NOTE: Do your marinating in a refrigerator, steaks zipped tightly into an air-tight ziploc bag, and remove it a half hour prior to cooking (always cook steak starting at room temp).

See: The Best Damn Steak Marinade to prepare your own marinade. Here are a couple of rules-of-thumb for you, should you want to veer from my prized marinade:

1. Acids break down connective tissue which make your steak more tender. Good items to achieve this include: hot sauce, lemon juice, and vinegar.
2. Never add salt! Salt draws juices out of the meat – exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to do here.
3. Brown sugar caramelizes on the outside, acting as a great agent to achieve a well-seared outside and keep the center rare and juicy.

Check out the video below for my personal favorite verison of a steak marinade.

Cooking Your Steak:
Here is an easy easy way of cooking steaks that are .75-1.5″ thick. For anything thicker, add 30 seconds a side for every .5″ – it also might be a good idea to drop the $20 for a meat thermometer to make sure your meat is fully cooked, for steaks that thick.

Always let the BBQ warm up on high for 5-7 minutes.

Cook the steak for 2 minutes a side with the heat on high, flipping 3 times for rare, 4 times for medium, and 5 times for well done (well done – gross).

If you’re a have a meat thermometer and are a stickler for cooking temperatures (read: don’t want to get e-coli or mad cow disease), here is a breakdown of temperature measurements from the middle of the steak and what it will yield as far as desired redness (in fahrenheit):

Rare: 140° (don’t go below this – or die….possibly)
Medium Rare: 150°
Medium: 160°
Medium Well: 165°
Well Done: Never.

*Remember – the steak will continue to cook for another 5 minutes after it leaves the grill.

This should get you started. I love adding a little bit of bleu cheese crumbles to my steak on the last flip, letting it melt and brown for the last 2 minutes of cooking. AWESOME.

Anyway, as usual, enjoy, dudes!