Yes, you can sous vide frozen steak! Whether it’s strip, ribeye, or filet mignon, you can sous vide it from frozen. Pair with a delicious sauce or compound butter and you’ve got an incredible center plate on your hands. It’s always tender and never overcooked. You’re not sacrificing a thing by cooking from frozen and this can be an amazing meal prep strategy!
Once I learned I could sous vide steak from frozen, my life changed. So much so that I wrote an entire cookbook about it!
One of my favorite meal prep strategies is to go to Costco, grab a whole lot of whatever’s on sale, then season or marinade, vacuum seal, and freeze. This is amazing for a few reasons:
- I have a freezer full of ready to sous vide meals – no defrosting required!
- Past Chelsea made decisions for future Chelsea. I don’t have to wonder what’s for dinner or try to come up with something. I just look at what I have!
- This system makes it easy for me to batch prep a ton of meals at once.
Sous Vide Meal Prep
This cookbook outlines my entire method for keeping your freezer stocked with ready to sous vide meals (and some great recipes to boot!).
Are you new to sous vide cooking? Learn what sous vide is and get a deep dive on air removal methods while you’re here.
Will the texture be different if I sous vide steaks from frozen?
The good news: absolutely not! You aren’t compromising a thing by cooking from frozen, so don’t think twice about it.
When we cook sous vide, the thing that will change the texture regardless of whether or not we are cooking from frozen is the amount of time we cook it (and even these differences aren’t huge). The longer we cook, the more moisture loss there is and the more the meat breaks down.
I usually don’t like to cook my steaks too long to retain as much moisture as possible.
Time and Temp for Sous Vide Frozen Steak
When sous viding steak from frozen, don’t worry about adjusting the temperature. If you have a favorite temp that you like to cook your steaks at, use that!
My favorite temperature for sous vide steak is 129F for lean cuts and 132F for fatty cuts.
Why a higher temp for fattier cuts? I like to render the fat just a little bit more while still keeping the steak as close to medium rare as I can.
If you want to learn more about different temps for different cuts, my friend Jason of Amazing Food Made Easy has a great guide for beef times and temps.
Time and Temp Chart for Sous Vide Steaks from Frozen
To sous vide steaks from frozen, preheat a water bath to your desired temperature with an immersion circulator and cook for 2-4 hours. You are adding an hour to the minimum cook time (1 hour) when cooking from frozen. If your steak is really thick (more than 2 inches), go for a minimum time of 2.5 hours.
| Result | Temp | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Rare | 125 degrees F | 2-4 hours |
| Medium Rare | 130 degrees F | 2-4 hours |
| Medium | 135 degrees F | 2-4 hours |
| Well Done | 145 degrees F | 2-4 hours |
Get the Recipe:
How to Sous Vide Frozen Steak (Any Cut)
Ingredients
Sous Vide Frozen Steak
- 2 steak cuts of your choice
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp butter, ghee, or neutral oil
Blue Cheese Compound Butter
- 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
- 2 tsp finely chopped chives
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Equipment
- Water Bath
Instructions
- If you can, season the steaks with salt and pepper before vacuum sealing and freezing. If you're working with steaks that are already vacuum sealed and frozen, proceed to the next step.
- To sous vide steaks from frozen, preheat a water bath to your desired temperature with an immersion circulator, add the vacuum sealed steak, and cook for 2-4 hours. You are adding an hour to the minimum cook time (1 hour) when cooking from frozen. If your steak is really thick (more than 2 inches), go for a minimum time of 2.5 hours.
- While the steak is cooking, make the blue cheese compound butter. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients with a fork. Don't over mash: you want blue cheese chunks! Add to a small jar or wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate or freeze. When frozen, the butter will keep for up to 6 months.
- When the steak is done, remove from the water bath and bag and pat completely dry with paper towels or a clean dish towel. If the steak wasn't seasoned before you cooked it, season it now, liberally with salt and pepper.
- Preheat a heavy bottomed skillet, like cast iron, over high heat. Once smoking, add the ghee or neutral oil.
- Add the steak to the skillet and sear on both sides until dark brown. If you have a grill press, set it on top of the steaks while you sear.
- Remove the steaks to plates and top with 1-2 tbsp cold compound butter. Serve immediately.
Have you ever thrown the steaks, chicken or fish on grill after soups vide?
Yes. If it’s a charcoal grill, it may feel like a waste of charcoal, because it has to be really hot and the steaks are on the grill for maybe 2 minutes max. Otherwise, you’ll be cooking to a higher temperature. Might need to lower your sous vide temp a few degrees so the grill doesn’t overcook the meat.