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World’s Best Steak Marinade adds so much flavor to your juicy steak. It helps to tenderize and infuse the steak with flavor and creates the best steak ever!
Steak isn’t just for fancy meals, you can have it any time of the week. Pair it with a Salad, Potatoes, and Asparagus for a meal that is restaurant-worthy, but better!
Steak Marinade Recipe
Today I am sharing with you the BEST steak marinade! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Steak can be a little intimidating to cook, it used to be for me. I think it was because steak is usually so spendy and I never wanted to mess it up. We all know that when steak is done right, it is insanely delicious. With this marinade, I have created a foolproof way of guaranteeing your steak will taste heavenly. It is the perfect blend of spices and herbs that enhances the natural flavor of steak without being overpowering.
If you do not have an air fryer to cook your steak then cooking steak in the skillet is the way to go! It puts that perfect sear on the outside and then you can watch it carefully and let it cook to your desired doneness. Adding butter at the end just adds that extra touch that is crazy luscious. This marinade is perfect for grilled steaks too, and I love grilling as much as the next person, but this way I can cook it all year long, even when it is too cold outside to grill. You have to try this marinade and cooking it in a skillet too!
What Do you Use to Marinate a Steak?
This steak marinade is packed with dried herbs, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. These ingredients all come together to give you such amazing flavor and the perfectly cooked juicy steak!
- Soy sauce: Adds a bit of salty and tons of flavor.
- Lemon juice: Adds acidity to tenderize and flavor.
- Olive oil: Help seal in juiciness.
- Worcestershire sauce: One of the best umami flavors for beef.
- Minced garlic: Use fresh for the best tasting.
- Italian seasoning: A go-to combination of outstanding herbs.
- Pepper and Salt: To taste, but do not leave it out.
- Red pepper: Adds a bit of spice.
- Steaks: I used rib eye, New York is also great
- Butter: Butter is truly the best thing to cook steak in! Hands down!
- Chopped Parsley: Adds a pop of color.
Let’s Marinate Some Steak!
The aroma this mix gives off before you add the meat is insane. You know it’s going to be incredible just from by the smell of it. Mix in a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper, salt, and a pinch of red pepper. Add steaks to a resealable zip lock bag or large bowl and pour the marinade on top. Marinate for 2 hours or overnight.
To Make the Steaks in a Skillet
- Cook it: Turn the skillet to high heat. Add the steaks. Cook on each side for 3 minutes or until outside is browned. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook the steaks to the desired doneness. Mine took about 10 minutes flipping 3 times to get a medium-well.
- Top it: Top with butter and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
How Do you Make a Steak Tender?
There are two ways that I use to make a steak tender. Acidic tenderizers are a great way to get a tender steak. I include lemon juice in my marinade to help to soften the steak. it breaks down the tough fibers in the meat. If you are starting out with an already tough cut of meat, I will also break down the fibers by pounding the meat before I cook it.
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.
How Long do you Marinate Steak?
As soon as your marinade is ready to go you add your steaks and let them soak up all of that delicious flavor. It also tenderizes as it marinates. The minimum to let these steaks marinate is 2 hours, but can also be marinated overnight. The flavor is seriously out of this world!
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.
| Steak Doneness | Internal Temperature | Center Color |
|---|---|---|
| Medium Rare | 130-135 °F | Pink |
| Medium | 135-145 °F | Some Pink |
| Well | 145-155 °F | Sliver of Light Pink |
| Well Done | 155-165 °F | Mostly Brown |
Cooking Steak in a Skillet Tips
I love to cook my steaks in a skillet. It only takes minutes to get that crispy brown edge and medium cooked inside. But you can also use this recipe to grill. It is perfect for both. It is going to give your steaks the very best flavor!
- Cast Iron: The best skillet to use is a cast-iron skillet. It distributes the heat evenly and browns steak beautifully.
- Heat it up: Use the largest burner on your stove and heat up the cast iron before placing the steaks in. This will ensure I good crusty sear. The oil in the pan should be shimmering almost to the smoking point.
- Dab the Steak: With a paper towel, gently dab the steaks dry. Do not worry you will not take off marinade that is already saturated into the meat. When the meat is dry it will make sure there is a good sear, creating that incredible flavorful crust. When they are moist, they tend to steam instead of sear, which will cause them to be soft.
- Add The Butter Last: Place the butter in the pan right before you are ready to take them out. You do not want your butter to burn, which it can easily with the high heat.
- Let it rest: However you cook your steak be sure to let it rest 5-15 minutes for the juices to redistribute throughout the steak. This way you won’t end up with all the good flavor on your plate instead of inside the meat.
More Delicious Steak Recipes
Steak is juicy, tender and so good! If you love steak, you know that you do not need much to make it taste good. A good piece of meat will be naturally full of flavor. There are so many ways though to add flavor, texture and create fabulous meals with steak. It is important to compliment steak and not drown it in too much. These recipes are tried and true and taste divine. These are ways to have your steak and enjoy it in different ways too!
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World’s Best Steak Marinade
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pinch of red pepper
- 1 1/2 pound steaks I used rib eye, New York is also great
- 2 tablespoons butter
- fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper, salt, and a pinch of red pepper.
- Add steaks to a resealable zip lock bag or large bowl and pour the marinade on top. Marinate for 2 hours or overnight.
To make the steaks in a skillet:
- Turn the skillet to high heat. Add the steaks. Cook on each side for 3 minutes or until outside is browned. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook the steaks to the desired doneness. Mine took about 10 minutes flipping 3 times to get a medium well.
- Top with butter and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Lemon juice and worcestershire absolutely do not taste well combined on anything! This is officially the world’s worst marinade!! Epic fail! Flavors are fighting each other as if the steak was a wrestling ring and it’s a tag team match. Awful.
I’m so sorry you didn’t like it, that can be super frustrating to make something and it doesn’t turn out how you expect. Thank you for trying it!
Would this marinade be suitable for a 4 lb. beef tenderloin roast?
Hi Ed, I would say yes! The serving says 6 steaks so I’m assuming 4 pound beef roast is totally fine.
I marinated 2 each 1lb sirloin. 2lbs total. Started at 7pm but now my husband doesn’t want it until tomorrow night so how long is the maximum amount of time safe to cook it?
Hi Tiffany, I wouldn’t let them sit longer than 24 hours. The marinade can actually start to break the muscle down and make it tough when you cook it. Good luck!
I loved This marinade! I could tell right off just buy the ingredients It was going to be yummy! I use lime instead of lemon, because I didn’t have any lemon, and it was wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
I don’t have a cast iron pan, only stainless steel or an indoor electric grill…any recommendations on which to use?
Good flavor, next time I’ll try lowering the lemon juice to 1/4 cup as I found it a tad to sour/lemony tasting. Used on sirloin, personally I wouldn’t a marinade like this on a ribeye it isn’t necessary.
Hi I want to make this but have a question. Can I put the marinate on the steak and then freeze it until I’m ready to cook it?
Hi Tina, thank you for the question. I wouldn’t freeze it with the marinade on it. At a certain point the marinade will actually break down the steak and make it tough.
My go-to steak marinade – my boys absolutely love it and request it often. thank you!
I hated this. Way too sour.
Hi Taylor, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like this marinade. This is one of my tope recipes that people have truly loved. Can you explain what about this recipe was sour?
It makes sense that the lemon juice would be the source of the sourness, right, Alyssa? It’s really the only ingredient in this marinade that would add that tangy flavor.
Honestly was afraid of overdoing it on my ribeye, but am pleasantly surprised!
Great flavors. 👍
Added a dash of liquid smoke.
Used my Jaccard tenderizer (if you know, you know!😉) before vacuum sealing overnight.
Cooked to perfect medium rare 👌
I have never tried lemon juice, always use apple cider vinegar. I liked the difference, will make a switch going forward. 4 stars though because of the overwhelming italian seasoning flavor, it covered everything else.