The Absolute Best Cut Of Steak For Feeding A Crowd

There's an excellent reason so many home cooks decide to stay within their comfort zones when it comes to dinner parties. Steaks are intimidating when you're trying to feed a crowd. The pressure to pick the perfect cut and achieve the perfect doneness for each guest can be overwhelming. But there's a solution that results in beautifully cooked steak for multiple people without the stress of managing several orders: choose a porterhouse.

The porterhouse steak is impressively sized, often weighing in between 20 to 25 ounces, enough to feed up to four, meaning you only have to manage two or three steaks instead of six or 12. Better still, it's actually a composite steak made up of the filet mignon and New York strip. The filet is fork-tender with a beefy, buttery flavor that pairs well with sauces and seasonings. New York strip is robust, beefy, and toothsome and stands up well to potent or dynamic sauces. This two-in-one entrée ensures every guest has something they like. That makes the porterhouse one of the best cuts of steak for a dinner party.

Choosing the right cut is only half the battle. While it's easier than cooking a dozen steaks to order, cooking the perfect steakhouse-style steak at home still requires some attention to detail. Air-drying the steaks in your fridge overnight gives you the best result. After bringing them back to room temperature, season the steaks as desired about half an hour before cooking. SPG (salt, pepper, and garlic) is a timeless classic, but a porterhouse stands up well to Montreal steak seasoning too.

The best way to cook the porterhouse steaks all at once is by searing them quickly on very high heat and then finishing them in the oven on broil. Conventional wisdom calls for cooking a porterhouse to medium-rare to enhance its natural flavor and tenderness. Indeed, the NY strip portion can get unpleasantly chewy if it's overcooked, so aim for medium-rare, which is 130 degrees Fahrenheit for the internal temperature. Let the steaks rest for ten minutes before slicing.

Serve your porterhouse steaks alone, with steak sauce, or with a little something extra, like a pan sauce or chutney. Tomato and citrus chutneys are an unexpected delight. But more customary sauces include pan sauces made with ingredients like Dijon, horseradish, red wine, balsamic, and bourbon.