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Are you ready for a super easy Asian marinade to flavor all your your steaks, and fish and pork, and maybe chicken?!
I say maybe chicken, because when I tested this recipe with chicken breasts the marinade charred onto the chicken because it needed to cook for so long. BUT I imagine that it would do great on chicken that is first cut into bite sized pieces, or pounded to be a thinner cut of meat…BTW I don’t really love pounding chicken, or any meat for that matter, it’s kind of scary and kind of gross. My poor meat mallet doesn’t get much use. Random thought for the day.
Okay but seriously, this Asian marinade makes everything else that doesn’t need a ton of time to cook taste amazing. Think thin steaks, fish, shrimp, pork, and maybe cubed chicken etc. I will report back on that cubed chicken after I try it. Stay tuned.
(Update about chicken in notes of the recipe đŸ™‚ ).
I call this super easy Asian marinade because you throw everything in a food processor, pulse it a few times and then let it marinade that steak for almost as long as you want! See, easy!
Garlicky, ginger-y, onion-y, salty Asian marinade to rescue your blah, boring steak! Don’t get me wrong, steak is good, but sometimes you need something extra to give it a boost. And we’re not talking about A1 steak sauce here friends. Nope, we’re talking about a marinade that soaks right into the meat and keeps it tender and adds all those yummy flavor elements!
See ya later A1 steak sauce!
Did I mention how easy this Asian marinade is? It also has really simple ingredients:
- ginger
- garlic
- a lot of green onions
- a lot of cilantro
- red pepper flakes for a little kick
- fresh squeezed lime juice for tang
- soy sauce (or coconut aminos) for salty goodness
- a touch of honey
- Sesame oil for depth
- AND olive oil
Remember, pulse it all in that food processor and DONE! The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for it to marinate your meat.
The longer you allow all of the flavors to soak into the meat the better. I’ve let it hang out in the fridge for up to 24 hours, it’s not super acidic so it can marinate longer than a lot of other marinades.
I feel like I’ve said flavor and meat a lot in this post….my writing major self isn’t loving the repetitiveness.
Anyways, once that steak or shrimp or whatever hits the hot pan your house will smell pretty awesome! Your mouth will begin to water and your stomach will begin to growl. Once you take that first bite, you will know that it was worth the wait for that marinade to do it’s thing in the fridge!
Thank you Asian marinade for making my MEAT (<- said it again) so yummy and fragrant!
Two more things: 1) that steak is HUGE! I barely had a big enough plate to fit it on ha!
2) I came across this recipe when I was sorting through stuff recently, my mom had photo copied it for me, it was originally written in my grandma’s hand writing. So sweet. I love it especially because my grandma never wrote her recipes down (see apple pie post). I made a few changes to the recipe…because that’s what I do. BUT the idea originally came from my grandma and now I get to share it with you lovely people. So cool, right?! I love my job!
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Super Easy Asian Marinade
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 2 cups of marinade 1x
- Category: Red Meat, Entree, Dips & Sauces, Fish & Seafood, Chicken & Poultry
- Cuisine: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free
Description
Add tons of Asian flavor to almost any kind of meat. fish, shrimp, steak, pork etc with this Asian marinade. An EASY recipe, all made in the food processor!
Ingredients
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 inches ginger, roughly chopped
- 2 cup green onions, including whites, roughly chopped
- 2 cups cilantro, including stems, roughly chopped**
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (sub coconut aminos if avoiding soy)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1 tablespoons sesame oil
- 4 pounds of meat of choice, steak, fish, shrimp, chicken, pork*
Instructions
- Pulse garlic and ginger : Add the garlic and ginger to a food processor, pulse until well chopped.
- Add the greens: To the food processor add the green onions, colantro, and red pepper flakes, pulse until well chopped, but not pureed.
- Add the liquids: Add the olive oil, soy sauce (or coconut aminos). honey. lime juice, and sesame oil to the food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Marinade: Use 1 cup of marinade for every 2 pounds of meat. Add the meat to large ziplock back and pour in the marinade, make sure the marinade coats the meat well. Marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes and up to 48 hours for maximum flavor*.
- Cook the meat: Remove the meat from the marinade and cook it as desired.
Notes
*I imagine any type of meat you like would work well here. The only thing I found is to use a meat that cooks quickly because the marinade will char if it needs to cook for a long time and it wasn’t the good kind of char. For example, chicken breast wasn’t our favorite because it needed to cook longer. A thin steak, cooked rare was a better option. Chicken would work well if you either diced the chicken into bite sized pieces or pounded it so it’s thin and cooked faster. I imagine pork chops, shrimp, and fish would also cook up nicely. I do plan to test these at a later date, I will update the recipe as I test the other types of meat. đŸ™‚
UPDATE 1/10/19: I tried the chicken strips (aka chicken breast cut into thin pieces) and it worked really well. Although, I have to say that we loved it with steak even more. Either way it’s really good! Next time I’ll try some shrimp or fish! đŸ™‚
**If you’re not a fan of cilantro (I don’t understand you people lol), you can omit it completely and just stick with the green onion. There actually wasn’t any cilantro in the original recipe. I just LOVE it!!!!
I had 1 cup of the marinade leftover. I stored it in a jar for up to 1 week and used it on a separate batch of meat.
Prep time does not include hands off time of marinating time or the time needed to cook the meat.
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