When it comes to cooking a steak there are many, many debates about what is the best kind of steak (sirloin, filet, rib-eye, strip), what is the best cooking method (grilled, broiled, pan fried), should you use a marinade or a rub and many, many more pointless debates because in my opinion they all have their place. But in this hub I want to focus on how to cook sirloin steaks.

First off Sirloin Steak come from the cut that is normally called either the top round or top but which come top portion of a cows hind quarters. When compared to rib-eyes and strip steaks, sirloins have a lower fat content and less internal marbling and tend to be little tougher cut of meat. Neither of these things are bad it just something that needs to be taken into account when cooking sirloin steaks so we can end up with the best steak possible when it comes to cooking the sirloin.

When you take in the fact that the sirloin has less fat and is a little tougher it is easier to game plan on how to cook a sirloin steak. What we need to do is make find way to loosen up the sirloin a little and then make sure to sear in the juices right when we start cooking the steak.

I handle these issues by first pounding the sirloin a couple of times with a flat side of mallet or sauté pan. Now you don’t want to pound it death give a couple soft whacks will help to loosen up some of the muscle fibers in the steak which will help have a more tender steak and it also evens out the steak so it will cook better.

Now you could help tenderize the sirloin steak with a marinade but when cooking sirloin steaks I tend prefer to go with some sort of rub (again with other types of steaks these may not be the case). The main reason for this is the cooking method that I like to use when cooking a sirloin. It is this cooking method and the rub that help to take care of the other issue of locking the juices in at the beginning of the cooking process.  

The way I do this is be pan frying the steak. I prefer this method when cooking sirloin steaks because it is how high of a temp you can get on a pan, if the pan is hot enough it will seal in the steak as soon as it hits the pan and at the same time the rub will have to give a nice crust on the steak as well. Just remember to lower the temp of the pan once you put the steak in so you do not end up burning the steak.

In truth there is no absolute way that a steak has to be cooked. What I try and do is look at the cut of meat itself and try I to think about what is going to be the best way to cook this kind of steak. When it come to how to cook sirloin steak my favorite way is pound them just a little bit to loosen them up, I then rub in a basic black pepper rub, and then toss it into a very hot skillet. Cook to a nice medium rare and enjoy.