Reverse sear tomahawk steak is what you cook when the night needs a centerpiece. Two and a half inches of marbled prime rib with a Frenched bone the length of your forearm - meat that lands on the board like a trophy and gets carved like one. Oven first, hard sear last, internal temperature in the driver's seat the whole way. The cut commands the deck the moment it comes off the grill. Everyone gathers around the carve. Pour the second drink before the slice.
The point of reverse searing isn't a parlor trick. It's edge-to-edge medium rare. Drop a tomahawk on a hot grill from raw and the outer half-inch turns gray before the center reaches 128°F. Holding the steak in a 225°F oven until the internal reads 115°F, then ripping the sear on a hot grill at the end, gives you a thin crust over evenly cooked meat - bite after bite, all the way to the bone. The oven handles temperature; the grill handles fire.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Edge-to-edge medium rare. No gray band under the crust - a single color from bone to bark.
- Built around your thermometer, not the clock. Cook time changes with the steak. The internal temperature doesn't.
- Oven for the slow phase, grill for the sear. The oven holds 225°F effortlessly while you fire the grill outside. No babysitting coals for an hour.
- Finished with Cow's Rule Bleu Cheese & Chive compound butter and a flake of Florida Pure Sea Salt - the kind of finish you'd pay eighty dollars for on a coastal dinner menu.
- Beach-week tested. Works in a rental kitchen oven and on a portable kettle outside.
Ingredients
See recipe card below for measurements.
- Bone-in tomahawk ribeye, 2.5 inches thick
- Kosher salt (for the dry brine)
- Coarsely cracked black pepper
- Cow's Rule Garlic & Herb Compound Butter (basil, parsley, freshly crushed garlic - Bleu Cheese & Chive or Au Poivre as alternates)
- Florida Pure Sea Salt Pure Flaked Sea Salt (finishing flake)
- Neutral oil (optional, for the sear)
Tomahawk Reverse Sear Time & Temp Calculator
Set thickness and target doneness. The calculator returns oven cook time at 225°F, the pull temp, your tented rest, grill sear time per side, and the final internal after carryover.
Find Your Cook Time
Set thickness and target doneness. The calculator returns oven cook time at 225°F, the pull temp, your tented rest, grill sear time per side, and the final internal after carryover.
Why oven first, grill last?
Holding 225°F for an hour-plus is what an oven does effortlessly. Holding 225°F for an hour-plus on a charcoal kettle is fussy. Reverse the order — oven for the slow climb to 115°F internal, then move the steak to a rip-hot grill for a 60-second-per-side sear. You get the even cook from indoor temperature control, and the crust and char only live fire produces. Thickness governs the oven time, not weight; the bone is fully exposed and doesn’t act as thermal mass.
USDA recommends 145°F internal for whole-cut beef. Medium rare at 128–130°F is a culinary standard. Pregnant, immunocompromised, very young, or elderly diners should cook to 145°F.
How to Reverse Sear a Tomahawk Steak
The thermometer is the recipe. Internal temperature drives every decision below - pull at 115°F, every time. The oven does the slow climb. The grill does the crust. Don't pull early, don't pull late.
Dry brine
Pat the tomahawk dry on both sides and along the bone. Season generously with kosher salt and cracked pepper on both faces and the fat-cap edge. Rest on a wire rack at room temp for 30 to 45 minutes. (For a deeper brine, salt the night before and refrigerate uncovered.)
Probe the temperature
The thermometer is the recipe. Insert a leave-in probe into the thickest part of the meat, parallel to the bone, not touching the bone - bone reads cooler than meat. Whether you're checking at the 45-minute mark or pulling at 115°F, the number on the screen is your only truth.
Slow roast in the oven to 115°F
Preheat the oven to 225°F. Set the steak on a rack over a rimmed sheet pan. Start checking the probe at 45 minutes. Pull the second it reads 115°F - 60 to 90 minutes total for a 2.5-inch tomahawk. Not 120, not "close enough." 115.
Tent, fire the grill, sear
Tent the steak loosely with foil for 10 minutes while you fire the grill - full open vents on a kettle, all burners on high on gas. Pull the foil. Lay the steak directly over the hot grates for 60 to 90 seconds per side. Flip once. Stand it on the fat-cap edge with tongs for 30 seconds to render the cap. Mahogany crust, not black.
Butter, slice, salt
Move the steak to a clean board. Drop a tablespoon of Cow's Rule Bleu Cheese & Chive Compound Butter directly on the hot meat - it melts and pools across the surface in seconds. Rest 5 minutes uncovered. Slice off the bone, then against the grain into half-inch pieces. Finish each slice with a flake of Florida Pure Sea Salt. Final internal: 128-30°F. Pass the board around.
Substitutions
Each swap below holds up. The cut, the salt, and the thermometer are the three things you can't fake - everything else flexes.
- No tomahawk? Bone-in ribeye 2 to 2.5 inches thick, or a thick-cut cowboy chop. Same internal temps.
- No Cow's Rule compound butter? Soften a stick of good butter and mash in 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley, 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil, 2 cloves crushed garlic, a pinch of kosher salt, and a grind of black pepper. Roll into a log in parchment, refrigerate 20 minutes. Or sub crumbled bleu cheese and minced chives for the herbs.
- No flaked finishing salt? Any good flaked sea salt works in a pinch - Maldon, Jacobsen, fleur de sel. Florida Pure has the briny finish that fits the coastal cook.
- No grill for the sear? A screaming-hot cast iron pan on the stove handles it - 60-90 seconds per side, but only if the steak's flat enough to make contact. A bone-in tomahawk often isn't, which is why the grill wins this cook. Outdoor kettle, gas grill, or portable Jumbo Joe all work.
- No oven access (campsite or rental without one)? A pellet grill or charcoal kettle held at 225°F with a two-zone setup runs the slow phase the same way. Indoor oven is just easier for the long climb.
Variations
Same cook, different finishes. Pick one or run two if you're feeding a crowd.
- Au Poivre. Swap to Cow's Rule Au Poivre Compound Butter - beef demi-glace, shallots, cracked black and green peppercorns. Built for this cut.
- Bleu Cheese & Chive. Swap to Cow's Rule Bleu Cheese & Chive Compound Butter - their "Steak Lovers" pick. Sharp, tangy, classic steakhouse finish on a tomahawk.
- Beef + Reef plate. Slice the rested tomahawk and plate it next to grilled shrimp basted in Cow's Rule Scampi Butter or Keys Bay Butter. The table loses it.
- Smoke the sear. Toss a chunk of pecan or oak directly onto the live coals before the sear in Step 4. The 60-90-second sear pulls a clean smoke layer into the crust without overpowering the butter.
- Herb-basted sear. When the steak hits the hot grates, drop a smashed garlic clove and a rosemary sprig under it for the final 30 seconds per side. Aromatics lift into the crust.
- Beach-week leftovers. Cold sliced tomahawk on a baguette the next day on the dock, smeared with Cow's Rule Garlic & Sea Salt butter and Dijon.
Storage
Refrigerate sliced leftover steak in an airtight container up to 3 days. To reheat without pushing past medium rare: wrap loosely in foil, warm in a 250°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until the meat reads 110°F internal. Better play - don't reheat. Cold tomahawk slices on a sandwich the next day, or shaved over a salad with shaved Reggiano, eat better than reheated steak ever will. Skip the freezer.
Top Tip - Buy a real thermometer before you buy the tomahawk
The cook is impossible without one. A reverse sear depends on three specific internal temperatures - the 115°F pull from the oven, the 10-minute tented rest while temp climbs and the surface dries, and the final 128-30°F medium rare after carryover from the grill sear. Without a thermometer you're guessing on a ninety-dollar steak, and guessing always cooks it past where you wanted it. Buy the Thermapen ONE before you buy the bone-in ribeye.
More from Whisk & Wine
If the reverse sear method made the tomahawk look easy, the rest of the recipe shelf was built the same way - slow-build technique, premium ingredients, the kind of cooking that holds up at a beach-house table.
More Beef & Lamb Recipes
Reverse sear works on more cuts than the tomahawk. The same internal-temperature discipline carries straight into ribeye, strip steak, and a thick-cut filet. Browse the rest of the beef section.
📖 Recipe
Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak (Medium Rare)
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 tomahawk (serves 2-3) 1x
Description
Edge-to-edge medium rare bone-in ribeye, slow-roasted in a 225°F oven to 115°F internal, then ripped over a hot grill for the crust. Finished with Cow's Rule Garlic & Herb compound butter and Florida Pure Sea Salt.
Ingredients
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Pat the tomahawk dry on both sides and along the bone. Season generously with 2 tablespoons kosher salt and 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper on both faces and the fat-cap edge. Rest on a wire rack at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 225°F. Set the steak on a rack over a rimmed sheet pan.
- Insert a leave-in probe thermometer into the thickest part of the steak, parallel to the bone, not touching the bone.
- Slow roast the steak in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 115°F. Start checking at the 45-minute mark - total time is 60 to 90 minutes for a 2.5-inch tomahawk.
- Move the steak to a board and tent loosely with foil for 10 minutes. While it rests, fire the grill to maximum heat (full open vents on a kettle, all burners on high on gas).
- Pull the foil. Sear the steak directly over the hot grates for 60 to 90 seconds per side, flipping once.
- Stand the steak on its fat-cap edge with tongs for 30 seconds to render the fat strip.
- Move to a clean board. Top with 2 tablespoons Cow's Rule Garlic & Herb compound butter. Rest 5 minutes uncovered. Internal should land at 128 to 130°F.
- Slice off the bone, then slice against the grain into ½-inch pieces. Finish each slice with a flake of Florida Pure Sea Salt right before serving.
Notes
The thermometer is the recipe. Always pull at 115°F - carryover from the sear and rest adds 13 to 18°F. Final internal is the truth, not time on the clock.
Deeper dry brine: Salt the night before and refrigerate uncovered on a wire rack. Pat dry again before the cook.
No oven, only grill: Run a two-zone fire at 225°F on the cool side to 115°F internal, then move to the hot side for the sear.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 oz steak
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