What is the best filet mignon recipe? Well, that’s for you to decide. Today we’re cooking filet mignon three ways. Once over fire, once under water (sous vide) and once using the reverse sear.

The filet mignon is often known as the “King of Steaks”. And what do Kings do they battle for? Well, supremacy, of course! While there is no actual gold at stake here today, we’ll throw down the gauntlet cooking three different filet mignon recipes. The steaks are thick cut, so we’ll need both direct and indirect heat. However we’re bringing that
heat a few different ways.These three Kings are gonna battle for supremacy and I alone will decide their fate. Why? Because I’m King of this kitchen. You didn’t think this was a democracy. Did you?

We recently purchased an entire nine pound beef tenderloin and broke it down into steaks. If you buy a steak in the store, you’re going to pay over $20 a pound. But, if you buy a whole tenderloin and break it down yourself, you’ll pay closer to $12 a pound.

The first thing we’re going to do is give all three steaks touch olive oil and season them all the same way. We’re used our Big Tasty Steak Rub. Also, you’ll notice that these are all tied to help them cook evenly. However, the butcher’s twine used for the grill should be soaked in water to prevent it from burning.

Grilled Filet Mignon

First, we’ll use the traditional method to grill over high heat and then finish with indirect heat. This one right here will be placed over a screaming hot fire and cook for about two minutes per side, and then move to the indirect heat and finished
to temperature (approximately 145 degrees Fahrenheit or medium rare), which will take about 10 minutes. Cooking over direct heat is the fastest way to get the food from this cutting board, right into your belly.

As you can see, this grilled filet mignon has a real nice mahogany color all around it. This is a damn good steak which has a lot of the deep smoky flavors from the rub and the fire.

Sous Vide Steak

For the second method, we’re using the sous vide machine with the steak in a vacuum sealed bag underwater, then quickly seared. We’re going to get this one in a bag vacuum, seal it and cook it under water for two hours at 131 degrees Fahrenheit. After two hours, sear it in a cast iron skillet for 30 seconds on each side. This one just did not caramelize as nicely and doesn’t have as good of a color as the other two steaks. You can see some of the plastic from the vacuum seal really imprinted into that steak.

It may not look as pretty, but WOW! This steak is the most tender. I mean, we’re dealing with some tender steaks here and even among the tender steaks, this one wins.

Reverse Sear Steak

The third method we’ll use is the traditional reverse sear using indirect heat from the oven, and then searing over high heat. The traditional reverse sear allows for more even cooking throughout, but takes a little bit longer than direct heat. We baked it in the oven at about 265 degrees until it reaches that internal temperature of 130 degrees, then we’re going to sear it for 30 seconds aside.This has a real rich, brown exterior color. This one has a great crust and tastes delicious, no complaints!

Overall, the filet over fire wins on absolute flavor profile. The
fire and the reverse sear are pretty closely tied when it comes to look. But when it comes to tenderness the sous vide steak wins. So it’s really hard to pick a champion here. But, if we absolutely HAD to, we’re going to crown our direct seared, grilled filet mignon.

Now it’s your turn to judge. Try out these three different filet mignon recipes and let us know your favorite in the comments below. Don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel for weekly videos. AND remember to sign up for our newsletter so you never miss a recipe.