Southwest Ribeye Steaks With Crispy Oven Fries

Instructions:

1. Combine salt, pepper, smoked paprika, chili powder ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and liberally dust all sides of ribeye’s, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, remove and rest at room temperature for 1 hour before cooking.
2. Heat a large heavy skillet on medium-high heat (or prep grill for outside cooking). Once pan is smoking add oil followed by steaks. Cook steaks for 2 minutes, flip and cook an additional 2 minutes. Sear sides of steaks while holding with tongs for a minute on all sides then flip and repeat.  Check temperature with a digital thermometer and cook to desired temperature. The meat temperature will continue to rise 5 to 10 degrees while it rests. Remove steaks to a platter, cover with foil until serving time.

Beef Temperatures:

• Rare – 120 degrees
• Medium-rare – 130 degrees
• Medium – 140 degrees
• Medium-well – 150 degrees

Crispy Fries:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Microwave potatoes 3 minutes on high power, flip and cook another 2 minutes. Flip again and cook 2 additional minutes.  Potatoes should give when pressed but not be soft, if still firm heat another minute or two.
3. Remove from microwave and cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Place dry spices in a zip-close style bag and shake to blend.
5. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and then slice each half into 3 or 4 slices. Add these to the bag and shake vigorously to rough up the surface of the potatoes and get the spices evenly distributed.
6. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with some of the oil and lay potatoes in an even layer, drizzle with remaining oil.
7. Place on center rack of oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Flip the potatoes and bake another 5 to 10 minutes and begin checking for doneness. Oven temps differ and the sugar content of potatoes also differs so each batch could be faster or slower cooking than the last. Potatoes will be brown and crispy when they are done.  Once they begin to color check them every couple of minutes, they can go from perfectly crispy to burned in a flash.  Flip them again if needed to evenly brown both sides.
8. Place on serving plate and lightly salt.