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Reverse searing is the one technique that separates a pellet grill steak from an actual steakhouse cut, and it works because pellet grills are exceptionally good at the half of the job most people get wrong — holding a low, even temperature while smoke builds flavor. If you're still new to running your grill at a steady setpoint, the pellet grill beginner's guide covers the fundamentals; this one assumes you can already hit and hold 225°F.
The method is simple in concept: smoke the steak low and slow until it's close to done, rest it briefly, then blast it with high heat just long enough to build a crust. What trips people up isn't the concept — it's the numbers. Pull too late and the sear pushes you past medium. Pull too early and the center never catches up. Every cut behaves differently, and thickness changes the math more than any recipe website admits.
This guide gives you the pull temperatures, sear windows, and final targets for the six cuts backyard cooks actually reverse sear on a pellet grill: ribeye, New York strip, filet mignon, tomahawk, flank, and London broil. It also tells you honestly which of those cuts reverse sear badly — flank and other thin, lean cuts move through the smoke phase so fast that the technique works against them.
Whether you're running a Traeger, a Pit Boss, a recteq, or a Camp Chef, the core sequence doesn't change. What changes is how each brand gets you to searing temperature, and that's covered separately below.
Quick Reference — Pull Temp, Sear, Final Target by Cut
| Cut | Chamber Temp | Smoke Time (approx.) | Pull Before Sear | Sear | Final Target (Medium-Rare) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ribeye (1.5"+) | 225°F | 45–75 min | 115–120°F | 450–500°F, 60–90 sec/side | 130–135°F |
| New York Strip | 225°F | ~60 min | 105–110°F | 500°F, ~4 min total | 130–135°F |
| Filet Mignon | 225°F | 45–60 min | 115–120°F | 450–500°F, 45–60 sec/side | 125–130°F |
| Tomahawk | 225°F | 45 min–2 hr (size-dependent) | 110–120°F | 450–500°F, 90 sec/side | 130–135°F |
| London Broil | 225°F | until internal hits target | 125°F | 450–500°F, brief | 135°F, slice thin against grain |
| Flank Steak | Not recommended — see below | — | — | — | — |
These are chamber and pull temperatures, not doneness targets on their own — carryover during the rest between smoke and sear, and again after the sear, adds another 3–5°F to whatever you pulled at. Build that into your math before you pull.
How Reverse Sear Works on a Pellet Grill
Traditional grilling sears first and finishes with residual heat, which means the center of a thick steak often overcooks by the time the outside is right. Reverse sear flips the order: smoke the steak gently until it's nearly at temperature, then finish with a short, violent blast of heat that builds a crust without pushing the interior further than a few degrees.
Pellet grills are unusually well suited to this because the smoke phase is exactly what they're built for — steady, low-temperature convection heat in the 180–250°F range, with 225°F as the standard setpoint across nearly every brand's own reverse-sear instructions. The harder part on a pellet grill is the second half: getting the grate hot enough, fast enough, to actually sear. Traeger states that effective searing happens between 350°F and 500°F, and most sear-capable pellet grills top out somewhere in the 500–700°F range at the grate — well below a steakhouse broiler, which is why grate-level sear accessories matter more here than on a gas or charcoal grill.
One thing you don't need to worry about: the stall. On a brisket or pork butt, evaporative cooling can stall the internal temperature for hours around 150–170°F. A steak is pulled at 105–125°F, long before that zone, and the entire smoke phase for even a thick cut runs 45 minutes to two hours. The stall is a non-issue at steak timescales — if your steak's temperature climbs slower than expected, it's almost always chamber temp inconsistency, not the stall.
The General Method
- Dry brine. Salt the steak 2–24 hours ahead, uncovered, on a rack in the fridge. This pulls surface moisture out, which is the single biggest lever for a hard sear later — a wet surface steams instead of crusting.
- Smoke at 225°F. Place the steak directly on the grate with a probe inserted into the thickest part, away from bone or fat seams. Close the lid and don't check it constantly — every lid opening costs you recovery time.
- Pull at the target temperature for your cut (see the reference table above), not at a fixed time. Thickness, starting temperature, and ambient weather all shift the clock by 15–20 minutes in either direction.
- Rest 5–10 minutes while you get the grill to searing temperature, or transfer to a preheated cast iron skillet or griddle.
- Sear hot and fast — 45–90 seconds per side depending on the cut and heat source — until the crust is dark, then pull immediately.
- Rest again, briefly (3–5 minutes) before slicing. This is where carryover finishes the job; expect another 3–5°F rise.
Cook to temperature, not time, at every stage. It's the one rule that shows up in every serious pellet grill forum thread on this topic, and it's the difference between a repeatable result and a guess.
Ribeye (Bone-In and Boneless)
Ribeye is the forgiving cut for this technique — enough fat that a slightly imperfect sear window still produces a good result. Smoke at 225°F for 45–75 minutes depending on thickness, pulling at 115–120°F. Sear at 450–500°F for 60–90 seconds per side, then rest 5 minutes before slicing. Final target for medium-rare is 130–135°F.
Bone-in ribeye runs slightly differently — the bone conducts heat unevenly, so a probe reading near the bone will read hotter than the meat actually is. Keep the probe tip in the thickest part of the meat, at least an inch from the bone, and expect the bone-adjacent meat to finish a touch more done than the rest of the steak. That's normal, not a sign you pulled early.
New York Strip
Traeger's own reverse-sear reference recipe for New York strip smokes for about 60 minutes at 225°F to an internal of 105–110°F, then sears at 500°F for roughly 4 minutes total, finishing at 130–135°F for medium-rare. Strip steak has less fat than ribeye and a tighter grain, so it's slightly less forgiving of an overshoot — if you're going to check the probe compulsively on any cut, make it this one.
Filet Mignon
Filet is the leanest of the classic reverse-sear cuts, which means it has the least margin for error and the least flavor buffer if you overcook it. Smoke at 225°F for 45–60 minutes to 115–120°F internal, then sear 45–60 seconds per side at 450–500°F. Final target for medium-rare is 125–130°F — lower than ribeye or strip, because there's no fat cap to carry a slightly-past-perfect center.
Because filet has so little smoke-friendly fat, it's also the cut where wood choice matters least — a milder pellet (oak, pecan, or a fruit wood) won't fight the delicate flavor the way mesquite or hickory can on a leaner cut.
Tomahawk Steak
A tomahawk is essentially a thick bone-in ribeye, and the size is the whole story: smoke time ranges from 45 minutes for a smaller tomahawk to as long as two hours for a full 2+ inch cut with bone. Pull at 110–120°F — lower than a standard ribeye, because a thick tomahawk's center rises less during the sear than a thinner steak's does, proportionally. Sear at 450–500°F for about 90 seconds per side, rest, and target 130–135°F final for medium-rare.
Because of the size, a tomahawk is the cut where a good instant-read thermometer earns its keep — see the best BBQ meat thermometers for pellet grills if you're still checking doneness by feel. For a similarly large-format reverse sear, the approach overlaps heavily with smoked prime rib — same low-and-slow logic, scaled up.
London Broil
London broil reverse sears better than its reputation suggests, provided you treat it as a whole roast rather than a thin steak. Smoke at 225°F to 125°F internal, sear briefly at 450–500°F, and pull at 135°F. The step that actually matters here is the slice: London broil has a pronounced grain, and it must be cut thin, across the grain, or it eats tough regardless of how well you nailed the temperatures.
Flank Steak and London Broil — When Reverse Sear Isn't the Answer
Flank steak is thin, lean, and cooks through fast — which is exactly the combination that makes reverse sear a poor fit. A steak under roughly 1.25–1.5 inches thick moves from raw to overdone during the smoke phase before there's meaningful time to build flavor, and by the time it reaches a safe pull temperature, there's often no margin left before the sear pushes it past medium. For flank, skirt, and other thin cuts, a hot-and-fast direct sear — no low-temperature smoke phase at all — produces a better result with far less risk.
London broil is the exception among "thin-sounding" cuts because it's actually a thick roast-cut top round or flank, not a true steak, which is why it's listed above as a working reverse-sear candidate rather than grouped with flank here. If a package labeled "London broil" in your case is thin (under an inch), treat it like flank instead: sear it hot and fast.
Brand-Specific Notes — Traeger, Pit Boss, recteq, Camp Chef
Traeger. Ironwood, Timberline, Woodridge Pro, Silverton, and Pro 780 models include Super Smoke mode, which maximizes smoke density in the 180–225°F range during the smoke phase — useful for the flavor side of this cook, though it doesn't affect sear performance. For searing, Traeger's higher-end grills reach the top of the stated 350–500°F effective sear range natively; on models that struggle to hold 500°F consistently, a cast iron skillet or the accessories worth adding to a Traeger — specifically a sear-grate insert — closes the gap.
Pit Boss. Most Pit Boss grills include a flame broiler slide plate that exposes the cooking grate to direct flame from the firepot, which is the fastest way to get real searing heat on this platform without a separate tool. Slide it open only for the sear phase — leaving it open during the smoke phase defeats the point of indirect low-and-slow cooking.
recteq. Newer recteq models are rated up to 700°F, among the hottest pellet grills sold, and a dedicated Sear Kit is the brand's recommended path to a hard crust. Forum consensus among recteq owners favors the flat side of a reversible cast iron sear plate over the ridged side — better full-surface contact and a more even crust than grill-mark ridges produce.
Camp Chef. The Sidekick Sear accessory is a 28,000 BTU side burner that reaches up to 900°F independently of the main chamber, which sidesteps the "pellet grills sear slowly" problem entirely by moving the sear off the main grate.
The Tools That Actually Matter
Two tools do most of the work in a reverse sear: an accurate instant-read thermometer, and a way to get real heat at the grate.
For the thermometer, the ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE is the benchmark instant-read on the market — a one-second reading matters when you're pulling a steak within a 5°F window before it overshoots. It's a premium price for what is, at its core, a thermocouple in a housing, and most home cooks don't need that speed. The Lavatools Javelin PRO Duo reads in 2–3 seconds for meaningfully less, which is fast enough for steak-length cooks. The ThermoPro TP19H is the budget option and still accurate enough to hit these pull temps reliably — it's just the slowest of the three.
For the sear itself, a Lodge 12-inch cast iron skillet preheated on the grate (or on a side burner, or even on the stovetop) produces the most even, full-contact crust of any method — no grill-mark gaps, no cold spots. A GrillGrate Sear Station is the alternative if you want to keep the steak on open grates: it adds roughly 100°F at the surface and gives you classic grill marks, though full coverage on a pellet grill can trap heat and choke airflow — use it as a partial insert, not wall-to-wall.
Wood choice matters less here than on a long brisket cook simply because contact time is short, but it's not irrelevant. A robust blend like Traeger's Signature Blend — hickory, maple, and cherry — works well across fattier cuts like ribeye and tomahawk. For a deeper dive into matching wood to what you're cooking, see best wood pellets for smoking.
Which Cut Should You Reverse Sear?
- New to the technique, want a forgiving first attempt: ribeye. The fat cap covers small timing mistakes.
- Want the leanest, most precise result: filet mignon — but check the probe often; there's no fat buffer.
- Cooking for a crowd or a special occasion: tomahawk, paired with the same low-and-slow logic used for smoked prime rib.
- Working with a thin cut (flank, skirt, thin-cut strip): skip reverse sear entirely and go hot-and-fast direct.
- Working with London broil labeled as a thick roast-cut: reverse sear works; slice thin against the grain regardless of how well the temps land.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does the stall affect steak the way it affects brisket?
No. The stall is an evaporative-cooling plateau that shows up during hours-long cooks around 150–170°F internal. Steak is pulled well below that range, in well under two hours even for a large tomahawk, so the stall never becomes a factor at steak timescales.
Q: What temperature should I pull steak off for medium-rare?
It depends on the cut, not a single universal number — pull 10–15°F below your final target to account for carryover during the rest and the sear itself. For most cuts targeting 130–135°F final, that means pulling from the smoke phase around 105–120°F, then searing.
Q: Can I reverse sear on a pellet grill that only reaches 450°F?
Yes — 450°F is within Traeger's own stated effective searing range of 350–500°F. It won't produce quite as dark a crust as a 700°F recteq or a cast iron skillet preheated hotter, but it works. A GrillGrate or cast iron insert closes most of the remaining gap.
Q: Should I reverse sear a thin steak like flank or skirt?
Not recommended. Cuts under roughly 1.25–1.5 inches move through the smoke phase too quickly to build meaningful flavor before they're near done, leaving little margin before the sear pushes them past medium. Sear these hot and fast instead, with no smoke phase.
Q: Do I need a cast iron skillet, or can I sear directly on the grates?
Either works. Cast iron gives a more even, full-contact crust with no cold spots; open grates with a sear-grate accessory give classic grill marks and slightly less setup. Neither is objectively required — it comes down to which crust style you prefer.
Q: How long should steak rest before and after searing?
Rest 5–10 minutes between the smoke phase and the sear — long enough to get the grill or skillet to full heat. After searing, rest another 3–5 minutes before slicing; this is when most of the carryover rise happens.
Conclusion
Reverse sear isn't a trick — it's just running the two halves of a great steak cook in the order that actually works: gentle heat to build flavor and get close to temperature, then a short, hot blast to build the crust. The chart at the top of this guide covers the six cuts backyard cooks actually run this method on; the one honest caveat is that thin cuts like flank don't belong on that list, no matter how many recipe sites tell you otherwise.
Get the pull temperature right for your specific cut, rest it properly at both stages, and the brand of grill underneath it matters far less than people assume. If you're still dialing in the basics of holding a steady chamber temperature, start with the pellet grill beginner's guide; if your grill is struggling to hit the temps this method needs in the first place, cleaning it properly is usually the first thing to check before blaming the equipment.
