Wondering how to season a steak like a pro? A former restaurant chef shares her favorite steak ingredients, from simple kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to more complex steak seasonings like rubs and marinades.
15 Steak Ingredients That Take Your Steak from Good to Great
Updated Oct. 05, 2024
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: A high-quality steak needs little more than salt and pepper to taste great. It’s my go-to steak seasoning when making cast-iron steak or grilled ribeyes. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to season steak. Some steaks—like flank steak and skirt steak—benefit from marinades and tenderizing steak ingredients to make them taste better. And sometimes, I just want to change it up with a different flavor!
The best seasoning for steak depends on the steak cut and how you plan to serve it, so we created a list of steak ingredient ideas that will cover every scenario. Butter or zesty steak sauces are great options for a classic steakhouse experience with decadent steak sides. Smoky steak rubs or umami-rich steak marinades are fantastic for adding extra-savory flavor to the plate. And you can never go wrong with garlic or fresh herbs to give the steak an aromatic finish.
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Salt
Salt is essential in creating a fantastic steak. Salting steak before cooking it won’t make it taste salty. Instead, salt pulls moisture from the meat, concentrating the beefy flavors. I recommend seasoning steak with kosher salt (not table salt) at least 45 minutes before cooking. After cooking the steak, feel free to give it a crunchy, salty finish with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt or fleur de sel (a type of salt with a delicate minerality).
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Black Pepper
I love coating steak in coarsely cracked black pepper—especially when making pan-fried steak recipes like steak au poivre. The spicy black pepper mellows as it cooks and brings out the beef’s natural savoriness. Sometimes, I wait to add pepper until the steak is finished to accentuate its hot, peppery bite. The best pepper grinders can be adjusted for coarseness, allowing you to dust the steak with ultra-fine pepper just before serving.
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Garlic
A hint of garlic gives steak a certain je ne sais quoi that elevates it to a restaurant-quality experience. Sometimes, I’ll add minced garlic to steak seasoning (as we do in this grilled steak recipe). If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll take a simpler approach, slicing garlic clove in half and rubbing the cut part over a cooked steak. For indoor cooking, I often toss a whole garlic clove in the pan. It infuses the cooking oil with garlicky essence, and the clove softens to become rich and tender.
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Butter
When I worked in restaurants, we often finished steak with a ladleful of clarified butter to make it taste better (one of those secrets a steakhouse chef will never tell you). At home, I prefer to finish steak with a pat of herby compound butter. Flavored butters are easy to make by mixing softened butter with ingredients like roasted garlic, blue cheese or herbs. The horseradish used in this cowboy butter makes it particularly well-suited for pairing with steak.
Butter is also an excellent option for pan-searing steak (a la butter steak). It enhances the meat’s texture as it cooks, making a budget steak taste as tender as an expensive one.
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Rosemary or Thyme
Basting with a sprig of rosemary is one of those tricks that takes minimal effort but works exceptionally well. Place a sprig of rosemary in the pan with your steak. After flipping the steak, use your tongs to grab the rosemary and mop up the pan juices. Brush the sprig over the steak to infuse the herb’s natural oils into the meat. This technique works with most types of herbs, but it’s particularly effective with woody herbs like rosemary and thyme.
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Steak Seasoning
There are plenty of premade spice blends out there, but I prefer to make homemade steak seasoning. Store-bought seasonings often contain added ingredients like MSG or use more salt than I’d like. It’s easy to recreate classic dry rub recipes like Montreal steak seasoning, or you can experiment with added ingredients like citrus zest, coffee or dried chiles to make exciting steak seasoning blends.
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Steak Marinade
Some steaks are naturally tender, while others benefit from the tenderizing effects of a good marinade. And any steak can be marinated to give it a flavor boost! You can make a steak marinade with acidic ingredients like vinegar or citrus juice to break down tough muscle fibers, sugar or honey to promote browning, and flavoring agents like herbs and spices. It’s always important to include oil, which helps the ingredients stick to the steak’s surface and ensures the meat stays juicy and moist.
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Fresh Herbs
Woody herbs are good for basting steak, but you can use any herb to make a flavorful rub (similar to herb-crusted prime rib). Simply pulse fresh herbs in a food processor with aromatic ingredients like shallots and garlic. Add a little oil to help it stick together, and rub it on the steak before it hits the grill.
Another way to use fresh herbs is as a finishing touch. A sprinkle of fresh parsley can go a long way to complement the flavors of your steak.
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Ground Spices
You don’t have to use a full-on steak seasoning to make steak taste great. Kick things up a notch by rubbing your steak with spicy or smoky seasonings, like chili powder, cayenne pepper, paprika or cumin. They’ll add a ton of depth and accentuate the steak’s naturally beefy flavor.
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Oil
Instead of butter, I often finish steak with a drizzle of flavorful oil. This isn’t the time to reach for neutral oils like canola or vegetable oil, though, as they won’t add any character. Grab the best olive oil you can afford to take advantage of its bright, peppery, grassy notes. Toasted sesame seed oil, peanut oil or coconut oil could all be good choices, too, depending on the flavor profile you’re going for.
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Soy Sauce or Worcestershire Sauce
Although the two sauces differ vastly, I tend to group soy and Worcestershire sauce together. They’re both bold, salty and incredibly savory. I lean toward using Worcestershire sauce to add tangy, funky vibes and soy sauce when I want to lean into Asian-inspired flavors like teriyaki steak. Either can be used to make an easy three-ingredient steak marinade: olive oil, vinegar and soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce.
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Mushrooms
Serving steak with savory, umami-rich mushrooms is a great way to accentuate its beefiness. One easy way to pair steak and mushrooms is to turn the pan drippings into a savory mushroom gravy. After cooking the steak, saute sliced mushrooms in the same skillet until tender. Add beef broth and a little Dijon mustard, and simmer until the sauce is reduced by half. If you cooked the steak on the grill, saute the mushrooms in butter.
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Onions
Like mushrooms, onions are a great finishing ingredient for steak. My favorite way to make steak and onions is by topping the steak with caramelized onions. They’re rich enough to hold up to the beefy steak, and their sweet flavor and melty texture are a nice counterpoint to the savory, chewy steak. Just remember that making caramelized onions always takes longer than you think—at least 30 minutes, if not longer!—so plan ahead for this one.
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Steak Sauce
Sauces are fantastic at elevating salt-and-pepper-seasoned steaks (and they’re also helpful for adding moisture to an overcooked steak). You can go in so many different directions with this one: Chimichurri steak is bright, zesty and herbaceous; steak with creamy peppercorn sauce is rich and cozy; the sauces from a classic steak Diane or steak Oscar are sure to impress. And there’s always this homemade steak sauce favorite reminiscent of A1 steak sauce.
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Char or Sear
OK, so while technically not an ingredient, char or sear is an essential component of all great-tasting steaks. When exposed to high heat, the meat undergoes something called the Maillard reaction. This chemical reaction causes sugars and amino acids to brown and burst with flavor. All you have to do is pat the steak dry before starting and use high heat. The steak will obtain smoky char if you use a charcoal grill or a caramelized sear with a propane grill or cast-iron skillet.
Steak Ingredients FAQ
How do you season steak?
Seasoning meat like a pro starts with choosing the right salt. I like kosher salt because its coarse granules make it easy to season steak all over without accidentally oversalting. Table salt is so fine that it melts into the meat, so it’s hard to know which areas have or haven’t been hit. Coat both sides of the steak with salt (and pepper or any other desired herbs and spices). Then, let it sit for 45 minutes at room temperature. This gives the salt time to work its magic.
What ingredients make steak tender?
Salt is my go-to ingredient for ensuring steak turns out juicy and tender. It breaks down lean muscle proteins, making the steak juicier and more tender. Including acidic ingredients in a marinade is another way to make tough meat tender. Citrus juice, vinegar, whey and yogurt denture proteins, or unravel them so they are less chewy. Just be careful with these ingredients, as they can make the meat mushy when marinated for too long.
Should you season steak before or after cooking?
I recommend seasoning steak with salt before cooking it. Salting ahead of time creates the juiciest, most flavorful steak. It also dries out the steak’s surface, helping it achieve a stellar crust when it sears. One of the best steaks I’ve ever cooked was salted 24 hours before cooking, so don’t be afraid to salt way ahead of time. You can also add flavorful steak rubs and seasonings before cooking.
Originally Published: September 17, 2019
