Cacao Rubbed Filet Mignon 🥩

I don’t know about you, but I really love steak and always look forward to Steak Night in our home 😍

I love to play around with different cuts, pans and seasoning to create the perfect steak, but at the end of the day I always discover that simple is the best. I love the taste of the meat and don’t want to mask it with lots of crazy concoctions, so I have created the ultimate steak rub with a crazy ingredient no one would ever suspect, which also happens to be a key ingredient in one of my favorite foods- cacao powder 🍫

Together with flaked sea salt, the cacao powder brings out the beefiness of the meat in a subtle way, and in no way tastes like chocolate 😂

You can use any steak you’d like, bison, elk or beef are all suitable! I have beef filet from Northstar Bison but I also love US Wellness Meats or Force of Nature for high quality regeneratively raised grass-fed steaks! my guide to beef and bison can be found here!

If you use my referral link you can save 10$ at Northstar Bison 🤩

To make this you need:

Your favorite steak 🥩

Cacao Powder, I love Burlap and Barrel Morogoro Cacao 🍫

Flaked Sea Salt 🧂

Grass fed butter for serving 🧈

How to:

It’s important that you pat the meat dry, if there is any liquid on the outside of the meat, you will essentially boil the meat which in my opinion doesn’t taste as good.

That’s also why I don’t use any fat for my method. You just need to have a hot pan so that the meat seals right when it hits the heat. That way you still get a nice sear and the moisture remains inside guaranteeing a juicy steak 😍

All beef, even if it doesn’t look marbled has plenty of fat that will render and cook the meat. I prefer to put on a big pat of butter when it’s all done 🤩

To start, heat up a stainless steel pan on the stove, I like AllClad. Non stick pans don’t work well for this method and I tend to steer away from cast-iron to avoid iron overload. As the pan is heating up, pat the meat dry and salt all sides with flaked sea salt 🧂

When the pan is hot, quickly place the meat onto the surface , it should sizzle. This means that the meat has sealed and that you’ve achieved a great sear 👩🏻‍🍳

Depending on the thickness and how you like your steak cooked, cook the steak on one side and then flip. I like mine rare and my steak was about 1 inch thick, so that meant about 4 minutes on each side. Another tip is to not flip/move around the steak too earlier since that disrupts the searing process.

After you’ve flipped the the steak, and it’s cooked it’s time on the other sides, turn the heat to low and season with the cacao powder. It’s important to do this when the temperature isn’t as hot anymore because the cacao will burn which doesn’t taste good.

After you’ve seasoned it, give it another 10-15 seconds on each side so that the cacao can infused into the meat and then remove it from the pan, and let it sit for a few minutes (this redistributes the juices and ensures a moist steak) 🥩

I think salted butter tastes best with this combination, so I always enjoy it with that. Popular sides we like to make on steak night include buttery mashed cauliflower, grilled veggies, and baked broccoli 🥦 or just simply steamed Brussels sprouts 👩🏻‍🍳