Perfect Sous Vide Frozen Steak
on Feb 09, 2023, Updated Nov 21, 2023
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Once you have learned how to sous vide frozen steak, you’ll be amazed at how convenient and easy to cook or meal prep a delicious weeknight dinner! Cooking frozen beef is one of the best features of a sous vide machine. It’s perfectly tender, juicy and full of flavor. You’ll never take the time to thaw your steak again!
Sous vide frozen steak is a handy recipe in your back pocket. Got fresh ones? Try our Sous Vide Sirloin Steak Recipe.
Cooking frozen steak sous vide without defrosting
After learning How to Sous Vide Chicken Breasts from Frozen, I’ve saved so much time on preparing dinner. So I figured that it’s time to talk about how to sous vide steak from frozen.
If you have a sous vide machine, you’ll never need to take out your steak ahead of the time and wait for it to thaw before cooking. Cooking frozen steak has never been easier. It’s completely a game changer!
Benefits of sous vide cooking frozen beef steak
Sous vide is a French cooking technique where the food is vacuum-sealed in a bag, and then cooked for a long time at a precise temperature in a water bath. You’ll be amazed at how delicious your frozen steak comes out: tender, juicy, and perfectly cooked edge-to-edge!
The best part? You can buy in bulk and vacuum seal them for meal planning. It saves a lot of money, as well as allowing you to save time by preparing healthy meals for the future with the minimal effort.
What steaks can I sous vide from frozen?
You can sous vide cook most types of steaks directly from frozen, but it’s important to prepare your steaks properly. You CANNOT just vacuum-seal a few stuck-together frozen steaks, place them in the water bath, and expect them to come out perfectly. But with proper preparation, this method works like magic!
I’ve tried sirloin, rib-eye, New York strip, flank steak, porterhouse, t-bone, skirt steak, top round steak, filet mignon, and flat iron steak, and they all work pretty well! You can also sous vide frozen steak with different thickness, from 1 inch to 2 ½ inches, they can all be cooked perfectly.
Freeze and store
The best way to cook sous vide frozen steak is to prepare the steak properly before freezing. After you bring the fresh steaks home, season them with salt and pepper or your favorite marinade, and arrange them in one single layer in a zip-top bag. Vacuum seal the bag using water displacement method, and store them flat in the freezer.
This allows you to drop the bag into the sous vide water bath directly without any preparation when you’re ready to cook them! It also helps to avoid the freezer burn.
Ready for your weeknight steak dinner?
How to sous vide frozen steak
- Sous vide
- Sear
- Serve!
Today we’re cooking rib-eye steaks from frozen.
Step 1: Preheat the sous vide circulator to 135°F/57°C. Cook the vacuum-sealed frozen steak in the water bath (If your frozen steak is not vacuum-sealed, you’ll need to take it out of the package and vacuum seal it).
Step 2: Once the timer goes off, let it chill for about 10 minutes in a water bath. Pat dry and season with more salt and pepper. Sear the steak until nicely browned.
Step 3: Cut the steak against the grain, and serve with side dishes such as potatoes and green beans.
What temperature should I sous vide frozen steak?
For most of the steaks, I recommend cooking it at 135°F (57°C) for medium rare. If you’d like to try other doneness, follow the chart below:
| Steak Doneness | Temperature |
| Rare | 125°F (52°C) |
| Medium Rare | 135°F (57°C) |
| Medium | 140°F (60°C) |
| Medium-well | 150°F (66°C) |
| Well-done | 160°F (71°C) |
How long does it take to sous vide steak from frozen?
The rule of thumb is to cook your steak for an extra 30 minutes if it’s frozen. For example, for tender cuts such as sirloin steak and rib-eye steak, it takes about 1.5 hours to cook from frozen. For tougher cuts such as round steak, the cooking time is the same as fresh steak (about 6-8 hours).
It’s ok to cook them in the sous vide water bath for an extra 1-2 hours, but if you cook them too long, they can get mushy.
Will my steak come out less delicious if I cook it from frozen?
Not at all! Your steak will taste as tender and juicy as the ones cooked from fresh. Just make sure it doesn’t get freezer burn before cooking.
How to seal the bag without a vacuum sealer?
If you don’t have a vacuum-sealer, you can seal the bag using the the water displacement technique: just seal all but one corner of the bag, and then slowly place it into a large pot of water. Make sure everything below the zip-line is covered by water, then seal the rest of the bag.
If your vacuum-sealed steak is half floating in the sous vide water bath, you can use a heavy kitchen item to weigh it down. Make sure all the meat is fully submerged while the seams of the zip-top bag are above the water.
More Sous Vide Recipes
How to Sous Vide Frozen Steak
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lb ribeye steak, (frozen)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large container or pot with water. Attach the sous vide precision cooker and set the temperature to 135°F (57°C). If you’d like to try other temperatures, see the temperature guide in the post.
- If your frozen steaks is not prepared before freezing, you need to season them with salt and pepper to taste.
- Place them to a zip-top bag in a single layer. (If they’re on top of each other, you’ll need to separate them first.)
- Seal the bag using the “water displacement” technique: seal all but one corner of the bag, and slowly place it in cold water. Make sure everything below the zip-line is covered by water. Then seal the rest of the bag. (You can use a vacuum sealer if you have one).
- Place the bag in the water bath and cook for 1.5 hours. (Make sure the meat is fully submerged while the seams of the bag are above water.)
- Once the timer goes off, let them chill for about 10 minutes in a water bath. Pat dry and season with more salt and pepper.
- In a skillet over medium-high heat, add oil. Once hot, sear the steak about 1 minute per side until nicely browned.
- Remove from heat, cut the steak against the grain, and serve with side dishes.
Notes
- Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container and they can last for 4-5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate only and will vary based on ingredient brands and cooking methods used.
Since finding your recipe I’ve used this method a couple of times and the steaks are absolutely wonderfully tender and juicy. I get my meats from Moink, so they arrive frozen and sealed, I just take them out of the bags they come in and season and seal in vacuum bags.
Hi Jude, thanks for letting me know. I’m glad that you find this useful!
I have done sous vide steak for some time in the customary manner, initially frozen and thawed. I am curious as to others’ opinions about the idea of searing the surfaces with a broiler FIRST, for about 90 seconds on each side, and THEN putting it in a slider bag and cooking it to about 137 degrees F in the water bath, and THEN adding a BBQ sauce and carmelizing that back in the broiler.
I did short ribs by searing them first on all sides then cooking them sous vide for 48 hours and was surprised at how the crust held up even after that long time. On top of that I cooked them in a chianti/balsamic reduction sauce in the bag. When ready I just opened the bag up and put them on a platter and reduced the sauce from the bag a bit.
They were fall apart tender with a crust around them and absolutely delicious.
Can you cook steaks all day while leaving for a long activity like golf?? 5-6 hours?
Some central cut steak like sirloin might become mushy while other types such as London Broil are ok.