Steak Tenderizer Marinade

This easy all-purpose marinade can take even the most lackluster steak or the toughest cuts of beef and make your taste buds sing. We’ve fine-tuned this recipe to strike the perfect balance of savory, sweet, and tangy notes. It doesn’t just add flavor to your steak recipes—it enhances the meat’s natural taste while tenderizing every bite.

We’re not sure about you, but we grew up on steaks marinated in everything from bottled Italian dressing to the infamous A1 sauce, which worked to take cheap cuts that could feed the family into something palatable. 

A good marinade can take even the toughest cut of beef or any type of steak and help tenderize it and pack it full of rich flavor. And that’s what this all-purpose marinade is for; taking cheap cuts of beef and giving them the pop that makes them steakhouse quality steaks. That bargain ranch steak can give even a hand-trimmed filet mignon a run for the money when helped. 

Unlike our flank steak marinade, this is an all-purpose marinade with simple ingredients and subtle herbal flavors. It’s meant to be used simply to tenderize and add richness without greatly influencing the flavor profile. 

What’s so great about Marinated Steak?

The process of marinating meat has two jobs, to tenderize and to infuse richer flavor. The acidity of the marinade helps tenderize the steak while the salt, herbs, and other ingredients soak in and give it richness. This is why we use chicken marinade or a pork chop marinade as well, it works to tenderize all cuts of meat.

Marinades can help to lessen other flavors, like our buttermilk marinated venison steak. The buttermilk helps the deer meat taste less ‘gamey.’ This also works for other cuts of venison, lamb, or goat. 

In our pickle-brined chicken wings, a quick bath in vinegary pickle juice helps the wings to stay incredibly tender when cooked. 

If you are working with tougher cuts of beef, use this easy steak marinade recipe before cooking and finish it with one of our compound butter ideas while it rests for the best results. 

Simple Steak Marinade ingredients 

• Olive oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Lemon juice 
• Worcestershire Sauce, soy sauce, or coconut aminos
• Garlic cloves
• Salt and pepper – we use kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper when cooking.
• Fresh Rosemary or your favorite dried herbs

How to make Steak Marinade

1. Smash the garlic. 
2. Then, simply whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

How to use this Tenderizing Steak Marinade

1. Pour the marinade over the steaks or into a resealable plastic bag and massage over the steak to coat. 
2. Let the steak marinate for at least 30 minutes. 
3. Most standard 3 oz portions of steak can do with a quick marinade, but some need a little longer. 4 to 6 hours is our maximum time for marinating steaks. After that, we find the texture of the beef can become soft and mushy, which is undesirable. 

When ready to cook, remove the marinated steak from the liquid and discard the leftovers. Pat the steak dry with paper towels and cook as desired. 

How to store Steak Tenderizer Marinade

Make this in batches and store what you wont use in a resealable glass jar or airtight container for up to 1 week in the fridge. Give it a good shake or stir to mix things up before adding your steak to marinate.

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Steak Marinade Simple variations

This is the best steak marinade recipe for adapting with whatever pantry staples you have on hand for a succulent tender steak. Swap the rosemary for Italian seasoning or other fresh herbs. Use garlic powder instead of fresh, and jazz it up with a dash of cayenne pepper.

Don’t overthink it! If you’ve tried this recipe and even added your own spin, be sure to rate the recipe and drop a comment below.