Five Minutes Can Make or Break Your Dinner

There are a number of factors that contribute to how tender and juicy a strip steak, piece of salmon, or roast chicken will be — the quality of the meat, the temperature of the meat when it hits the grill, pan, or oven, and how it’s cooked. But if you really want to ensure that you’re serving a truly juicy cut of meat for dinner, the trick is to let the meat rest after cooking. You may have heard that doing so “locks in the juices,” but what exactly does that mean? Let’s get into it. 

First things first: Before cooking, let the ingredient rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Doing so will help take the chill off it, and in turn, keep it tender. Otherwise, placing a cold piece of meat that you pulled straight from the refrigerator in a very hot pan will essentially shock the meat’s fibers, causing them to tense up and resulting in a tough, chewy bite. But what should you do once your food reaches the ideal internal temperature? Have some patience and give it a rest.

Why do you let meat rest after cooking?

There are two reasons to let meat and fish rest after it cooks. As it cooks, the juices and moisture inside begin to rise to the surface. If you cut the meat or fish as soon as it’s done cooking, the juices will immediately leak out and pool onto the cutting board. By letting it rest, you give the muscle fibers time to relax and allow the juices to redistribute throughout the cut. Without those juices, the meat will taste dry, no matter how premium the cut. 

Letting meat rest is also essential for it being cooked to the correct temperature. You should pull a steak off the grill or a roast out of the oven when it is about five to 10 degrees shy of your intended internal temperature. As meat rests, the internal temperature will continue to rise by about 10 degrees, a process called carryover cooking. This means that you should remove a turkey when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the bird reaches 155℉. And if you want to enjoy a medium-rare steak, remove it from the heat when it reaches 125℉. 

How long should you let meat rest after cooking?

As a rule of thumb, smaller cuts of meat like herb-basted pork chops, salmon, or steak au poivre, just need to rest for five to 10 minutes before slicing and serving. For a roast or other large cut, wait 15 to 20 minutes before slicing it. This is the sweet spot, as it’s enough time for most of the juices to redistribute throughout the roast, but the meat will still be warm for serving. If you’re worried about the meat cooling off, you can always cover it with aluminum foil. Does this mean that you need to wait 10 minutes to bite into a burger after it comes off the grill? Not exactly. These guidelines apply to large cuts of meat and poultry that you would slice or carve, like a roast turkey for Thanksgiving or a pork loin roast.