This Top-Selling Hot Sauce Is The Secret To More Tender Steak

From chuck roast to flat iron, there are lots of cheaper steak cuts that experts say taste more expensive. But choosing the meat is just one part of achieving a tender bite when the cooking's done. The other is your chosen marinade, and one of the best also happens to be one of the top-selling hot sauces in the United States: Taco Bell (per Instacart). Visitors to the fast food chain love this condiment, which has been available to buy in stores since 2014, and it makes a mouthwatering marinade for steak.

It comes ready-made with everything a juicy cut of beef (or chicken, lamb, or pork) needs to be tenderized: acid, sugar, and salt, while the range of heat levels means there's something for every home cook's taste. We're big fans of Taco Bell's mild hot sauce, as it brings a gentle but still noticeable kick of heat, and works well with a range of cuts, from cheaper skirt steak to a pricier ribeye, in our opinion. 

As the acid from the tomato paste gets to work breaking down those meat proteins to leave it beautifully soft, the salt and dried onions season the steak while enhancing its flavor. You can also leave it marinating for several hours with no fear of your ribeye turning to goo, something we wouldn't suggest to anyone using this iconic sauce as a marinade.

The fast food chain's range of hot sauces began with just one in 1962. Today the five flavors we know and love: Diablo, Verde, Hot, Mild, and Fire. All are made by Kraft Heinz, and all of them are yummy marinades for steak. Whichever one you use depends on your tolerance for heat, and while many home cooks play it safe with the Mild or Verde, we think it's worth trying the hotter Diablo, which contains extractives of paprika, or Fire, which counts both jalapeño and chile peppers among its ingredients. They'll both bring a spicy kick to your steaks, but the peppers in the Fire sauce gives it a slightly sweeter twist, which pairs beautifully with beef.

If you're worried about Taco Bell's hot sauces overwhelming your steak with heat, you can reduce the marinating time to a couple of hours, rather than leaving them overnight. As for how to eat these steaks? Well, if you're not forking them down straight off the grill, we'd slice them into strips and toss them into tacos topped with chicharrones, or wrap them in fajitas, and watch the family devour the lot. It's not the only tasty treat we can rustle up either. A dash of Taco Bell sauce mixed with cream cheese makes a yummy dip for movie night nachos, while a generous spoonful will elevate a chili, and rescue a bland soup by bringing depth and that delicious kick of warmth.