How to Grill a Chuletón: A Thick Bone-In Rib Steak Over Charcoal

The steak, and how to ask for it

A chuletón is a thick bone-in rib steak, usually 1 kg or more, from a mature animal and meant for sharing. It is cut from the lomo alto, the joint a British butcher calls rib of beef or fore rib (US: prime rib). The French call the same steak a côte de boeuf, and with the long rib bone left on it is a tomahawk. The classic version comes from vaca, a cow over 48 months, with dark meat and yellow fat; the background is on our old cow beef page.

It is the most rewarding steak to grill and the one that frightens people most. Respect three things and there is no mystery: thickness, fire and rest.

Thickness comes first

For the barbecue (US: grill) a chuletón should measure 4 to 5 cm. Under 3 cm there is no way to build a crust without overcooking the middle: that is no longer a chuletón, it is a frying steak with a bone in it. At a Spanish counter, ask for un chuletón de cuatro o cinco centímetros de grosor. A thinner one is cooked faster over less heat, with a lesser result.

Six stages, counted back from the table

For a 1 kg steak about 4 cm thick. The charcoal needs 25 to 35 minutes, so light it about an hour before you eat, while the steak loses its chill.

1. Out of the fridge: 90 minutes before you eat

The steak needs an hour out of the fridge before it meets the fire; two if it weighs more than a kilo. Straight from the fridge at 4 °C (39 °F), the centre takes so long to warm that the surface chars first. Leave it uncovered on a rack so the surface dries. Dry meat sears; wet meat stews.

2. Salt: at the same moment

Coarse salt, sal gruesa, on both faces and on the edge of fat, at the moment you take the steak out. That hour is what the brine needs to go back into the meat. Without the hour, salt it as it goes on and nothing in between: see when to salt steak.

3. The fire: ready 30 minutes before

Two zones: most of the charcoal on one side, little on the other. Over the hot zone your hand, a span above the bars, lasts two seconds and no longer. No flame, white ash on the coals. Flame is soot, not heat. The set-up is in how to light a charcoal barbecue.

4. The sear: about 9 minutes

Stand the steak on its edge, resting on the strip of fat, for two or three minutes. The fat melts, drips on the coals and the smoke perfumes the whole steak. Then lay it flat over the hot zone for three minutes a side. Move it and the crust does not form.

5. The finish: 8 to 10 minutes

When both faces are marked, move the steak to the gentle zone and put the lid on if your barbecue has one. Turn it once. Take it off when the core reads 52 °C (126 °F); the rest will carry it to medium-rare, which in Spain is al punto. The other levels are in our doneness guide.

6. Rest and carve: the last 10 minutes

Eight to ten minutes on a warm board under loosely laid foil; the why is in resting meat. Then cut the eye of meat away from the bone in one stroke, following its curve, and slice it across the grain into strips a finger and a half wide. The bone goes to the table. Somebody always wants it, and they are right.

Three ways to ruin one

• Fridge to fire. Raw inside, burnt outside.
• Cooking over flame. Wait for the ash.
• Cutting it at once. All the juice ends up on the board.