The Best Air Fryer Steak Dinner!
I recently bought an air fryer. I’ve avoided the hype for so long because I have been burned by fad kitchen gadgets before (both literally and figuratively). However, lately I’ve been watching Paula Deen’s YouTube channel and she’s been using her air fryer a lot. Seeing her use it got me interested and I started down a rabbit hole of videos on air fryers and proceeded to research and buy the best one for myself. In my research, however, I found a problem with one particular food-stuff: steak. In every video I watched I found that the steaks they were making were nicely cooked on the inside, but none of them had any real browning or crustiness on the outside. This is the best quality of a good steak and so I was shocked that no one had developed a way to achieve it in this kitchen tool that does so much else so well. I decided to put myself to the challenge, and came up with this method of getting good color on my steak. Plus I was able to get two sides to cook at the same time. This meal is a perfect meal to impress someone with and, since it’s for two, would make a great date-night meal.
To achieve great browning on your steak you actually have to start the night before, or at least 8 hours ahead of time. I promise this is the only slow part of the recipe, everything else can be done in a half an hour. The spice rub I put together is the beginning of making this steak brown the best we can get in our air fryer. Among other delicious things, I’ve included brown sugar. This thought came to me due to a mistake I made a few years back. I am not allowed to have a grill in my condo, so I have a grill pan for my stove instead. I decided to do some barbecue chicken one day and marinated the chicken in the barbecue sauce ahead of time. The sugar in the barbecue sauce burned on the grill pan and smoked out my entire place. It tasted great, but was a little more black than I wanted. This unfortunate accident got me to thinking that adding some sugar to my dry rub would add extra browning. I was right! Don’t worry though, it doesn’t make your meat taste sweet at all.
The other secret of getting great browning is the reason we need to start the night before. After the steak is rubbed with the dry rub it needs to sit open in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. This sitting in the open chilled air will allow the surface of the steaks to dry out completely. The salt from the rub will also get absorbed into the meat and prevent the inside from drying out. Moisture is the enemy of browning and so the more we can pull away from the surface, the browner the result. One other note: you may have noticed that I’ve trimmed a lot of the fat off of this meat. That’s because in my first few tests I left the fat on (with delicious results I might add), but having all that access fat actually started my air fryer to smoking (I seem to do that a lot). I found that by trimming the excess fat, I get all the flavor but none of the smoke. If you don’t mind a smoky house, then by all means leave it on because it does taste fantastic.
When you’re ready to start cooking, that’s when you can pull together your sides. The first side is roasted potatoes. They’re a pretty standard recipe, though I use less oil than I normally would as we’re in an air fryer and that’s kind of the point. Also, I start cooking these first for 10 minutes to give them a head start. Potatoes are the thing that’s going to take the longest to cook in this recipe so I start them off, then do the steaks, and then finish them with our broccoli. Timing is everything.
After the potatoes have their first cook, I place the steaks in the air fryer. The photos here show me cooking a 1.5 inch steak. I would cook that for 10 minutes total to start with for a medium steak. In the video that accompanies this post, I have only 1 inch steaks so I started with 8 minutes total for medium doneness. I personally like a rare steak and so if I were making this solely for myself I would use less time. Just like any other meat recipe, you have to adjust the timings to your liking and your cut of meat. I flip them once half way through, and pull them out at 120 degrees F for a medium doneness. These then rest while we finish the sides.
The last element of this meal is the roasted broccoli. I made a similar recipe in my oven years ago, though that recipe used lemon rather than orange. I thought that I might like the sweeter orange flavor better, and I was right. This side is a favorite of mine, and cooking it alongside the potatoes for only 10 minutes gets the broccoli to a perfect tender-crisp consistency. It also locks in a beautiful green color.
All-in-all I am super proud of how this meal turned out. I’ve been having so much fun testing recipes in my air fryer so if you guys want to see more of that type of thing from me, let me know. I truly hope that you all will enjoy it and remember that you don’t have to be a professional chef to make magic in your kitchen!
Joe the Blue Wizard
Air Fryer Steak Dinner
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. (7 g) Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1 tsp. (1.5 g) Ground Coriander
- 1 tsp. (2.5) Onion Powder
- 1 tsp. (2.5) Paprika
- 1/4 tsp. (0.5 g) Cayenne Pepper
- 1 tbsp. (18 g) Kosher Salt
- 1 tbsp. (15 g) Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Beef Steaks (either New York Strip or Ribeye, 1-1.5 inch thick)
- 2 large Russet Potatoes, 3/4-1 inch diced
- 1 tbsp. (15 mL) Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tsp. (6 g) Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp. (0.5 g) Dried Thyme
- 1/2 tsp. (1.5 g) Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp. (1.5 g) Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp. (1 g) Paprika
- 12 oz. (340 g) Broccoli Florets
- 1 tbsp. (15 mL) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Juice of 1 Orange
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 1/2 tsp. (1.5 g) Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp. (3 g) Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp. (1 g) Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together all steak spices to make a dry rub.
- Trim excess fat from steaks.
- Rub dry-rub all over the steaks to be completely covered.
- Set on a sheet pan fitted with a rack. Chill, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Remove steaks from the fridge and allow to start coming to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, mix together all potato ingredients.
- Spread potatoes in a single layer across the bottom of the air fryer.
- Air fry at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.
- Remove potatoes from the air fryer to a bowl to rest.
- Place steaks in the air fryer and air fry at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes for 1 inch steaks and 10 minutes for 1.5 inch steaks. Flip steaks halfway through the cooking.
- Meanwhile mix together all broccoli ingredients in a large bowl.
- When the steaks are finished (120 degrees for medium) remove to a cutting board and loosely cover with foil to rest.
- Place potatoes back into the air fryer on one side of the basket.
- Place broccoli on the other side of the air fryer basket.
- Air fry at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Potatoes should be cooked through and broccoli should be tender-crisp.
- Serve meal as desired.
Notes:
There are differences between all models of air fryers. Times may vary as a result. Test with your air fryer and adjust times as necessary.
