How to Cook Wagyu Steaks (Part 1)

Trying to sear the perfect steak? Here's what you need to know about prepping and cooking Japanese Wagyu beef steaks.

[Preparation] 

1. Cut the meat less than 0.8 inch thick. This is the easiest and simplest way to start! If you prefer thicker steak, see Cooking Tips (How to cook Steaks 2).
2. After defrosting (see Defrosting Method), bring the refrigerated cut out to room temperature for about 30 minutes to 1 hour before cooking. If center of the meat is still cold, it may lead inside of meat uncooked even if surface was well-grilled.
3. Put salt and pepper on both sides of meat 10-15 minutes before cooking. If you do this early, Umami may go away. More than 12 inch is good height to put salt and pepper for evenly seasoning.
4. Keep pan heated before you put the meat on. If you can hear sizzle when you put the meat, it is good!

[Let’s start cooking]

Step 1

Put oil into heated pan. Wagyu fat is good enough, but since Wagyu itself has fat, olive oil is better to use in this case. Put fresh sliced garlic and sear until the garlic becomes light brown color. Put the sliced garlic out of the pan (this is added to the steak).

Step 2

Place the meat into the pan to season the meat with oil (garlic flavored). To make the steak crisp outside and juicy in the middle, don’t lift the meat from the pan! If it is grilled on high heat, it burns quickly, so keep the heat like oil splutters.

Step 3

Check the color of the side grilled and once it becomes good brown, flip the meat and start grilling the other side of meat. At this point, the other side of meat is already heated during Step 2, you don’t need long time to grill this side.

Step 4

Once the meat is grilled enough, place the meat out of the pan and season salt lightly and keep it for some time. With this technique, Umami flavor goes evenly in the meat and temperature of the center of meat goes up. The ideal temperature of the center of meat is 58°C (136°F).