How To Make Your Own Steak Marinade

How Do You Know Your Steak Is Done

Everyone loves their steak done to different degrees and using a thermometer is the way to go to make sure you cook it just right. Remember too, when your steak is taken off the heat it will continue to cook for a minute or two, raising the temperature about 2-4 degrees more. I often remove my meat right before it reaches that perfect temp.

Essential Steak Marinade Ingredients

You can whip up a fast, flavorful homemade marinade using pantry staples. The best marinades balance fat, acid, salt, sugar and aromatics to infuse the meat with intense flavor.

Here are the key ingredients in our perfectly balanced steak marinade recipe:

• Olive oil: Since most marinade steaks tend to be lean, a fat, like olive oil, helps keep the steak moist and juicy.
• Lime juice: Citrus functions as an acid that tenderizes the steak and infuses it with a great flavor.
• White wine vinegar: This secondary acid further helps break down the meats connective tissue to make it tender.
• Salt: Salt is critical to a good marinade. It helps tenderize the meat and enhance its flavor, and also helps the steak absorb the marinade.
• Honey: Something sweet balances the flavors of a marinade and helps the meat caramelize for a tasty char on the outside.

How To Grill Steak

Alright, listen up I know the grill can be intimidating to all my ladies out there , but I promise you it is BEYOND EASY and if you know what to look for, you’ll wind up with a perfect steak every time.

To start, bring your steaks to room temperature. And then you want your grill to get super hot. I preheat mine to 400F. I like my steak to get a nice, delicious char on the outside, so this is extra important.

Of course, how you preheat your grill will depend on whether you’re grilling your steak on a gas grill or a charcoal grill. While I love the smoky taste charcoal grills impart, there’s A LOT to be said for the convenience and ease of a gas grill, so that’s my preference.

A couple years ago, the Home Depot gifted me the Weber Spirit II 3-Burner Gas Grill andlemme tell yathis thing truly brought our grilling experience to the next level! I wrote all about why this is the best gas grill under $700 here, but here are a few highlights:

• The grill gets really hot, cooking evenly and consistently
• The spaciousness of the three burners means that you can grill for a crowd, perfect for holiday get-togethers!
• It has a gauge that gives you an indication of how much gas is remaining, taking the guesswork out
• Features an infinity ignition’, which means it lights up on the first try, every timegotta love that!

Alright, onward we go with how to cook the steak itself.

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Whisk All Ingredients Together

Start by whisking all the marinade ingredients together. I used a 9×13 baking dish because it had a tight fitting lid, but any large ziploc bag would be fine. Just be sure to set the bag into another container incase the bag springs a leak.

Add in your meat and stir to coat. I cut my ribeye into cubes to create more surface area. More surface area means more space for the flavor of the marinade to penetrate. No need to cut up a flank or skirt steak because it already has a lot of surface area being a long and skinny piece of meat.

Why Is My Steak Tough And Chewy

The muscle fibers in meat have to be broken down and the proteins turned into gelatin in order to make meat tender. This happens very quickly over high heat with tender cuts of steak like filet mignon, but tougher cuts of meat require slow cooking, usually in some sort of liquid to keep them from drying out.

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How To Make This Steak A Meal

The beauty of this steak is it not only makes a meal, it can prep a few for the week too. Simply cook the steak and save the leftovers for these ideas through the week.

• Ramen Noodles With Steak and Broccoli
• Asian Steak Street Tacos: Add steak to 4-inch warmed flour tortillas with shredded cabbage or Quick Korean Shredded Slaw, avocado, sweet and sour pickled cucumbers drizzled with sour cream spiked with lime juice and cilantro and extra Asian master sauce if desired.
• Asian French Dip Sandwiches: Add sliced steak to sliced onion, red and green peppers and mushrooms sautéed in a bit of oil and 3-4 tablespoons of Asian master sauce and served in toasted French rolls and dip in beef stock accented with a bit more master sauce for even more Asian flavor-flave.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Bookmark this recipe and leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag me on with #foodiecrusheats.

• 3clovesgarlic, minced or pressed
• 1/4teaspooncrushed red chili flakes
• 1 1/2 to 2poundshanger steak

Best Steak Marinade Recipe

The absolute best steak marinade recipe that will quickly become your “go-to” for any cut of steak! Not only does it help tenderize the meat but it also adds a delicious savory flavor. This is the only beef marinade you’ll ever need!

With this recipe for marinating steaks, I have created a tried and tested way of guaranteeing your steak will taste amazing every single time. I often receive emails from my readers telling me how much they love this flavorful grilled steak marinade. We’re talking robust flavor that is both easy and quick to prepare. If you’re looking to make the best grilled steaks, then this recipe is a must have!

It’s important that you marinate steak because not only does it add a lot of flavor, but it also tenderizes the meat making it easier to eat. This marinade works really well on tougher cuts of meat and really helps break down the tough fibrous tissues.

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Instructions For Steak Marinade

This beef marinade is perfect for any steak but especially for skirt steak. It tenderizes and creates a delicious flavor locking in on the skirt steak. So simple to make, you are going to love how juicy an tender your skirt steak is.

How To Make It

Making this marinade is SO simple! Its simply a matter of whisking together the marinade ingredients and adding the steak. Lets take a quick look:

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The Healthiest Kind Of Steak

Not all meat is created equal.

I STRONGLY urge you to buy only organic, grass-fed red meat from sustainable, humane and local farms.

Compared to conventional, factory-farmed meat, grass-fed farms are more humane and better for the animal, the farming practices are more sustainable and better for the environment, and the meat itself is higher in nutrients, healthy fats and all-around just better for YOU!

If you follow R+R, you know by now that I’m a huge ButcherBox fan. What’s not to love about getting healthy, sustainable cuts of meat delivered right to your door? I’m all about saving time, and with Butcher Box, you don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience. They truly care about the humane treatment of animals, the sustainability of our planet, and improving livelihoods for farmers.

Want to try it yourself? Go here to order your first ButcherBox!

If youd prefer to skip the monthly subscription and shop a la carte, check out our post here on the Best Healthy Meat Delivery Services for my favorite picks!

If Im at Whole Foods, Ill look for meats with an Animal Welfare rating of 3 and above . That’s what I did for this recipein the photos you’ll see a bone-in ribeye from Brasstown Beef. It was phenomenal!

I also buy a lot of our meat from local farmers markets, where I can talk to the farmers themselves and ask them questions about how the animals are raised and slaughtered, what theyre fed and how they live, and other practices they use on their farms.

How Do I Marinate Steak

You need an oil, soy, usually Worcestershire sauce for that beefy flavour and herbs and spices. You do NOT need salt, although salting the steak with some flaked sea salt at the end of BBQ-ing is a trick I love to bring out the flavour. You mix the marinade ingredients together then place the steak in a plastic Ziploc , a plastic lidded container or even just a flat pan like my Pyrex one below. If you dont have a lid you can wrap the top with Saran Wrap. You then can leave it all day, but I like to flip the steaks every half an hour for two hours to marinate all the sides.

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How To Tell When A Steak Is Done

It comes down to personal preference to know when a steak is done. But remember there is a recommend safe temperature from the USDA of 145 degrees to kill off any harmful bacteria.

To tell when its done to your liking always use an instant read thermometer and insert the thermometer through the side of the steak horizontally and go to the center of thickest portion. Keep in mind color isnt always the best way to judge doneness as some steaks are just naturally lighter than others to begin with, and you dont want to cut into a steak during cooking or youll lose some of the juices.

Here is a list of steak doneness by temperature to refer too:

Rare: 125 130

Medium rare: 130 135 degrees

Medium: 135 145 degrees

Medium well: 145 150 degrees

Well: 150 160 degrees

Start Your Marinade With Oil

Your marinade should be at least 1/2 oil. The oil helps emulsify the marinade into a thick sauce that coats the meat. It’s also a flavor-carrier. And having a coating of an oil-based sauce on your steak before you grill it will help it cook better and more evenly.

You’ll need 1/2 cup of marinade per pound of meat you’re grilling, and you want that marinade to be at least half oil, so for two pounds of steak, start with 1/2 cup of oil. If you don’t want to taste the oil, go for a neutral oil like grapeseed or canola. If you’re open to a stronger flavor, try olive oil or sesame oil or even an infused oil. You can mix together a couple oils or stick with just one. And of course you can add more later if needed once you get all the other elements in play.

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Marinate For At Least One Hour And Up To 12

Pour your marinade over your steak and toss to coat. You want to have as much meat surface as possible in contact with the marinade, and the easiest way to do this is in a resealable plastic bag, where you can seal it up tight so the marinade is encircling the meat entirely. If you’re not into plastic bags, use a glass or ceramic baking dish or wide shallow bowl and flip the meat every now and then. If you plan to cook the meat within one or two hours, leave it out on the counter to marinate otherwise put it in the fridge. Just remember to remove the meat about an hour before grilling so it has a chance to come to room temperature.

Thin cuts of steak shouldn’t marinate for more than 10 or 12 hours, so this is not so much of an overnight thingmore of a marinade it in the morning, grill it at night game. The shortest amount of time you can get away with is one hour. Any shorter and the marinade won’t have a chance to work its magic.

Why Marinades Work Magic

• Acidor Enzyme: All great marinades will contain either an acid or an enzyme. In the skirt steak marinade, the lemon juice is our acid. It will weaken the tough fibers of the meat and enhance flavor. Creating tender flavorful meat. Do not over marinate, however, If meat sits in a marinade too long the meat will become mushy, dry, and actually tough.
• Salts: Salt plays an essential role in getting the flavors to penetrate beneath the surface of the meat. Salt is not only add on its own, but the salt found in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce helps too. First, the salt draws out the moisture from the meat, then as the water is reabsorbed into the meat flavors from the spices and garlic are carried with it. This allows the flavor to get deep inside the meat while helping to break down muscle fibers helping it to tenderize.
• Oil: Oil is important because it helps carry fat-soluble flavors from the spices and pepper, past the surface of the meat, and into it.
• Put it all together: When you combine acid, salts, oils with seasonings, herbs, and even sugars you allow so much more to happen to meat than just a simple brine ever could. You can tenderize tough meat, add flavor deep within and create moist cuts of meat from normally dry ones. Yup, itâs like magic. And this skirt steak marinade has all those ingredients!

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Mix In Some Flavorings

The flavoring elements are simply thatflavor for the surface of your steak. So have fun and add whatever you think tastes good. Raid your condiment collection as well as your spice cupboard and herb garden. Try Worcestershire sauce or mustard, some miso or chili paste, sliced garlic or shallots or grated or pressed garlic, roughly chopped fresh herbs or herb sprigs , fresh or dried chiles, whole or ground spices, ketchup or sriracha, or grated or sliced fresh ginger or citrus zest.

Putting the final touches on my balsamic marinade for hanger steak.

What Cut Of Steak Is Best For Marinating

Leaner cuts of steak like flank steak, hangar steak, or flap steak are the prime candidate for this style of marinade to create a flavorful steak ready to cook in just 30 minutes. You can also choose to marinate overnight. Id avoid letting the sauce sit longer than a day in the marinade because the steak will break down too much and become soft and mushy.

A good cut of meat can also be marinated, but we prefer to keep them pure, maybe with some added flavor of butter, garlic and thyme. If you do however want to try it on a thicker cut of meat, allow for at least 8 hours for the sauce to infuse.

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How To Make This Easy Steak Marinade:

• Whisk marinade ingredients: in a mixing bowl whisk together balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, garlic, pepper and rosemary until well blended.
• Pour over steaks and marinate: place steak in a gallon size resealable bag, place steak in gallon size resealable bag. Pour marinade over steaks, seal bag while pressing out excess air. Let marinate.

The Ins And Outs Of Marinading

This marinade ticks all the boxes for a perfectly balanced marinade that will create the perfect flavor. Here are some know hows for the perfect marinade everytime.

• Keep it in the Fridge: When you marinate raw meat, it should be kept in the fridge to prevent bacteria from growing. Keep it tightly sealed in the fridge for the entire time. Remove when ready to cook.
• Do Not Reuse Marinade: Because the marinade has been sitting in raw meat it should be discarded immediately and not reused. If you want to baste your meat with more marinade while cooking, make a fresh batch that has not come in contact with raw meat. Never serve marinade that has come in contact with raw meat on the side.
• How Long to Marinate: Meat can be marinaded anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Be careful to not over-marinate as it can entirely break down your meat or make it tough.
• What cuts work best for Marinating: Thinner, flatter pieces of meat work better for marinating than large ones like a roast. You can slice up larger cuts into serving size or even bite-size to get better flavor and tenderization.
• What to use: I like to use a large enough zip-lock plastic bag to put the marinade and meat together. Remove as much air as possible from the bag. You want as much of the marinade to touch the meat as possible. Then place the bag in a shallow pan so that the meat can lie flat and place it in the fridge. Flip the bag over halfway through marinating to make sure all the meat is equally flavored.

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