Mexican Steak Marinade, the best quick and easy beef marinade! This homemade marinade is perfect for skirt steak, flank steak, or even pork and grilled chicken. Makes the best tacos and fajitas or eat it by itself for an easy dinner!
Ohhh it’s grilling season, YAY! Time to get some steaks and try this easy Mexican Steak Marinade! It’s one of my favorite marinades for beef, but also great on pork and chicken. The marinade is ready in just a few minutes and you can store it in the fridge for a few days which is great if you’re having people over.
I’m always looking for a good steak marinade. An easy steak marinade definitely comes in handy. This Mexican Steak Marinade is definitely easy! My Easy Coffee Marinade is also a great option for beef if you’re looking for something else.
How to Make Mexican Steak Marinade:
You won’t believe how easy this homemade Mexican Steak Marinade comes together! Super simple!
I like to start with sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. You can find them at any grocery store. You could maybe use canned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, but honestly, I really like the flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes in this recipe.
Place the sun-dried tomatoes AND the oil from the jar in a blender along with the other ingredients: water, olive oil, chipotles in adobo, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, salt, and pepper.
Blend it all together until nearly smooth. It’s ok if it’s slightly chunky but you definitely don’t want big chunks of anything. It will be the consistency of a tomato sauce. If you want a thinner consistency, feel free to add more water, but it’s really not necessary.
The recipe makes about 3 cups of marinade.
Place your steak (or meat…) in a resealable bag. Add some of the marinade, seal the bag, and gently massage the marinade into the meat so it’s well covered.
I used about 1 cup of marinade for about 2 pounds of skirt steak. Depending on your meat, you may use more or less of the marinade. Just be sure your meat is well covered on all sides.
For skirt steak or flank steak, I’d marinate the meat in the refrigerator overnight. For other types of meat, you may not want to marinade that long. Really just depends on what you’re using.
When ready, remove the meat from the bag and pat dry with a paper towel. Grill the meat as you normally would. You can serve the steak with additional marinade on the side as a sauce or for dipping. So delicious!
I added about 2 chipotles to the marinade. You may want to add more or less depending on how spicy you like things. I’d suggest starting with 1-2, make the marinade, try it, then add more. Keep in mind, the marinade does seem to get spicier the longer it sits in the fridge.
You can even add a little cayenne for an even spicier version. Onions or scallions in the marinade would also be a great addition if you have them around.
Other Uses for this Mexican Steak Marinade
Besides a marinade, this recipe can be used for a variety of other recipes and dishes. Here are a few ideas:
- Make a Mexican pasta dish or pasta salad with this marinade as a dressing along with some corn, black beans, onion, and other veggies.
- Make a Mexican dip by mixing a little of the marinade in with sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips or veggies.
- Use the marinade as a sauce for enchiladas, burritos, tacos, or fajitas.
- Use as a sandwich spread by mixing a little of the marinade with mayonnaise.
- Make a salad dressing by mixing a little of the marinade with sour cream, mayonnaise, and milk or buttermilk.
Have other ideas? Would love to hear!
I like to store this marinade in a mason jar in the fridge. It will keep for at least a few days if not a week or longer. It comes in handy for a variety of things!
If you don’t need quite so much, you can easily cut this recipe down. Or make a big batch, and you can even free the marinade. You can put it in small resealable bags and place flat in your freezer OR you could put it in ice cube trays.
Be sure to make yourself a Lime Batido Cocktail to go with this meal. So good and perfect for outdoor parties! :)
Hope you enjoy this Mexican Steak Marinade! For dessert learn how to make fried ice cream!
Mexican Steak Marinade
Ingredients
- 8.5 ounces sundried-tomatoes in olive oil (do not drain)
- 1 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 5-7 garlic cloves
- 2-4 chipotles packed in adobo
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place tomatoes and olive oil from the jar into a blender. Add all other ingredients to blender.
- Start blender and process as needed. Stop blender, and scrape down sides as needed and continue blending until nearly smooth.
- To use, place meat in resealable bag, cover with some of the marinade, seal bag, gently massage marinade into meat so it’s completely covered. Refrigerate meat until ready to cook (for flank steak or skirt steak, marinade over night). Pat meat dry with paper towels, then cook or grill as desired.
Notes
Nutrition:
(Nutrition data is provided when available for informational purposes only and calculated using an online nutritional calculator. For the most accurate information please calculate based on specific ingredients and brands you use as well as any changes you made to the recipe. I am not a certified nutritionist or registered dietician and any nutritional information provided should only be used as a general guideline and estimate.)
About Lisa Huff
Lisa Huff is a Cookbook Author, Freelance Recipe Developer, Food Photographer, Blogger/Writer, and award-winning home chef. She loves creating unique recipes from healthy to decadent including cocktails, appetizers, main dishes, dessert recipes and more and has appeared on various shows, publications, and websites.
“Place tomatoes and olive oil in the jar into a blender. “
Reword that so people with lower intelligence don’t put a whole glass jar into a blender.
Maybe say ‘empty jar of tomatoes and olive oil into blender.’
Ha! thanks for catching that! I just updated to make it a bit more clear.
I have a tomato allergy so I substituted the tomatos for fire roasted peppers! Came out fantastic!
Just didn’t fit my tastes. Little harsh after it set over night on some steaks. Could be better on chicken and some pasta. But not good red meat.
Sorry you didn’t like. Out of curiosity what kind of cuts of steak did you use?
I am surprised, when I read Mexican I expected something really spicy and I though you have chili peppers in it. But I love the combination of your ingredients. I think it must be delicious.
It is a little spicy with the chipotles but you could certainly make it more spicy. :)
With grilling season here….you can never have too many marinades/sauces to work with. We love Mexican food….so this would be a winner for sure.
LOVE sun dried tomatoes but never thought to use them as a base of a marinade! Brilliant! I’m not a big steak eater but will definitely be trying this with chicken!
That marinade would be so good on a lot of dishes. Thanks for sharing it.
Love this marinade recipe and that it’s so easy to make. I’m going to use it next time we turn up the grill.
I love Mexican marinated BBQ meats. I always wondered how I could make those at home. Thanks for the awesome recipe
Recipe looks good hon ;)