Step that steak up a few notches with an excellent marinade. Easy to do and all your friends will want the recipe. 
The inspiration is a very popular recipe around the internet on blogs and recipe sites. The original (I think) is known as “Best Steak Marinade in Existence” on Allrecipes.com. Only a few changes to simplify and some rounding for a smaller (Cooking For Two) amount. Plus I didn’t bother with running a blender, though.
I buy very good beef, so a marinade just seems wrong on a filet or porterhouse. Just some salt, pepper and a little garlic, please. Strip steaks have just not been our favorites over the years, but the best-looking steaks at the market were the strips. I had just read Simple Steak Marinade by Chris at Nibble Me This and a marinade seem great, but I’m not a “beer person” so Google was my friend again. If you’re a beer person, check out Chris’ post.
Rating:
A 5 minus. I don’t frequently marinade steak, but this is good enough to start doing it a lot more. My wife felt it was the best strip steak she has had in years.
Notes: Run through a blender if you want but it doesn’t seem necessary to me. Use black pepper if you don’t have white. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper or a hot or pepper sauce if you want.
In a 1 gallon zip lock bag combine: 3 T soy sauce, 4 T olive oil, 3 T lemon juice, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 2 t garlic powder, 1 1/2 T dry basil, 2 t dry parsley flakes and 1/2 t white pepper.
Trim your steaks of extra fat. Here are two strip steaks about 12 oz each. (I do not want to hear about not doing this to a strip steak)
Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze out the air and mush the steaks around to get them coated well. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. Longer should be fine.
Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Grill as usual. You can also pan sear. See my post at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/pan-seared-oven-roasted-strip-steak/.
Allow to rest for 5 minutes or so before cutting.
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The Best Steak Marinade
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 white pepper - or black if you don’t have it
Instructions
- In a 1-gallon zip lock bag combine: 3 T soy sauce, 4 T olive oil, 3 T lemon juice, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 2 t garlic powder, 1 1/2 T dry basil, 2 t dry parsley flakes and 1/2 t white pepper.
- Trim your steaks of extra fat. Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze out the air and push the steaks around to get them coated well. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. Longer should be okay.
- Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Grill as usual.
Recipe Notes
Have a question or something not clear? Ask in the comments.
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Nutrition is for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
If you like this recipe or find it useful, the pleasure of a nice 4 or 5 rating would be greatly appreciated.
Katherine Asher
I really loved this marinated for the steak I did. My family really enjoyed them to..
DrDan
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
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
I’ve one it twice in the last 2 weeks… so it is now my “go to” also
Dan
Brian
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
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
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
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
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
This sounds great and looks delicious; I want to try it. I don’t think I’ve ever marinated a steak. Thanks!
Dan Mikesell
Definitely try it.
David Romano
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
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
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
It did turn out great… I’m sure yours did also.