Charcoal Chimney Starter Grilled Steaks

Have you seen the cool ways grill masters have been cooking some serious steaks these days? I am digging the old school approach to prepping meat and think it goes to prove that it really doesn’t take much to grill a great steak. Charcoal chimney starter grilled steaks were some of the best I have had in a long time. Lucky for me, it’s just the start of grilling season.

I have been eyeing up grilling steaks off the grate, a little more ‘rustically’, but rather more rustically. I have seen some cool videos where they channel their inner caveman and toss steaks directly over flames, hot coals, and over open pits, taking things back to the basic of cooking meat. All of this is on the summer bucket list for cooking, when I can create a safe area for such random experiments.

For this one, I used the tools I had, and a lot of inspiration from Alton Brown, to grill one of the best strip steaks I have had in a really long time.

To make Charcoal Chimney Starter Grilled Steaks all you need is a few really good steaks and a safe, clean cooking area. I used the rack of in my Kettleman grill.

Following the steps in Alton Brown’s video, I heated charcoal in my starter until covered in ashes. After liberally seasoning the steaks with salt, I placed them under where the chimney starter had been sitting, on a nice hot grate, and put the starter back on top of it. I cooked them for about 2 or 3 minutes there before removing the chimney and pulling the steaks to a cooler area of the grill. I allowed a cooking rack to get nice and hot on top of the chimney and flipped the steaks atop of it. I finished them off to a nice medium rare on the grate before pulling them off to rest.

Meanwhile, I rolled some asparagus across the grill and cooked it until charred to serve with the steaks.

Chimney starter grilled steaks weren’t any harder than grilling a steak over charcoal and the clean up was a breeze. And the flavor was on. Seriously on.