[0 - 0] - I'm Frank Proto.
[0 - 3] I'm a professional chef and culinary instructor,
[3 - 5] and today I'm gonna show you how to sear.
[7 - 9] I'll go over how to sear your protein
[9 - 11] to make it crunchy and caramelized on the outside
[11 - 12] and juicy in the center.
[12 - 16] That contrast is what makes seared food so delicious.
[16 - 19] This is searing 101.
[19 - 21] Searing basically means we're cooking over high heat
[21 - 24] with some fat, in order to caramelize something.
[24 - 27] In our case, it'll be proteins.
[27 - 29] The equipment that I like to use when I'm searing,
[29 - 30] is a heavy cast iron skillet
[30 - 34] or a nice stainless steel saute pan.
[34 - 37] The cast iron holds onto heat really well
[37 - 38] and stays hot for a long time,
[38 - 42] whereas the stainless steel transfers heat really quickly.
[42 - 48] This allows us to cook at a fairly high temperature without burning. [bright music]
[48 - 50] I have three different types of proteins here.
[50 - 52] Generally, we sear thicker pieces of meat,
[52 - 54] 'cause we wanna get that nice crust on the outside
[54 - 56] and the nice, juicy interior.
[56 - 57] You really don't want this to be ice cold
[57 - 58] when it goes in the pan.
[58 - 60] The inside's not gonna be cooked.
[60 - 62] What I like to do is take it out
[62 - 65] 10 to 15 minutes before I sear and then cook it.
[65 - 66] I don't think it necessarily needs to be
[66 - 68] at room temperature.
[68 - 70] You're kind of getting into this sketchy area
[70 - 71] where it's sitting out for too long,
[71 - 74] especially with a thick piece of meat.
[74 - 75] And the prep for these is almost identical
[75 - 77] for every single one.
[77 - 80] First thing we want to do is take a towel
[80 - 84] and make sure that there's no moisture on the outside.
[84 - 87] It doesn't start to sear until that moisture is cooked off.
[87 - 89] So the less moisture on our protein,
[90 - 92] the quicker we get that nice caramelization.
[92 - 95] My chicken has the skin on. That's great.
[95 - 98] I want the fat, I want the crispiness for the skin,
[98 - 99] so I leave the skin on.
[99 - 102] I have two pieces of salmon here.
[102 - 105] One that's not marinated with the skin on,
[105 - 107] because crispy fish skin is delicious.
[107 - 108] And then we have another piece of salmon
[108 - 109] that has a marinade.
[109 - 112] Marinades tend to burn if they have a lot of sugars.
[112 - 113] If you've marinated long enough,
[113 - 115] the flavor's gonna be inside the fish,
[115 - 118] so you don't need a lot of excess stuff on the outside.
[118 - 123] So keep it as dry as possible. Dab it off. [bright music]
[123 - 124] My pork chop is ready to go.
[124 - 126] My cast iron skillet is preheated.
[126 - 128] If it's not hot enough,
[128 - 130] it just kind of goes flat and nothing happens.
[130 - 132] If it's too hot, you put the pork chop in,
[132 - 134] it's sputters and we get flames.
[134 - 137] So we want to try and find that happy place in between.
[137 - 139] The way that I can tell that the pan is hot enough
[139 - 141] is I'm gonna put some oil in
[141 - 143] and I want to cover the bottom of the pan fairly well.
[143 - 146] Basically what I'm looking for is a little haze of smoke
[146 - 147] like I have now.
[147 - 152] My oil is kind of ripply and flows freely in the pan.
[152 - 154] I'm using canola oil, which has a high smoke point.
[154 - 156] Smoke point is basically the point
[156 - 158] at which the oil starts to smoke.
[158 - 161] Anything with a high smoke point doesn't burn too quickly,
[161 - 164] it holds the heat and that makes it a great oil for searing.
[164 - 166] So my pan is nice and hot.
[166 - 169] I'm getting a little haze of smoke.
[169 - 172] I'm going to season well. Heavily.
[172 - 175] You can see that I season fairly high up,
[175 - 177] 'cause I want my salt to disperse really well.
[177 - 180] I'm seasoning now because if I season earlier,
[180 - 182] the salt draws out moisture from the meat,
[182 - 185] and that will impede us from searing well.
[185 - 187] Okay, and then we're gonna go into the pan.
[187 - 190] Drop away from you so the oil splashes away from you.
[190 - 194] You notice how I'm hearing sizzling right away.
[194 - 196] If you hear snap, crackle and pop,
[196 - 198] that's when you know you're starting to sear.
[198 - 199] I'm gonna let this cook
[199 - 202] until I have a nice brown crust on it.
[202 - 203] You just wanna leave it be
[203 - 204] for the first two to three minutes,
[204 - 206] so that if it does stick,
[206 - 208] it'll basically unstick itself after a while.
[208 - 209] Let the pan do the work.
[209 - 213] Let this get nice and brown before we flip it.
[213 - 215] So it's been a few minutes here. I'm just gonna take a look.
[215 - 218] And if you look at that, we're getting some nice browning.
[218 - 221] I'm gonna leave it on this side for another like, minute,
[221 - 223] minute and a half, and then we'll give it a turn.
[223 - 225] For the most part what I'm watching for,
[225 - 227] is that this oil is not burning and smoking up the room.
[227 - 230] You need to watch the pan and adjust the heat.
[230 - 232] The cast iron pan takes a long time
[232 - 233] to heat up and cool down.
[233 - 236] If you feel like it's not hot enough, go up in measures.
[236 - 238] If you crank it and it gets too hot,
[238 - 240] it's gonna take an equal amount of time to cool down.
[240 - 242] We're ready to go here.
[242 - 245] I can give it a good turn and look at that.
[245 - 248] The culinary term for browning is the Maillard reaction.
[248 - 250] And you can see right here, the proteins,
[250 - 252] the sugars in the meat, and the salt and pepper,
[252 - 256] have browned to give us a nice, golden brown crust.
[256 - 257] And that's what we want.
[257 - 259] That is flavor.
[259 - 260] Now that I flipped my meat over,
[260 - 261] I'm gonna wait for the other side to get brown.
[261 - 262] And now what I'm gonna do
[262 - 264] is I'm gonna hold it up on its side.
[264 - 268] I wanna make sure that that fat gets nice and crispy as well.
[268 - 269] And this'll cook a little quicker
[269 - 271] just because there's less surface area.
[271 - 272] This pork chop is super thick.
[272 - 275] It's fully seared. I got some nice brown on it.
[275 - 276] I like to finish in the oven
[276 - 280] just for the fact that I don't want the oil to start to burn
[280 - 282] before my pork chop is done.
[282 - 283] I'm gonna go throw this in the oven
[283 - 288] for about five to seven minutes and then we'll let it rest. [bright music]
[288 - 290] My chicken thigh is basically the same method
[290 - 291] as the pork chop.
[291 - 294] Except for the fact that the chicken has skin.
[294 - 296] And nothing is better than crispy chicken skin.
[296 - 299] I'm starting out with a fairly high heat in my pan
[299 - 301] using the same canola oil.
[301 - 305] My chicken gets some salt and pepper both sides.
[305 - 308] And I'm gonna start my chicken skin side down.
[308 - 311] The presentation side is the most important side.
[311 - 313] Fish skin, chicken skin, anything with skin,
[313 - 315] you wanna make sure that's beautiful
[315 - 317] before you start moving anything around.
[317 - 320] And once that skin starts to get nice and golden brown,
[320 - 323] you want to turn it over and cook the rest of the way
[323 - 324] on the flesh side.
[324 - 326] It's gonna brown nice and evenly.
[326 - 327] It's not like the pork chop
[327 - 328] where you need to hold it up on its side.
[328 - 329] All I'm really worried about
[329 - 331] is that skin getting nice and crisp.
[331 - 333] The great thing about chicken thighs
[333 - 336] is that they are juicy, no matter how much you cook them.
[336 - 338] So I'm gonna take this chicken thigh,
[338 - 341] put in the oven about 350, let it finish cooking through,
[341 - 343] let it rest and then we'll taste it.
[345 - 347] I have a piece of salmon here.
[347 - 349] Not marinated and it has the skin on.
[349 - 351] I'm not using a cast iron here.
[351 - 353] I'm using a stainless steel saute pan.
[353 - 355] Same procedure as the pork chop and the chicken.
[355 - 358] I want a nice coating of oil in the bottom of the pan.
[358 - 360] And then I'm gonna season. Salt and pepper.
[360 - 363] And then it goes in the pan skin side down,
[363 - 364] dropping it away from you.
[364 - 368] If your salmon skin starts to stick, leave it alone,
[368 - 370] turn your heat down to a little bit of a medium,
[370 - 373] and the skin will unstick itself eventually.
[373 - 376] I still need like a minute before I turn this over.
[376 - 378] I want that skin to be nice and crisp and brown.
[378 - 381] If you have spots that don't have oil,
[381 - 384] you're gonna have hot spots that burn your protein.
[384 - 386] So make sure that you have a nice covering of oil
[386 - 388] on the bottom of your pan.
[388 - 389] I'm gonna turn it over.
[389 - 391] I have a nice crispy skin.
[391 - 393] If you feel like your skin didn't get enough color on it,
[393 - 394] you can flip it back.
[394 - 397] But I usually like to get it done on the first turn.
[397 - 399] Lower our heat down a little.
[399 - 400] We're not too worried
[400 - 402] about getting the flesh side super brown.
[402 - 405] I like to cook my salmon to like, a medium-rare, medium.
[405 - 407] Still pink in the middle.
[407 - 409] This salmon kind of has a thick edge
[409 - 410] just like the pork chops.
[410 - 411] I'm not too worried about it.
[411 - 414] I want that edge to be kind of nice and pink.
[414 - 417] Kind of show the color of the fish and not really be brown.
[417 - 419] I'm not gonna put it in the oven. It cooks fairly quick.
[419 - 421] I'm gonna take the salmon out right now
[421 - 423] and I'm gonna let it rest and come up to temperature,
[423 - 425] and hopefully we'll have a nice medium-rare interior.
[425 - 427] So this is my piece of marinated fish.
[427 - 429] The marinade has some sugar in it,
[429 - 431] and sugar tends to burn really quick.
[431 - 435] So I'm not gonna go quite as hot as the other proteins.
[435 - 438] I'm gonna get my pan covered with oil pretty well.
[438 - 441] I'm gonna season up lightly,
[441 - 444] just for the fact that this has some sugar and some salt
[444 - 445] in the marinade.
[445 - 446] So we have water boiling off.
[446 - 448] I think my oil is ready right now.
[448 - 450] I don't need to be too high.
[450 - 452] And you'll notice with this one what happened right away.
[452 - 455] Because of the marinade in there, it's sticking to my pan.
[455 - 457] I turn my heat up just a little
[457 - 458] and I'm gonna leave it alone.
[458 - 460] It will unstick itself eventually.
[460 - 462] I also grabbed a fish spatula.
[462 - 464] This is a spatula with holes in it.
[464 - 465] It's super thin and bending.
[465 - 467] And if you need to,
[467 - 471] we can easily just get under this and give it a turn.
[471 - 474] So I'm gonna take this out and put it over here.
[474 - 476] I would tend to finish in the oven,
[476 - 478] just like the pork chop and the chicken,
[478 - 479] just 'cause you're dealing with some sugar,
[479 - 481] and it caramelizes really quick.
[481 - 483] So here you can see the difference really clearly
[483 - 485] between the marinated and the unmarinated.
[485 - 488] The marinated salmon gets dark really quickly,
[488 - 490] that sugar caramelizes really fast,
[490 - 492] and the unmarinated salmon
[492 - 494] kind of gets a nice golden brown crust.
[494 - 497] When it comes to salmon and fish, I really don't rest them.
[497 - 500] I kind of just cook them, plate them, send them out.
[500 - 503] When you sear something, the meat tenses up,
[503 - 506] and then you let it rest and the juices redistribute,
[506 - 507] and you get a nice juicy end product.
[507 - 509] So let's get our pork chop.
[509 - 512] Give it a slice close to the bone.
[512 - 514] You can see that we have some nice glisteny juices.
[514 - 518] The outside is still nice and crunchy and nice and brown.
[518 - 519] Same thing with our chicken.
[519 - 521] It's nice and brown on the outside,
[521 - 523] and nice and juicy on the inside.
[523 - 526] And for the unmarinated salmon, we just break it open.
[526 - 529] It's nice and caramelized on the outside.
[529 - 531] Beautifully pink and juicy on the inside.
[531 - 533] If your proteins are seared properly,
[533 - 536] you're gonna get a nice, crunchy, salty outside,
[536 - 537] and a juicy interior.
[537 - 539] And that's the whole point of doing this.
[539 - 542] Beautiful presentation. Juicy end product.