This Easy Steak Marinade recipe is quick to make and use. Perfectly balanced with acid and savory flavors, make this the best homemade steak marinade. While we use it mainly for New York Strip steaks, it is excellent with any beef steak cooked on the grill or stove.
🐄Ingredients
Soy sauce
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce
Dry pantry ingredients—garlic powder, dry basil, parsley flakes, pepper (black or white), optional cayenne pepper or hot sauce
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Featured Comment by Ted:
"Wow, tried this recipe with company last night. Don’t think I have had a better steak in years."
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This homemade steak marinade uses soy sauce, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and other pantry ingredients to have the best juicy steak at home in less than an hour.
Get great flavor in as little as 30 minutes, although 2-4 hours is preferred if you need tenderization from the acid ingredients.
While perfect for grilled NY strip steaks or seared and roasted strip steaks, it is also an excellent beef steak marinade for other grilled steak recipes, like grilled sirloin, grilled porterhouse, or grilled ribeye. It also works well with beef tips and marinated beef kabobs.
👨🍳How to Make and Use Steak Marinade—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. In a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and other spices.
2. Trim and prepare the steaks for cooking.
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3. Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze the air out, seal, and coat well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, but 2 to 4 hours will tenderize.
4. Remove from the marinade—do not rinse or pat off the marinade. Steaks are ready to grill or for stovetop searing and oven baking according to your preferred steak recipe.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏰How long to marinate steak?
As little as 20 to 30 minutes will transfer lots of taste to your steaks, and two to four hours will get most of the flavor and tenderness effect.
Up to 8 hours is fine but not needed; some sites recommend up to 24 hours. But the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce with vinegar can affect the texture if marinaded for over 8 hours.
Don't forget to refrigerate for food safety.
✔️Tips to make it right every time
Trim the steak well before adding to the marinade so you won't need to manipulate the meat before cooking and provide more surface area for marinating.
The acids, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce will help tenderize. This will be better if you marinate for a few hours. But acid is bad for cast iron, so if cooking with pan searing, use an oven-safe pan, but do not use cast iron.
The oil will help carry fat-solvable flavors into the meat. This will occur quickly. So, don't skip the oil.
Run through a blender if you want, but it seems unnecessary.
Use black pepper if you don't have white. I prefer white for this marinade.
Add a pinch of crushed red pepper or hot sauce if you want.
🍴What to serve with marinaded steak
Start with a nice salad, French onion soup, and some French Bread. Serve with Crispy Parmesan Baked Potatoes, Green Beans with Bacon, or Grilling Asparagus. And finish the meal with Berry Crisp for Two or my Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe.
Choose a red wine like Merlot, Pinot Noir, or Cabernet for a wine pairing.
❓FAQs
Once used, any marinade liquid is considered contaminated and should usually be discarded. If you want to use a marinade later during the cooking process, some of the marinade should be reserved for later use before adding the meat.
However, according to the USDA, you may reuse marinade if you boil it before reusing it.
Good food safety should always be followed, and if the marinade is at room temperature for 2 hours or more, it and any meat should be discarded. So, please refrigerate even for a short marinade.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Easy Steak Marinade
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 ½ tablespoons dry basil
- 2 teaspoons dry parsley flakes
- ½ teaspoon black or white pepper - white preferred
Step-by-Step Instructions
- In a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 1 ½ tablespoons dry basil, 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes, and ½ teaspoon white or black pepper.
- Trim your steaks of extra fat.
- Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze out the air, and push them around to get them coated well. Refrigerate and marinate for as little as 30 minutes, but 2 to 4 hours is better.
- Remove from the marinade. Do not rinse off the marinade. Grill or pan-sear and bake as usual.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- As little as 30 minutes will give some great flavor. The recommended time is 2-4 hours, but up to 8 hours is fine.
- Fresh garlic is a good substitute.
- I like the white pepper here, but if you don't have it, use black pepper.
- Trim the steak well before adding to the marinade.
- I primarily use this on strip steak, but it is for any beef steak.
- Usually, do not reuse marinade, but if boiled, it may be reused. See the post for details.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
The inspiration recipe is "Best Steak Marinade in Existence" from Allrecipes.com. It is simplified with a few changes to the technique and minor modifications to make it friendly for smaller uses.
Editor's Note: Originally Published June 14, 2013. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Jim says
I've used this marinade several times and love it. Makes steak taste better than some restaurants in my opinion, at a much more reasonable price.
Emma says
Just used it for grilling today, with sirloin steaks and veal chops. Absolutely delicious
Menolly says
This looks intriguing, and I will try it. I have another marinade for duck breast that also has soy. Which leads me to my question : what does the soy do? You've explained the Worcestershire and the lemon, but not the soy, and now I want to know what the soy does, as well. 😏
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
From what I remember... first, it adds a ton of flavor—the main effect. Second, if there is acid (vinegar, etc) soy helps the proteins react to that and brown better. There may be more, I don't believe it is a tenderizer.
Dan
Ralph says
Tried this recipe yesterday it is the best steak that I ever ate so did my company I will definitely keep this recipet
Ted says
Wow tried this recipe with company last night
Don’t think I have had a better steak in years
One person had extensive high end restaurant experience and she was passing thw zip lock bag around for everyone to smell
Think one of the keys was grilling the steak 4 mins per side on 550 grill
Thank you for a great recipe
Ellen says
This marinade is spectacular. I had a nice strip loin from the farmer's market, marinated it in a glass dish (try to avoid plastic anything) for about six hours, then pan-grilled. The flavor is incredible! It didn't disguise the good beef flavor; rather it enhanced it. Thank you!
Philip Dally says
Sounds really good! I'll give this a try soon. Sounds like if you make it once might as well double up for the next go around. Looks like it would store well in the fridge for awhile.
Rosalie says
I used this marinade for my top sirloin and it was absolutely tasty and tender, I will use this again, Thank you !!
Jaime says
This really is a fantastic marinade. Used it for steak kabobs and they were delicious.
Katherine Asher says
I really loved this marinated for the steak I did. My family really enjoyed them to..
DrDan says
Hi Katherine,
Welcome to the blog.
I use this frequently with strip steaks to "kick them up a notch" for company and special dinners.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Patricia Henry says
This marinade is my new "go to" marinade. I have never liked beef let alone steak, but got two Omaha Strips as a customer appreciation gift. I was so proud of how these turned out that I wanted to go out and buy a beef! This is going in my private collection. Thanks for perfecting and sharing it!
DrDan says
I've one it twice in the last 2 weeks... so it is now my "go to" also
Dan
Brian says
This turned out great on a flank steak. I'm not a fan of lemon and was worried the lemon juice would be overpowering, but I couldn't taste it at all. Due to available ingredients, I substituted peanut oil for the olive oil. Have you tried different oils (vegetable, olive, peanut, etc.) and what would be your opinion on why you choose a certain one over the other?
neftaly says
Good ingredients my wife loved the steak but I usually like my steaks medium. 15 minute's it came out well done. Maybe they should put the different types of minutes for rare, medium or wealt done.
DrDan says
Thanks for the note. .This post was about the marinade. I have a separate post on cooking strip steaks at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/pan-seared-oven-roasted-strip-steak/
DrDan
PS I'm changing this post to point to those instructions.
Phil says
All of the ingredients sound fine except for the lemon juice. Lemon juice will cook the meat and should NEVER be used in any marinade where the meat, or fish for that matter, will be in it for more than a few minutes. Also, lemon has NO place in flavoring a steak.
DrDan says
Well I will disagree. A marinade needs an acid to denature the proteins of the meat. The usual ones used are lemon or lime juice or vinegar. If by "cook" you mean to denature or break down some of the proteins then yes...but that is a big exaggeration of the word. This allows the other components to penetrate better and usually will tenderize some. So NEVER is wrong... As for the taste, I couldn't taste it but do what you want.
DrDan
Pam says
This sounds great and looks delicious; I want to try it. I don't think I've ever marinated a steak. Thanks!
Dan Mikesell says
Definitely try it.
David Romano says
Excellent. I love to cook but a good steak was never in my grasp until now.
I do not like rare beef but strips just get tough when overcooked.
This marinade gave me incredible flavor and remained very tender
and juicy at the medium to medium well stage. Very good. I can make steak now!
Made the smashed potatoes and honey grilled carrots. Also very good.
DrDan says
Thanks for the note David. You might want to try my post on how to grill a t-bone or porterhouse at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/how-to-grill-t-bone-or-porterhouse/ . It will make you look like an expert.
As for rare... most expert would say I over cook my beef. An excellent filet can have a little blood but only a little pink for a strip or porterhouse.
DrDan
Chris says
It's funny because I thought about that same recipe when I posted my variation of Troy's. I've had that "best steak marinade in existence" on my try queue forever, but it's just so rare that I marinate steaks. Your looks like it turned out great.
Dan Mikesell says
It did turn out great... I'm sure yours did also.