Smoked Porterhouse Steak

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time2 5

Active Time1 15

Rest time6

Total Time3 26

Start by dry brining the porterhouse with kosher salt. Salt all sides and then place in your refrigerator for at least 2 hours; Ideally overnight.
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, 2.62 lb Porterhouse

The next day, get your smoker to 180-250F - the lower the better. I also used a water pan to help keep my temperatures lower.
If you're using a probe thermometer, probe the thickest part of the NY strip.
Once your smoker is at 180F, place the porterhouse in the cool zone with the fat side facing the fire.
Then add a chunk of hickory to the fire and close the lid.
My goal is ~130F internal.
Meaning, I want to smoke to 20F below my target initially. This is because I plan to sear and baste the steak, both of which will cause the internal temperature to climb rapidly.
It took 1 hour and 6 minutes to reach 110F.
Once you reach 110F, take the meat off the smoker You then want to get your cast iron skillet or similar heavy duty pan ready.

To sear, I used my cast iron skillet. I set my burner to medium/high heat and waited 6 minutes for it to heat up.
During this "rest time" the steak went from 110F to 112.5F.
I then added my grapeseed oil to the pan and waited for it to shimmer in the pan.
High Smoke Point Oil
I then took my porterhouse on edge to render some of the fat on the NY strip side for 10-20 seconds.
I then laid the porterhouse flat on the cast iron skillet to sear. You want to sear for around 30 seconds and then flip the steak over to a new section of the pan.
Repeat this for a total sear time of 1 minute on each side.
Then take the pan off the heat and take the porterhouse out of the pan. The goal here is to allow the pan to cool - do this for around 2 minutes.
Then add unsalted butter to the pan and allow it to froth.
2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
Once the butter is frothing, add the porterhouse back to the pan at the top of the skillet.
You then want to angle the skillet so that the porterhouse is in the air on the pan on one side and the frothing butter on the other.
Then with your spoon, baste each side of the porterhouse for 30 seconds then flip and baste for another 30 seconds; Repeat this process for a total of 1 minute on each side.
After searing and basting, take the steak out of the pan.

After searing and basting the internal temperature of my porterhouse was 119.2F.
I then returned the porterhouse to my smoker until the internal temperature was 125F.

Once the porterhouse reached 125F, I took it off the heat and allowed it to stand on my cutting board until the internal temperature reached 130F.
This resting/carry over cooking process took 7 minutes and 13 seconds.
After resting you can then slice the steak and enjoy!