Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak Recipe

Season a tomahawk steak with SPG seasoning, then slow smoke at 250F until it reaches 100F and, finally, sear hot and fast to make this reverse sear tomahawk steak recipe. We finish this bone in ribeye with compound butter that can kept in the fridge for months and busted out whenever you sear some steaks. There is also a blow torch involved which is always a conversation starter. 

Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak Recipe Ingredients

On a side note, we have lots of different compound butter recipes. Find one you like if this one doesn’t do it for you. Sweet Chili Butter or Chipotle and Chive Butter or Garlic and Herb Butter. 

If you are looking for another tomahawk recipe here’s one way to get an epic flavor crust by just keep flipping. 

What is a Tomahawk Steak?

A tomahawk steak is simply a ribeye steak with the rib bone still connected which somewhat resembles a tomahawk axe with the bone being the handle and the steak being the blade. Keep in mind that ribeye steak is expensive and thus when you pay that hefty price per pound for a tomahawk, you pay that much for that bone which no one is eating. While this bone-in ribeye is not cheap, the presentation is pretty magical, in a primal, caveman sort of way. 

Back to our Tomahawk Steak Recipe.

Season the steak on both sides heavily:

Go heavy on the seasoning because this two inch thick monster has a high meat to outer edge ratio.

Also, don’t forget the outer edge

Lay down a ribbon of seasoning and roll the outer edge in the SPG seasoning:

How Do You Reverse Sear a 2 Inch Thick Steak on the Grill?

Set the smoker to 250F and while the temperature of the grill comes up, season the steak. Once the smoker is up to temp, place the steak in the middle of the rack and allow the smoke and heat to work their magic. When the steak is 10F-15F short of your desired doneness, remove the steak from the smoker and sear at 500F. Searing each side will bring the temp up the final 10F-15F to your desired doneness. For example, if you want to serve the steak at 135F, remove it from the smoker at 120F-125F and then sear on both sides. Allow the steak to rest for a few minutes, slice and serve. 

Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak Recipe Instructions

Prepare the grill/smoker for two zone grilling on a conventional grill or set the smoker to 250F. 

In this case, I cooked this on my Green Mountain Grills pellet cooker. I set the chamber to 250F and filled the hopper with Bear Mountain Premium BBQ Oak Pellets:

As you can see in the background, it had snowed the night before and it was really cold. When I wiped down the Green Mountain with some wet wipes, the liquid from the wipe froze weird on the metal rather than evaporating. 

This very well may be my last cook on the GMG.

Time for a New Grill?

The entire GMG production line was revamped and the new ones grills hit stores in the first quarter of 2024 and I will be upgrading. Here’s where you will be able to find the new grills once they launch. When you see the side burner you will know the new grills have arrived. The GMG in this post has served me for years like a champ. But that side burner is a such an amazing feature. It’s time to upgrade. 

Also, I loaded that hopper up with the oak pellets from Bear Mountain. 

Oak is probably my favorite wood for smoking beef. If you don’t have access to oak, don’t worry. Here’s a link to a full list of smoke woods and what meats they pair well with. Find a wood you have access to that pairs well with beef. 

Place the seasoned tomahawk on the smoker, insert a probe thermometer and close the lid:

The real trick to pulling off the reverse sear is knowing when to pull the steak from the grill. Know what final temp you prefer and pull the steak off the grill 10F-15F short of that preferred doneness. 

Here’s a handy steak doneness guide

Steak Temps

• Rare Steak Temp: 120F-125F
• Medium Rare Steak Temp: 130F-135F
• Medium Steak Temp: 140F-145F
• Med. Well Steak Temp: 150F-155F
• Well Done Steak Temp: 160F or more, but seriously, just order the chicken

For example, I’m a very rare steak guy (although a medium rare or even medium is still quite delicious), so I pulled this steak at 100F and seared it to the low end of rare. If you want a medium rare steak, pull the steak off the grill around 120F-125F internal temp and then sear it. 

For searing the steak, we want the grill surface to be north of 500F. The hotter the better. 

In this case, I can sear right in the pellet grill as I can get that cooker over 500F. But this can be done IN a Cast Iron Pan, although the bone will keep the steak from getting that perfect, coast to coast sear. Luckily, there’s a Cast Iron Tomahawk Hack that will solve that problem. Or if you have one of those flat top grills, just spark that up. 

How Long Does it Take to Reverse Sear a Tomahawk Steak?

I hate this question. Size of the ribeye, fat content, heat of the fire, weather conditions, etc all contribute to how long it takes. Cook to temp, not time. That being said, this steak took about 40 minutes at 250F to reach 100F internal temp. Then another few minutes searing (less than 15). 

Time to Sear

It’s time to put the sear in this reverse sear tomahawk steak recipe. Whatever grill surface you use, just make sure it registers over 500F. 

I put a set of grill grates in my grill to get better grill marks. 

One of the advantages of the reverse sear method is by bringing the steak up to temp slowly, we don’t get those gray bands around the outside if we start with the sear. But that can be wrecked right here at the sear. It all depends on the process of the sear. Which begs the question:

Flip Once or Flip Three Times to Sear?

Flip three times. Flipping once means searing and getting one side of the cross hatch grill marks, rotate 45-90 degrees and get the other side of the cross hatch grill marks. Then, the one flip and the process is repeated on the other side. Instead, get the first set of grill marks, flip and get the first set on the other side, then flip back over and rotate 45-90 degrees. Get the second set of grill marks and then flip and rotate to get the second set on the other side. This way, we don’t spend as much time on one side at north of 500F and we don’t get as much grey around the outside of the meat. 

Here’s the reverse sear tomahawk steak after the first set of grill lines and the first flip:

And here we are after two more flips and the temp has come up on our reverse sear tomahawk steak and grill marks have been applied:

Re-season the Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak

Remember how much seasoning was on the steak when it hit the grill for the first time? Feel free to scroll back up to see. The vast majority of that seasoning is gone by the time the steak comes off the grill:

This is why the seasoning is listed with “divided” after it.

Hit it with another sprinkle of seasoning here or after it is sliced:

Allow the steak to rest for 5-8 minutes. Then hit that compound butter and grab your blow torch. 

Time to add the compound butter for steak:

Then, bust out that blow torch to melt the butter and roast the garlic a bit:

You could throw this steak back in the smoker to melt the butter although that’s not as much fun as a torch, but I understand if that’s all you have. 

Finally, we have to slice the tomahawk.

I’m a big believer in leaving a lot of meat on the bone because that’s my favorite part:

And a close up.

Notice how little grey is around the outer edge of the steak:

Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak Recipe Recap

This tomahawk steak recipe is just a primer on how to reverse sear a massive bone in ribeye. It works no matter what type of smoker you have and what type of grill surface you want to use. Also, feel free to use whatever compound butter you like, or none at all. This beast was a solid rare all the way through with a wonderful flavor crust and a subtle smoky flavor with that wonderful savory, buttery gold melted on top which makes this tomahawk steak recipe an absolute winner every time. Once you reverse sear, there just isn’t any going back. 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

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Recipe Card:

Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak Recipe

SPG seasoned tomahawk steak that is smoked and then seared before it is topped with a compound butter for this reverse sear tomahawk steak recipe

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Resting Time5 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course, Steak

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Beef, Steak, Tomahawk, Tomahawk Steak

Keyword: Bone In, Bone In Rib Eye, Bone In Ribeye, Butter, Compound Butter, Grilled Steak, Medium Rare, Medium Rare Steak, Medium Rare Steak Temp, Rare Steak, Rare Steak Temp, reverse sear, Reverse Sear Steak, Reverse Sear Steak Recipe, Reverse Sear Tomahawk Sear Recipe, Reverse Sear Tomahawk Steak, Reverse Seared Steak, Ribeye, Ribeye Steak, SPG, SPG Rub, SPG Seasoning, Steak, Steak Temp, Steak Temps, Tomahawk, Tomahawk Rib Eye, Tomahawk Ribeye, Tomahawk Steak, Tomahawk Steak Recipe

Servings: 2 People

Compound Butter Ingredients

Tomahawk Steak Ingredients

• Season the tomahawk steak liberally on top and bottom with SPG. Spread a thick ribbon of seasoning along the cutting board and roll the thick edge of the bone in ribeye along the SPG to coat all the way around.

• Prepare the grill/smoker for 250F and use oak wood to infuse the steak. Place the steak inside the grill/smoker and insert a probe thermometer

• While the steak smokes, place two room temperature sticks of salted butter in a bowl and spoon over the jarlic (jarred garlic) and Andrias steak sauce and blend thoroughly. Place on a piece of wax or parchment paper (or plastic wrap) and form into a giant Tootsie Roll and place in a fridge to harden.

• Once the steak reaches 10F-15F short of your desired doneness, remove the oak smoked tomahawk from the grill/smoker and crank up the heat to north of 400F (or fire up another grill). Sear the steak on both sides to get a wonderful flavor crust or those diamonds of beautiful browning.

• Remove from the heat, and allow the steak to rest for 5-8 minutes.

• While the steak rests, slice off some disks of that compound butter and place them on top of the steak. Blast with the torch to melt the butter and cook the garlic a bit.

• Slice and serve

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.