How To Make Sheet Pan Steak Frites

Steak frites, the French version of meat and potatoes found often on the menu at brasseries throughout Europe, is traditionally a juicy, pan-seared steak with a butter sauce and deep-fried, skinny French fries. In this home-friendly rendition, we’re making steak frites in under 40 minutes, in one sheet pan, without the fuss and mess of deep-frying. With a few key tricks, you can successfully make this restaurant staple at home on a weeknight.

The traditional stovetop recipe requires at least two pans and two completely different cooking methods. Here, we’re using one pan, but you’ll be using two functions in the oven: baking and broiling. Fear not if you haven’t broiled much before — technically, broiling means that the heat only comes from the oven’s heating element to the top of the food, unlike baking, which is all-around heat. Broiling is always very hot, making it great for cooking the outside of foods before the inside, which makes it ideal for searing the steak and crisping up pre-baked potatoes.

When I teach cooking classes, I always say “different surfaces, different purposes.” I can’t think of a better example than this recipe. Good French fries can be fried once or even baked once, but great French fries — classic French fries — need a second round of crackling-hot heat to make the outsides brown and crisp.

In this recipe the potatoes get baked twice. In their first baking (sans steak), the potatoes have time to cook through but not get browned, so I bake them on parchment paper, as it’s nonstick and won’t encourage browning as much as foil. For the steak, though, aluminum foil is key. Part of what makes the steak so good is the sear, and to get that char, you need serious heat, which parchment paper can’t take without burning up. So layer up to produce the desired effect.

I know that I am courting controversy with this suggestion, since plenty of heritage recipes use less-expensive cuts of meat than what I suggest here, but we’re calling for thick sirloin or rib-eye steaks for specific reasons. You want meat that is both well-marbled and tender, with a layer of fat around the perimeter, so it will stand up to the broiler and soak up the butter.

Steak size matters, but with this recipe and method you can make two different sizes at the same time. Perhaps someone wants a bigger cut and someone wants a small portion, or you want one steak more well-done than the other. Use the poke test to keep an eye on the level of doneness.

Use the “poke test” to gauge the level of doneness, which compares the tension you feel in your palm to the tension you feel when you poke your meat. Simply take your thumb and touch it to your index finger. Then, with the index finger of the other hand, touch the fleshy part at the base of your thumb. Kind of squishy, right? Compare the way this feels to the tension you experience when you poke the center of your cut of meat.

• If it feels just as squishy, the meat is rare.
• For medium-rare, touch your thumb to your middle finger.
• For well-done, touch your thumb to your pinky.

If you want, mince a small handful of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley instead of the thyme. You can also use 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary, or some finely minced fresh rosemary leaves instead. Try five or six leaves of fresh sage, finely minced for a smoky hint. Substitute a splash of a flavor-packed dry white wine like a white Burgundy for the lemon juice. Use 1/4 red onion, very finely minced or grated, instead of the shallot, but be careful — onions are far more potent than shallots in taste and fragrance.