A Simple Delicious Steak Sauce To Kick Your Weekend Grill Into High Gear

I have very strong opinions about what sauces should and shouldn’t go on steak. I firmly believe that ketchup and barbecue sauce have their place, but that place is nowhere near my perfectly grilled rib-eye, striploin, or tenderloin. Instead of ketchup *cringe* or barbecue sauce, I prefer a light, herbaceous sauce like the one I am going to describe to you today. This sauce is better known as chimichurri.

Chimichurri originates in Argentina and Uruguay and is used as a common table sauce and marinade for beef. According to Wikipedia, the name means “a mixture of several things in no particular order” kind of like a hodgepodge. The version that we are going to look at today is my version, and probably not the most classic example of a chimichurri sauce. Despite that, it is no less delicious. I’m willing to bet that if you give this sauce a shot, it will quickly replace those bottles of barbecue sauce and ketchup once and for all.

This is..

Getting Started

Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that despite the fact that there are measurements in the recipe at the bottom of this page I wouldn’t worry about them too much. This sauce is very much just about eyeballing and tasting. That’s what makes it so quick to come together. Of course, you can measure everything if you’d like, and I would actually encourage you to do that the first few times you make this. After that though, ditch the recipe and make it to suit your taste. This can also be made in a blender, but I prefer it to have some texture so I do it by hand.

The sauce starts with a big handful of parsley that gets chopped fairly fine. Next up, a few cloves of garlic and roasted red pepper. The roasted pepper is best if homemade, but you can use a jar if you’d prefer. If you would like to roast the pepper at home, toss a whole red pepper with a teaspoon of oil and put it on the hottest part of your grill on high. Cook it, flipping and rotating every few minutes until the pepper is completely black on all sides. Yes, black. Put the pepper in a metal bowl, seal tightly with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes. Remove the pepper from the bowl and using a kitchen towel, rub the pepper until all the skin comes off. Now, cut the pepper open, remove the seeds and stems, and the pepper is ready to go.

Spices

The spices I use in my chimichurri are crushed red pepper flakes, cumin, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. You can find measurements in the recipe below. The cumin and the cinnamon or both optional, and I don’t either are traditional. I do find that they add a nice warmth to the flavour of the chimichurri steak sauce.

Oil and Acid

The final step in making this steak sauce is to add a bit of oil to loosen it up and a little acid to brighten the flavours. I use olive oil and red wine vinegar. I would keep the olive oil, but the acid could be substituted with balsamic vinegar, lime juice, or even orange and lime juice. Play with it and see what you like.

Sauce, marinade, or both?

One thing that I love about this steak sauce is that it also works as a marinade. Not only that, but it is great on seafood, pork, or chicken too! Give it a shot, you’ll be happy that you did.

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