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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.
Just whipped this up, minus a few ingredients. I used what I had. I had lemon juice though and tasted it before I put my meat in. I should’ve just left it out. I added brown sugar and it helped. If it’s good, next time I’m just omitting the lemon juice. Oh, I didn’t have soy sauce. I used sesame oil. We’ll see how it turns out.
Not sure what happened but this was the absolute worst ever. It was so sour I’m assuming from the lemon but even after trying to fix it and make it better it ended up in the trash…uneatable
So based on previous comments I just put about 2 tbsp of lemon juice and it was really good. I will use this again!
Delicious! Wouldn’t change a thing! Seared it on a hot cast iron pan. Making it again for Thanksgiving company on the grill.
Can you use this marinade for chicken
I would try this recipe instead: Absolutely Perfect Chicken Marinade
Can you take the marinate after use and reduce it down with beef broth for a au jus
I haven’t tried that!! Will you let me know if it turns out?
This marinade was truly excellent. Thank you.
Will it be a problem if i don´t add the lemon juice?
I wouldn’t skip this ingredient! It adds flavor but also, the acidity helps to tenderize the meat.
This was delicious! This is be a go to for sure.
Just wondering, can you save and reuse the marinade?
Thanks!
Thank you so much for this incredible recipe. My entire family absolutely loves this marinade, regardless of what meat I put in it. “This is The BEST!, Mmmm So Good!, and Thank You Mom!”, they mumble as they devour everything and fight for more!
That’s some pretty great praise from, typically, hard to please teenagers!
I am wondering if I can put some cuts in the marinade, then freeze the bags for later. Will this work?
Steak marinade was just what I wanted thanks
Delicious!!!!
I use this marinade all the time, I have tried several but this is by far the greatest!!
Can you make the marinade several hours ahead of using it?
Yes, that will work!
Why not make it several hours ahead of time and also add your meat at the same time? The longer you marinade the meat the better is. 🙂
Delicious marinade. Will be using again
I don’t usually comment on the net but this marinade deserves comment… It has become my go-to recipe. Really nice. Thank you for this recipe.
I like to do our steaks on the grill – I start with VERY high heat for about two minutes or so on each side (just long enough for the steak to free itself from the grill) and the turn off the center burner on the grill and finish the steaks over indirect heat. From this point on, I cheat and use a quick-read thermometer to get the internal temp on the steaks to our preference.
Anyhow, if I don’t use your marinade now, my wife is disappointed with the steaks!
I was looking for a marinade recipe and then also saw your instructions For steak in the air fryer. Can I use this recipe and cook it in the air Fryer?
Yes! That will work great!