The Best Steak Marinade {Quick and Easy}- 101 Cooking For Two

Name: The Best Steak Marinade
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons soy sauce; 4 tablespoons olive oil; 3 tablespoons lemon juice; 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce; 2 teaspoons garlic powder; 1 1/2 tablespoon dry basil; 2 teaspoons dry parsley flakes; 1/2 teaspoon black or white pepper (white preferred)

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4.16 from 160 votes

This easy, mouth-watering Steak Marinade adds delicious flavors and tenderness to any steak in as little as 30 minutes—perfect for strip steaks.

grilled marinaded strip steak ona white plate.

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🐄Ingredients
👨‍🍳How to Make and Use Steak Marinade
⏰How long to marinate steak?
🐄How to cook steaks
✔️Tips
❓FAQs
🍴What to serve with marinaded steak
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
📖 Recipe
The Best Steak Marinade

This homemade steak marinades can add lots of flavor to meat, taking a good steak to world-class best steaks. And with acidic ingredients, like lemon juice, the marinade will also tenderize, which will help that bit of toughness in New Youk Strip and T-bone steaks.

This quick and easy recipe uses soy sauce, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and a few other pantry ingredients to have the best juicy steak at home in less than an hour.

While perfect for grilled striploin steaks, it is also an excellent marinade for any beef steak. We frequently use this marinade with New York strip steaks for company meals.

I primarily use this marinade for Grilled Strip Steak. And sometimes for Pan Seared Oven Roasted Strip Steak. Other grilled steak recipes for this beef marinade are Grilled T-bone Steak, Grilled Ribeye Steak, Grilled Sirloin Steak, and Grill Filet. But you can also use this steak marinade for Flank Steak and Steak Kabobs.

The inspiration recipe is "Best Steak Marinade in Existence" on Allrecipes.com. Simplified with a few changes to the technique and some minor changes to make it friendly for smaller uses.

🐄Ingredients

Soy sauce
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce
Dry pantry ingredients—garlic powder, dry basil, parsley flakes, pepper (black or white)

👨‍🍳How to Make and Use Steak Marinade

In a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and other spices.
Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze the air out of the bake, seal, and coat well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, but 2 to 8 hours should be fine.
Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Do not rinse or pat off.
Steaks are ready to grill or for stovetop searing and oven baking.

⏰How long to marinate steak?

As little as 20 to 30 minutes will transfer lots of taste to your steaks, and two hours will get most of the flavor and tenderness effect.

Up to 8 hours is fine; some 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.

🐄How to cook steaks

While you can use this marinade with almost any cooking method, it is outstanding with grilled steaks.

General Grilling Instructions for marinaded steaks

Clean and oil grates. Preheat the grill to high for most steaks but 450° for filets or ribeye steaks.
Grill and flip every 5 minutes until you reach your desired internal temperature. Generally, it takes about 10 minutes to get medium-rare. The exact time varies by thickness and the grill.
Please see the specific recipes for each type of steak listed above.

How to Pan-Seared Oven Baked Steaks

Sear the steaks in an oven-safe pan for 2-3 minutes per side to get to the desired final color. This creates a Maillard reaction for great flavor.
Transfer the pan with steaks to a 400° preheated oven and bake until a few degrees less than your desired final temperature to allow for the temperature to rise after removing from heat. Depending on thickness, medium-rare will take 8-10 minutes.
Please see the specific recipes for each type of steak listed above.

✔️Tips

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.
Acid and heat are bad for cast iron. So if cooking with pan searing, do not use cast iron.
The oil will help carry fat-solvable flavors into the meat. This will occur pretty 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 a hot sauce if you want.

❓FAQs

Why discard remain marinade?

Once used, any marinade liquid is considered contaminated and should 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.

Should you refrigerate during marinating?

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.

🍴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 Grilled Asparagus. And finish the meal with Berry Crisp for Two, or Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Choose a red wine like Merlot, pinot noir, or Cabernet for a wine pairing.

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This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

Beef Recipes, Sauces, Rubs, and Seasonings Recipes

Step-by-Step Photo 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 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 ½ tablespoons dry basil, 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes, and ½ teaspoon white or black pepper.

two trimmed New York Strip steaks on a red board.

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 8 hours is better.

Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Grill or pan-sear and bake as usual.

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📖 Recipe

The Best Steak Marinade

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

This easy, mouth-watering Steak Marinade adds delicious flavors and tenderness to any steak in as little as 30 minutes—perfect for strip steaks.

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4.16 from 160 votes

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Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 35

Servings #/Adjust if desired 2 servings

Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

▢ 3 tablespoons soy sauce
▢ 4 tablespoons olive oil
▢ 3 tablespoons lemon juice
▢ 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
▢ 2 teaspoons garlic powder
▢ 1 ½ tablespoon dry basil
▢ 2 teaspoons dry parsley flakes
▢ ½ teaspoon black or white pepper - white preferred

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 teaspoon 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 8 hours is better.
Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Do not rinse off the marinade. Grill or pan-sear and bake as usual.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

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Recipe Notes

Pro Tips

As little as 30 minutes will give some results. The recommended time is 2-8 hours.
Fresh garlic is a good substitute.
I really 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 especially use this on strip steak, but it is for any beef steak.

Nutritional information: The entire recipe can do 3-4 steaks, and only a small amount stays on the meat. Nutrition is assuming 10% of the marinade is absorbed.

How to Grill a Strip Steak on a Gas Grill

Pan Seared Oven Roasted Strip Steak

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories : 71.7 kcal (4%)Carbohydrates : 4.7 g (2%)Protein : 1.8 g (4%)Fat : 5.8 g (9%)Saturated Fat : 0.9 g (5%)Polyunsaturated Fat : 0.6 gMonounsaturated Fat : 4.2 gSodium : 198.4 mg (8%)Potassium : 205.5 mg (6%)Fiber : 2.4 g (10%)Sugar : 0.6 g (1%)Vitamin A : 47.6 IU (1%)Vitamin C : 2.2 mg (3%)Calcium : 139.7 mg (14%)Iron : 5.7 mg (32%)

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Seasoning

Cuisine : American

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This recipe is featured in Mother's Day Recipes, Father's Day Steak Recipes, and Valentine Day Recipes roundups.

Editor's Note: Originally Published June 14, 2013. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

The Best Steak Marinade

🐄Ingredients

👨‍🍳How to Make and Use Steak Marinade

⏰How long to marinate steak?

🐄How to cook steaks