Asian Flank Steak Marinade Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long can you Marinate Flank Steak before it goes bad? ›

How Long to Marinate Flank Steak. As long as your marinade mixture includes at least one tenderizing ingredient, you should get good results from a 24 to 48-hour soak in it. Soaking the meat beyond 48 hours will just leave the surface too soft and mushy.

Acids like balsamic vinegar and lemon juice or lime juice are commonly used to tenderize flank steak, but a lesser-known tenderizer is soy sauce. Like acid, soy sauce will break down the proteins just enough to make for a tender steak. This flank steak marinade is made with low-sodium soy sauce.

The big advantage of dry rubs, and the reason we love using them so much, is that they don't add any additional moisture to the exterior of a piece of meat the way that a marinade does.

Rub a flank steak with olive oil, season it with salt and pepper and slide it onto a foil-lined sheet pan for easy cleanup. Then just broil it until it's medium-rare, 6 to 8 minutes. No flipping needed.

Before marinating your meat, prick some holes into the meat with a sharp fork. This will allow the marinade to get deeper into the meat, and faster.

This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.

Mix about ¾ teaspoon of baking soda with 2 tablespoons of water and mix it in with your sliced beef and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Once the beef has mingled with the baking soda, you must remember to rinse off the baking soda before you cook it or it will make your beef smell fishy and it will taste weird.

If you're looking for a tender and flavorful way to cook flank steak, consider slow cooking. Slow cooking allows the meat to break down and become melt-in-your-mouth tender while infusing it with rich flavors.

One of the things I learned from this book is how to cook flank steak for a stir fry. Rather than just slicing it and throwing it in, take a little bit of time to marinade it and add a pinch of baking soda. Baking soda acts as a meat tenderizer by actually changing the composition of the meat fibers.

Why is my flank steak always tough? ›

The critical reason for this is that flank steak, although lean and tasty, is tougher than other cuts of beef due to the many long, thin fibers running through it. To help tenderize flank steak, it is often marinated and cooked by grilling, stir-frying, broiling, or smoking.

Slice against the grain. Slice the flank steak against the grain with a sharp knife, which means cutting perpendicular to the long muscle fibers. This helps to shorten the muscle fibers, making the steak more tender. Cut into thin strips.

Pour marinade over flank steak in the baking dish; turn several times to coat thoroughly with marinade. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 to 6 hours, or up to 12 hours if you have time.

Most recipes for marinating meat and poultry recommend six hours up to 24 hours. It is safe to keep the food in the marinade longer, but after two days it is possible that the marinade can start to break down the fibers of the meat, causing it to become mushy.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends storing marinated meat in the refrigerator for no more than 3-5 days. This time frame accounts for the potential growth of harmful bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

How long is raw steak good in the fridge? Store raw steak in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. However, pay attention to sell-by dates and the expiration date. Steak may remain fresh for a few days past their sell-by dates, but you should freeze steak before its expiration date if you won't use it by that date.