From Frozen to Perfect: Sous Vide Steaks

UPDATED: See our article on the pre-searing technique for better results.

I love to buy in bulk or buy soon-expiring meats at the grocery store and vacuum seal them for use later. Not only does it save a ton of money, but it also allows to prep healthy meals for the future. I’ve already talked about the health benefits of sous vide cooking before. This takes it one step further by allowing you to have healthy home-cooked meals with minimal effort.

When cooking from frozen I find that generally an extra half-hour is sufficient to thaw the item. So add an that extra time on to any cook time you already have for your protein. For extra thick cuts, or roasts you may want to lower the temp a few degrees and add an additional hour.

Today, I am preparing some USDA Prime Filets that I packed and froze a month ago. As you can see, these prime cuts were half-off. Not too shabby. The london broil above is destined for another recipe later on.

I plan to cook these steaks at 134° F for 2 hours. Normally, I would go for 1.5 hours at 135 or 136 but I am going from frozen so I am allowing for an extra half hour and lowering the cook temp slightly.

Recipe/Steps:

Remove steaks from freezer
Sous Vide in the water bath at 134° for 2 hours (can go down to 1.75 hours)
Remove steaks, drain liquid and sear for 1 minute each side in a high heat pan with butter
Let steaks rest 5 minutes
Serve immediately

Cooking frozen meat sous vide – from frozen to perfect

Out of the freezer:
Into the water with my Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulator:

Preparing the pan for finishing the sear

These are the steaks right after the were removed from the water bath and taken out of the bag. Note the somewhat unpleasant color, this is why we sear or torch to finish when we cook sous vide.

After the initial flip

I actually got distracted and cooked the steaks a little too long on one side. I was watching march madness, and the pan should have been a little hotter. Really it should be a quick 1 minute sear on each side, temp should be medium-high to high. Note that on one side of the steaks the gray goes deeper than you would like.

Still extremely juicy.

Despite the fact that I seared them a touch too long, they were still delicious. They were extremely tender and flavorful steaks. Its hard to believe that just two hours prior these were solid frozen blocks now they are tender nearly perfectly cooked cuts. Cooking frozen meat sous vide style results in amazing results.