thanks for sharing!!
You’re welcome!
If you want the steak more done, med – med well, do you let it “sear” longer, or, let it sit in the Egg with the vents closed longer, e.g. greater than 4 mins? Thx
I would let it sit with the vents closed a little longer to finish cooking to your desired doneness.
I use a large green egg. I season my steaks like you recommend but use “Hawaiian” rock salt instead and lightly season with powdered garlic. We like our steaks rare, so I heat the egg to 700 degrees, sear the steaks for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes each side turning them 90 degrees about half way through on the first side to get the cross grill pattern(1 1/2″ to 2″ thick steaks)…… and yumm!!! If we have guests who like it medium, I usually cook them for about 4 minutes each side….. good luck experimenting and getting a feel for thickness of steak vs cooking time.
Hawaiian salt sounds great! Yum.
Turned out well but my meat was only an inch or so. Ended up being cooked medium.
Will adjust cooking time a little less for slightly thinner cuts of beef. Still tasted awesome but I missed the nice
Tender pinkness I prefer.