I am obsessed with Kenji Alt's Beer Cooler Sous Vide Hack, using a cooler full of hot water to cook meat to a perfect medium-rare. In the last two months I've used it on strip loin steaks, tri-tip, thick-cut pork chops and top sirloin roasts.
*The only disappointing result has been pork chops. They were good, but they weren't noticeably better than regular pork chops.
My favorite reaction was from my mom, who is passionate about medium-rare beef. On her birthday, as I lugged a cooler full of hot water and top sirloin roasts into her house, I explained sous vide cooking. She didn't get it. I tried again; it still wasn't making sense to her. I pulled the roasts out of their baggies, and gave them a quick sear on the grill. Mom was grabbing pieces off the cutting board as fast as I could slice them. "Michael," she said, "I still don't understand it works, but this is perfectly cooked." I felt like The Good Son.
For Easter, I tried my new favorite technique with rack of lamb. I rubbed the lamb with herbes de provence and mustard, cooked it for an hour in 135*F water, then seared it quickly on the grill. And I do mean quickly - dripping lamb fat gave me some impressive flare-ups. If I left the rack still for a few seconds, it was engulfed in flames. One downside of the technique is you don't get to melt off the fat over indirect heat.
As usual, the lamb was cooked to perfection, medium-rare from side to side. That is what I really love about this technique. No more poking the pad at the base of my thumb, then the meat. No more trying to find center mass with my probe thermometer. No more being a nervous wreck, wondering if the steak is going to be perfectly pink, or depressingly grey. It is dead simple, and it just works.
*The downside? It feels like I'm cheating, and all the zip top baggies I go through. I haven't reconciled my carnivorous desire for perfectly cooked meat with my tree-hugging desire to use less stuff.
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📖 Recipe Card
Beer Cooler Sous Vide Grilled Rack of Lamb
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Description
A rack of lamb rubbed with herbes de Provence and Dijon, cooked sous vide in a beer cooler of 135°F water, then seared hard on a hot grill.
Ingredients
- 1 rack of lamb
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Fill the cooler: Fill a large cooler with 135°F water. (I fill it most of the way with hot tap water, then add boiling water until it reaches 135°F.)
- Season the lamb: Sprinkle the lamb evenly with the salt, pepper and herbes de Provence, then rub it with the mustard. Put it in a gallon zip-top bag.
- Seal the bag: Slowly lower the bag into the water, letting the water push the air out. When the water reaches the zipper, seal the bag, then let it sink.
- Cook in the cooler: Close the cooler, and let the lamb cook for 1 to 2 hours.
- Prepare the grill: Preheat the grill as hot as it will go. (On a gas grill, preheat with all burners on high for 15 minutes.) Brush the grate clean.
- Sear the lamb: Take the lamb out of the bag. Grill bone side up over the hottest part of the grill for 2 minutes, rotating 90 degrees after 1 minute. Flip, and grill 2 minutes more, rotating after 1 minute. Then hold the rack upright by the bones for 1 minute to sear the bottom. Keep it moving if it flares up.
- Rest and serve: Let the lamb rest for 10 minutes, then slice between the bones into chops.
Notes
Equipment: A large cooler (at least 2 gallons - more is better), gallon zip-top bags, an instant-read thermometer and a grill.
Check the water now and then, and add boiling water to keep it near 135°F. Don't leave the lamb in the water much longer than 2 hours - it isn't hot enough to keep the meat safe over a long cook.
The fat on the rack causes big flare-ups. The lamb is already cooked through, so take it off as soon as it's browned. For fewer flare-ups, buy a well trimmed rack.
One rack serves two regular people, or one hungry carnivore. For more racks, use these amounts per rack, and seal each rack in its own bag.
See also my Grilled Rack of Lamb and Beer Cooler Sous Vide Grilled New York Strip Steaks.
Adapted from J. Kenji López-Alt's Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler on Serious Eats.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Beer Cooler Sous Vide Grilled New York Strip Steaks
Grilled Rack of Lamb
Adapted from:
Kenji Lopez-Alt Cook your meat in a beer cooler [SeriousEats.com]
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John Mark Osborne says
Bookmarked this recipe a couple weeks ago. Just finding the right time to pull it it out. It's similar to slow roasting with a smoker which I love to do. Can't wait to try it 🙂
John says
This looks like an awesome technique!
Mike V says
Thanks!
Erik says
Hi Mike, thanks for the article, this looks awesome and I really like that it should make it easy to manage the logistics for around 20 people. My question is, do you think this will work with a whole tri-tip? And for how long do you recommend a tri-tip should cook in the beer cooler? Do you recommend dry rub or marinade for this method? Thanks!
Mike V says
Tk
Tri-tip will have to cook longer. It depends on how thick the roast it is; I think 2 to 4 hours will do it. Check out these posts for details:
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/sous-vide-new-york-strip-roast-with-bourbon-cream-pan-sauce/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/sous-vide-grilled-top-sirloin-sandwiches/
As for rub vs marinade: rub. I prefer rubs to marinades in general, but with sous vide it is a no brainier. It is easier to seal a bag if it isn't full of liquid.
Erik says
Thanks Mike for your quick reply. I will test this out over the next couple of weeks. Cheers
Anonymous says
Thanks for responding so quickly! I'll get that a try next time!
MikeV @ DadCooksDinner says
@Anonymous:
I'm still working on my official recipe, but it is very similar to this one. 135*F for at least 2 hours (they're thicker than the lamb chops), then sear in a diamond pattern over the highest heat you can get, 2 min - rotate -2 min - flip - 2 min - rotate - 2 min.
Hope this helps!
Anonymous says
Do you happen to recall the recipe you used for the top sirloin roasts? How long did you leave them in the cooler and at what temp? Thanks!
MikeV @ DadCooksDinner says
@Daniel:
Give it a try; you won't be disappointed. I've enjoyed every recipe I've cooked this way.
Daniel says
This looks awesome! I've been waiting for the chance to bust out some beer cooler sous vide; I think this might be just the thing.