I Tried Gordon Ramsay's Recipe For Air-fryer Steak, And Got A Perfect Result In 20 Minutes

Gordon Ramsay's recipe for air-fryer steak required a lot of spices and seasonings.

Chelsea Davis

• I made Gordon Ramsay's air-fryer steak with a coffee and chili rub and was blown away.
• His rub had 11 ingredients that created a complex, spicy, sweet, and salty flavor.
• In 20 minutes I had a juicy, perfectly cooked rib-eye steak. I can't wait to make this again. 

I never even thought you could — or should — cook a nice steak in the air fryer, but Gordon Ramsay's coffee-and-chili-rubbed rib-eye recipe has proved me wrong. 

Here's what it was like making the chef's air-fryer steak. 

I chose a thick rib-eye steak to cook in my air fryer

I learned how to cook steak in an air fryer using a thick rib eye.

Chelsea Davis

I am a huge fan of rib-eye steaks. I love the fattiness of the cut and the tender juiciness of the meat.

This 2-inch-thick, 1 1/2-pound steak was hefty, and it looked like it would be a pain to cook properly without an air fryer. 

The rub includes 11 different ingredients and was easy to put together

Mixing the spices together for the rub was easy.

Chelsea Davis

I combined ground coffee, ancho chili powder, paprika, dark-brown sugar, salt, pepper, ground coriander, ground mustard, ground ginger, and dried oregano.

The only ingredient I couldn't find was the Aleppo pepper, so I substituted it with cayenne. 

Ramsay recommends letting the steak sit for 15 minutes with the rub on

I let my steak sit and soak up the seasoning for about 15 minutes.

Chelsea Davis

I completely coated my room-temperature steak with the spice mixture, making sure to get the sides.

Ramsay suggests letting the steak sit for 15 to 20 minutes with the rub on because the longer it sits, the more the flavors of the spices soak into the meat.

I heated the air fryer to 390 degrees Fahrenheit and tried to cook my steak to a medium finish 

The large steak fit snugly in my air fryer.

Chelsea Davis

I slightly sprayed the basket with oil and cooked the steak for 10 minutes on each side. 

Before cutting into it, I let the steak rest for about 10 minutes.

The steak came out perfectly juicy and tender

This is what the steak looked like after I flipped it once in the air fryer.

Chelsea Davis

The steak came out absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious. No parts got burnt or charred — it was just a perfectly cooked, juicy steak all around. 

The air-fryer steak recipe seemed easy to adjust depending on preference. It was a solid medium with a light-pink center. If I'd wanted, say, a more medium-rare steak, I probably could've cooked it for about eight minutes on each side. 

The steak I made using Gordon Ramsay's air-fryer rib-eye recipe looked beautiful.

Chelsea Davis

The rub was complex and super flavorful with salty, sweet, and umami flavors with a slight punchiness. The coffee really balanced the flavor profile of the rub, and the peppers gave it a nice kick that contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the brown sugar.

The air-fryer steak ended up being evenly cooked.

Chelsea Davis

As a bonus, this recipe was pretty much foolproof and required hardly any cleanup.

I'm glad I know how to make steak in an air fryer now, and I'd definitely make Ramsay's recipe again. I highly recommend this cooking method and. recipe for anyone who doesn't like to handle high heat, sizzling pans, or hot oil.

This story was originally published on September 16, 2021, and most recently updated on December 3, 2024.