Skirt Steak Marinade

If you’ve never tried skirt steak before, you are in for a treat! Perfect to balance out the richness of the meat, our skirt steak marinade brings out the best in this beef for a tender, juicy, and delicious meal every time.

🍽️ Why This Works

Lock in the flavor. Adding a marinade to an already delicious, tender cut of beef just takes everything up a notch. You will get all the flavors of the marinade infused into the meat so that every bite is amazing.

Locks in the moisture. Salt in the marinade helps draw the moisture all the way into every cell in the meat resulting in evenly distributed juicy perfection.

Easy and Fast. You only need to marinade the meat for about an hour. Mixing the marinade is super easy as you just throw it all together with a whisk. If you want to change things up for your next grill, this is the perfect way to do it.

🥩 Ingredients

📝 Ingredient Notes

Low Sodium Soy Sauce. Using the regular version will result in meat that is too salty.

Olive Oil. You can substitute vegetable oil or avocado oil if you prefer.

Note: The oil is optional. If you grill the skirt steak on high heat, it reduces the chances of sticking to the grill great. If you are in doubt, add in the oil.

Worcestershire Sauce. Adds the crave-worthy umami this recipe needed to take it over the top.

Dijon Mustard. You can substitute this with spicy brown mustard or even yellow mustard or dry mustard if you have to.

Garlic Cloves. Use a garlic press to make using fresh garlic super easy. Many garlic press models will even remove the skin so you don’t have to.

Dried Onions. We use the minced or granulated variety in this recipe.

⏲️ Equipment and Tools

Mixing Bowl | Choose one that is large enough to contain a Ziploc bag for all of the ingredients and be mixed without making a mess. Alternatively, you can put all of the ingredients in a quart sized jar, place the lid on it, and shake the marinade to blend.

Whisk | This is an essential kitchen tool we could never do without. A fork is second best, but if you don’t have a whisk I highly recommend getting one.

Resealable Plastic Bag | If you don’t like to use plastic baggies, you can use a glass bowl with a lid. Do not use a plastic bowl with a lid, because the plastic can absorb bacteria from raw meat and become contaminated.

🔥 Instructions

Step One: Combine all ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and place that bag in a mixing bowl. I can’t tell you how many times the bags had a small leak and made a big mess in the fridge! Whisk until combined. If you don’t want to mince the garlic by hand, you can just throw it in the food processor and pulse it to chop and combine.

Step Two: Add your skirt steaks to resealable bag, seal it and work the marinade to make sure all sides of the steak are covered.

Step Three: Refrigerate for 1-4 hours and a maximum of 24 hours. We only needed about 30 minutes before grilling it and it worked out wonderfully, so try it out for yourself with a shorter marinating time.

Step Four: Remove steaks, discard marinade and allow them to come to room temperature.

Step Five: Prepare the steaks however you wish. Grilled, reverse seared, or seared in a skillet all work. I like them grilled on direct, high heat as they are done in just a few minutes.

❗ Recipe Tips and Tricks

The recipe is enough skirt steak marinade for one pound of beef.

If your steak has excess fat around the edges, trim the meat to prevent curling as it cooks. You can do this before you put it in the marinade to expose the meat.

Do not use the marinade as a basting liquid. This is dangerous because the marinade contains bacteria from the raw meat and may not be heated enough during the basting process to kill off the bacteria.

Instead, use a freshly made recipe of the marinade if you want to use it for basting. We don’t find that to be necessary, because this marinade infuses so much flavor and moisture into the meat it does not need basted.

Make sure to let you steak rest! After grilling it is essential to give the meat ten to fifteen minutes of rest time so that the juices sealed in by the marinade have time to redistribute evenly.

This marinade is excellent for skirt steak or flank steak. If you use one of these cuts of meat, slice your steak against the grain or on the bias for best results. Steak sliced with the grain can be chewy and tough.

🧑‍🍳 Storage and Reheating

Make the marinade up to three days in advance and keep it in a sealed jar or container until you are ready to add meat. Discard the marinade after pulling the meat from the bag and do not reuse it.

To reheat the steak, simply heat it up in a skillet or grill and use it for steak sandwiches or however your heart desires.

Always make extra when you make this skirt steak marinade because you will always want the leftovers! It’s especially good for breakfast with eggs!

Our recipe can also be frozen without the meat for up to three months, and thawed when you are ready for it. Once the steak is cooked, make sure to reference How Long is Steak Good in the Fridge so it never goes bad.

Additions and Substitutions

Sweeten up this recipe a little bit with three tablespoons of brown sugar.

Brighten up the marinade with ¼ cup of lime juice for a completely different but equally delicious flavor. If you do this, leave out the Worcestershire sauce.

Instead of dried minced onions, you can use granulated onion powder, or diced green onions or scallions.

Nothing tastes as good as freshly minced garlic, but in a pinch you can use jarred minced garlic from your refrigerator or dried minced garlic from your spice cabinet. Increase the amount slightly.

Serving Suggestions

Serve your skirt steaks with mashed cauliflower, fruit salad, corn on the cob, fresh baked bread, or smoked asparagus. Rice and beans is also a lovely side for this meal.

Cut up the steak to have on a taco, rice bowl, or large salad.

❓ Recipe FAQ

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