Marinate Steak In A Bottle Of This Salad Dressing For A Tender Cut With 10x The Flavor

When we covered the best steak marinade ingredients for a combination of flavor and tenderness, Italian dressing ranked high on our list of discoveries. It's marvelous as an all-in-one bath for tougher steaks to infuse juicy texture and great taste.

Italian dressing has a lot to recommend it as a marinade, as it's effective on multiple fronts (marinade brings more to the table than just using a tenderizing tool). First of all, it contains vinegar, the acidity of which works a treat on tenderizing tough cuts. Secondly, that emulsion of savory ingredients in the oily base contains spices and seasonings that are extremely tasty. All you need to do is douse your steaks in the dressing in the morning, and the marinated meat will be ready for your grill by that same evening!

One major consideration to keep in mind: an Italian dressing bath is best for cheaper, tougher cuts of beef. You wouldn't want to use this marinade on a pricier cut of beef like a New York strip or a ribeye (even if the former is more budget-friendly), because these cuts don't necessarily benefit from chemical tenderizing. Italian dressing is not a fussy ingredient, and the beauty of using it on steaks is that it can transform a humble slab of beef — maybe a piece you got on sale? — into a juicier, more flavorful dinner that belies its modest origins.

Many users on social media site Reddit were enthusiastic about the idea of marinating steaks in Italian dressing, even though some of their peers were skeptical. Sure, you can use Italian dressing for poultry or pork, but does it work for red meat? "We always used red wine vinegar and oil salad dressing as a marinade for [L]ondon broil when I was a kid; cooked on the grill. Definitely tasty," one user reported. Another Redditor filled in the blanks on why it works: "For lean cuts of steak like skirt or hanger, yes, it helps tenderize it."

Don't be afraid to jazz up your marinade for steak that's even more impactful than what you get with "just" Italian dressing. A TikTok reel shows a home cook spiking their dressing with soy and Worcestershire sauces, lemon juice, and a generous sprinkle of a Mexican spice rub that they enjoy. You can get creative with the elements you add to your marinade, keeping in mind that a balanced blend of salt, acid, spice, and sweetness generally works best for soaking meat.