Italian Dressing Marinated Steaks Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is Italian dressing good to marinate steak? ›

Italian dressing is one of the best steak marinades you can use, and it's a flavorful shortcut to perfectly juicy and flavorful steaks. The combination of oil and vinegar with herbs and spices makes it a delicious and powerful tenderizer. The dressing is especially handy when you're dealing with tough cuts of beef.

How long to marinate your steak depends on the size and variety of the cut you're using. Thinner cuts, such as skirt or flanks steaks, should be marinated for 2-4 hours. Tougher cuts, such as top sirloin or sirloin tip, will benefit from marinating overnight (about 8 hours).

Don't use too much salt. Salt will draw moisture out of your meat causing it to dry out and prevent flavor from absorbing in. Salt can be added later, after cooking to taste. Don't reuse marinades or use marinades as a sauce after cooking.

A typical marinade is made up of three essential components: an acid (such as vinegar, wine, or citrus), an oil (such as olive oil or sesame oil), and a flavouring agent (such as herbs and spices). These elements work together to transform the taste and texture of your dish in different ways.

However, every great steakhouse seasons the steaks they cook. Typically a steak is seasoned with coarse ground black pepper, sea or kosher salt, garlic, and some type of signature spice. In addition to the seasoning most steakhouse's use a marinade, butter, or some type of baste or finishing liquid.

Make a marinade with acidic components—such as citrus juice, buttermilk, yogurt, wine, vinegar or soda—to help break down tough connective tissue and muscle fibers.

The last thing you want to do is rinse your meat after marinating it — this defeats the purpose and dilutes the flavor. The best way to grill a marinated steak is to pat the steak dry first with a paper towel, per Boss The Kitchen.

Always marinate foods in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter. Some older recipes call for marinating at room temperature. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS PRACTICE. Marinating at room temperature causes the meat to enter the “Danger Zone” (between 40°F and 140°F), where bacteria multiply fastest.

Start your marinade with oil

Your marinade should be at least 1/2 oil. The oil helps emulsify the marinade into a thick sauce that coats the meat. It's also a flavor-carrier. And having a coating of an oil-based sauce on your steak before you grill it will help it cook better and more evenly.

Regular or apple cider vinegar, wine or beer, lemon or lime juice, buttermilk or yogurt contain tenderizing acids. As well as acid, enzymes found in fruits like pineapple, kiwi, mangoes, and papaya disrupt the molecular structure of meat's connective tissue.

What is the secret to marinating? ›

Salt is the foundation of any marinade, so use it abundantly. It makes sure that moisture from the marinade gets thoroughly absorbed into all parts of the meat. This process is called osmosis: the salt pulls out the meat juices, which then get absorbed back into the meat with the marinade's flavors in tow.

Marinades generally consist of cooking oil, an acidic liquid, such as vinegar, wine, tomato, or citrus juice (or a natural enzyme, such as ginger or pineapple), and flavorings, including garlic, molasses, honey, fresh or dried herbs, and spices.

Marinades are usually 2 parts oil to 1 part acid (something like wine, lemon juice or vinegar), and some salt.

A great marinade is carefully balanced and made of three basic components – acid, fat and seasoning. Acids, such as wine, vinegar, citrus juice, buttermilk, and enzyme-rich fruits like papaya or pineapple, work to soften the meat's surface by weakening proteins allowing for slight absorption of flavoring.

Any pourable dressing works as a marinade, so try them all! Be creative and vary the taste even more by adding Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mustard, wine, herbs, spices, or some other personal touch. But take care not to overly dilute the vinegar or lemon juice in the dressing if you want to tenderize as well.

Italian dressing is an obvious choice for green salads, and you can add it to pasta salads, use it to marinate chicken breasts, pork chops, and shrimp, or drizzle in a sub sandwich instead of oil and vinegar. I almost always make my own Italian dressing.

Tenderize: Salad dressings contain acids like vinegar and lemon juice; these ingredients aid in softening meat fibers—which is especially important with less expensive cuts of meat. Additionally, the oil in salad dressing also helps maintains the moisture and tenderness of the meat during cooking.