Want A Perfect Sear On Your Texas Roadhouse Steak? Request It This Way

Texas Roadhouse's beef is cut on site by butchers who really know their craft (there's even a little-known competition that keeps them at the top of their game called the National Meat Cutter Challenge). While the meat doesn't need much help in the taste department, you can make any Texas Roadhouse steak better with portobello mushroom sauce. You could also add more flavor to your meal by asking for steak seasoning. But enhancing your order is actually as simple as asking to have your cut cooked Pittsburgh style.

Also called Pittsburgh rare or black and blue, this method entails cooking the meat at a very high temperature to create a charred, crisp exterior without cooking the interior, which stays borderline raw. The inside is so rare that it'll likely still be cold when you bite it. To achieve the proper char without overcooking, cooks tend to use thick steaks that can hold up against high heat, like Porterhouses or strips at least 1½ inches thick.

History expert Sylvia Emmenegger McCoy told PA Eats that this style emerged courtesy of Pittsburgh's steel mill workers of yore, who used to cook raw meat on hot furnaces to sear the outside. It wouldn't have time to cook through, so it'd be rare with a charred exterior. Another legend says a cook at Pittsburgh's now-closed Colony Restaurant once charred an out-of-towner's steak by accident and coined "Pittsburgh style" on the spot to cover his mistake.

You can ask for a Pittsburgh-style steak at any steakhouse, but multiple people swear by Texas Roadhouse specifically. "This was, by far, the best cooked steak [my significant other] has had in several years at a restaurant," wrote a TripAdvisor reviewer. "Anytime I go to Texas Roadhouse, I always get my steak Pittsburgh style, which gives it a really salty, crispy, hard crust," says TikTok creator @renereocooks in a review. One Facebook user who ordered a medium-rare prime rib cooked Pittsburgh style raved, "This was better than at least half of the major steakhouses I've been to in the past 50 years. Mind-blowing!"

To taste it at Texas Roadhouse, order a thicker cut, like the Dallas filet, Ft. Worth ribeye, prime rib, or porterhouse T-bone. They come with two sides; we suggest something starchy, like a baked potato or fries, and something light, like Caesar salad or green beans. But you can't go wrong by doubling down on comfort, either (looking at you, mac and cheese).

For Pittsburgh-style steak at home, use the hottest heat source available. A charcoal grill will do the trick outside (open-flame cooking is generally preferred), while a cast iron skillet or broiler is best for indoors. It should only need about three minutes of searing per side for a 1-inch-thick piece. Season it heavily to aid in blackening the exterior.