A good grilled steak doesn't need much more than salt and pepper in my opinion, but every now and then a little flavor boost never hurt anyone. This past weekend, I decided to make some steaks that had a little herb butter topping on it and a little flavor boost it had, indeed.

Picking Your Herbs

You can probably select any good coordinating herbs for this recipe. I grow a bunch of different herbs in the backyard, so I just wandered the backyard with some scissors to pick a few that I thought would go well, and you can do the same, or pick specific herbs to buy at the store that you know would go well together. For my recipe, I selected a couple of sprigs each of rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram, flat leaf parsley, and several basil leaves.

I like to use a chef's knife to chop my herbs, as you can see in the photo I like to try to chop them all together as finely as I can. They start to blend together and create a nice herbal mixture that just blends all the fresh flavors together. Then do the same to your garlic. We use a garlic twister similar to this one that you can use to smash the cloves for easy peeling, then twist together in the middle to get a nice completely diced clove of garlic. I used three cloves for this recipe.

Mixing Up The Herbed Butter

Next up is melting a half stick of butter. You can just use a microwave safe container and try in 30 second intervals until it is good and melted. Then mix together with your herbs and garlic to get it thoroughly mixed together and create a nice thick mixture. You can divide this if you want to have some of it for basting during grilling and more for serving. I like to use a silicone basting brush to apply it while cooking, but you can use any kind of brush or even spare sprigs of rosemary or other herbs.

Ready To Hit The Grill

Now on to the steaks! You could make this butter and apply it however you like, but I think this works best on your lesser expensive steaks. If I'm eating filet mignon, I will probably stick to just salt, pepper, and maybe a little garlic or garlic powder. I used these strip steaks, but you could use sirloins or whatever other steaks you pick up for a weeknight dinner. Then add some salt and pepper to both sides of the steaks. I like a coarser rub, so I used coarse ground black pepper and some Maldon flake salt, but you could use coarse Kosher salt or whatever salt and pepper you have around to flavor the steaks.

Finally, time to hit the grill. Grill your steaks, basting with the herb butter, and retain some to baste them after they are done. I wanted mine medium rare, so I seared them for a minute and grilled them another 2-3 minutes per side, basting with the herbs. I like the sear first because it gets me some good grill lines. Depending how you like your steak and how thick they are, you may want to consult the Grilling and Smoking Times page to see how long to keep them on the grates.

Let the steaks rest a few minutes after you pull them off the grill. This is also a great time to baste them with the remaining herbed butter. Pair them up with a pasta, some shrimp, or a baked potato and enjoy!