Best Recipe Ever for Marinated Flank Steak (2024)

August 21, 2013 By Christy No Comments

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As most of you who are regulars here know, Terry is our chef, always coming up with delicious and healthy recipes. But, from time to time, I feel compelled to share my favorite recipes with you because I’m NOT a cook (does that even make any sense?!). Even though I love to eat, I prefer making things that have about 5 ingredients, max. Simple, fresh, easy–those are my buzzwords when it comes to food. If it’s healthy, that’s an added bonus, but I do love butter!

Today I’m going to share with you my mother’s recipe for a delicious marinade for flank steak. It’s one of my kids’ absolute favorites because when you grill (or pan fry) the steak, the marinade caramelizes and is SO good. It’s one of my favorites because 1) you make it ahead of time 2) it’s easy and 3) people always think you worked harder than you did.

I’ll give you step by step instructions with photos, but I’m also posting the recipe at the bottom to keep things simple (and pinnable).

First, tenderize your flank steak. Flank steak is a pretty inexpensive meat and can be delicious if it’s prepared correctly. Prick it all over with a fork, or use sprinkle-on tenderizer, or use a medieval torture device like I do (ok, it’s actually a meat tenderizer). This way the marinade will soak into the steak and it will be extra-yummy.

Mix up your marinade. Here’s a shot of the recipe from my family cookbook. It’s one of those old-school ones in a blue three-ring binder. And lots of splatters on the pages.

I use a whisk to make sure everything mixes well, and sometimes I’ll use the beef bouillon granules instead of the cubes. I use warm water for the 1 cup of water that’s required and dissolve the granules in that.

Pour the marinade over your tenderized steak, cover, and refrigerate. I turn the steak(s) over every 8-12 hours. The longer you marinate them, the better they taste. 24-48 hours is best. Oh, and the recipe makes enough to cover two steaks–this is a great recipe for entertaining!

Random grammar tip on marinate vs. marinade, because I am an English nerd. Use “marinate” as a verb: I am going to marinate a steak for dinner. Use “marinade” as a noun: I am going to mix up some marinade for that steak. Make sense?

When it’s time to cook your steak, you can either grill it or pan fry it. I pan fried it because when I went to grill it,we were out of propane and my husband was away! Yes, I can operate a nail gun, but I refuse to change the propane tank on the grill. Can I get an amen?!

I conveniently have a grill pan for my stove. Perhaps because we are often out of propane. And my husband is often away.

Fry the steak about 3 minutes on each side; of course it depends on the thickness of the meat. You can turn it 90 degrees after a minute and half to get the cool crosshatch grill marks, like I did:

When you pull it off the stove or grill, let it rest for about 5 minutes before you cut it. You would want a little rest if you’d just been grilled over an open flame, wouldn’t you? This makes the meat juicy, so don’t skip this step.

Slice it against the grain (that means kind of diagonally). That’s the best way to slice flank steak, to ensure that it’s tender. See the juice? Yum!

Then dish it up and serve it to your children, or husband, or guests. They’ll be impressed, I promise.

Now, here’s the recipe for the marinade:

And here’s a nice picture so you can pin it and remember it:

My cilantro and red onion chutney is also amazing on top of grilled flank steak (if I do say so myself); that recipe is {here}.

And if you’d like another amazing recipe for pork chops, then check out this post I did last month {here}.

Thanks for stopping by!