Gordon Ramsay’s steak marinade from Fit Food uses balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire, smoked paprika and maple syrup, simmered into a thick BBQ glaze before it goes anywhere near the meat. It takes 10 minutes to make and you can leave steaks in it for up to two days. This is one of six beef marinades I found across four of his cookbooks, and they’re all completely different.
He usually marinates tougher cuts like flank, bavette and skirt. Ramsay writes in Fit Food that bavette “is less tender than rump steak” and “is often marinated.” For a ribeye or fillet, he just uses salt, pepper, olive oil and a screaming hot pan.
What makes this particular one different from most marinade recipes is that you cook it first. Sauté the onion and garlic, simmer in the liquids for 5-6 minutes until thick, then cool it down before pouring it over the steak. That step mellows the vinegar and turns the soy into a glaze that actually sticks.
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Gordon Ramsay’s BBQ Steak Marinade
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
servings5
minutes18
minutes390
kcal25
minutesOriginally from his barbecued spatchcock poussin in Fit Food, this cooked BBQ marinade works just as well on tougher steak cuts. Balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire, smoked paprika and maple syrup simmered into a thick glaze. Six Ramsay beef marinades compared below. About £1 per serving.
Ingredients
- For the marinade:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½-1 tbsp soy sauce, to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the steak:
2 flank, bavette or skirt steaks, about 250g (9 oz) each
Olive oil, for cooking
Directions
- Make the marinade: Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
- Simmer: Add the smoked paprika, tomato purée, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. Stir well and simmer gently for 5-6 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more soy for a more savoury flavour. Leave to cool.
- Marinate: Pour the cooled marinade over the steaks in a dish. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days.
- Cook the steaks: Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Heat a griddle pan or frying pan until smoking hot. Scrape off excess marinade. Cook for 3-4 minutes per side for medium-rare.
- Rest and serve: Rest for 5 minutes, then slice against the grain and serve.
Notes
- Gordon writes his amounts in UK measures, so US cooks can convert millilitres to cups here.
FAQs
What is the miso version and why does it work backwards?
This is the one that surprised me most. The UCC beef tacos use 2 tbsp light miso paste, 2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp caster sugar and 2 tbsp olive oil, but you don’t marinate the steak first. You sear the sirloin, then rest it IN the marinade while it cools.
Ramsay writes “normally meat is marinated before cooking, but here you cook the steak and then let it cool in the marinade.” You can leave it for up to four days. The same book has a simpler soy and honey version for his Vietnamese banh mi that only needs two hours. The whole miso recipe is on the beef tacos page with pickled cabbage and wasabi mayo.
What if you have no time to marinate at all?
Two options. The Ramsay in 10 bavette uses just 1 tbsp hoisin and 1 tbsp soy mixed together, tossed with the steak and straight onto a hot griddle. No waiting, no fridge, no cling film.
He serves it with kimchi fried rice and a fried egg.
The Quick and Delicious steak tacos are even simpler: 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp Mexican chilli powder and 2 tbsp olive oil rubbed onto bavette, then 3-4 minutes per side. That’s a dry rub, not a marinade, but it solves the same problem when you’re cooking in 15 minutes. The chimichurri sauce spooned over the top adds the acid you’d normally get from marinating.
What about the chipotle and beer version?
This is the big batch one for feeding a crowd. The Ramsay in 10 nachos use 2 tbsp chipotle paste, 1 tbsp fajita spice, 85ml lime juice, 125ml IPA and 120ml BBQ sauce for 450g of skirt, hanger or flank. The beer tenderises while the lime acid does the heavy lifting on the fibres.
It’s the loudest of the six marinades and the furthest from the balsamic BBQ glaze in the card above. He loads the sliced steak onto tortilla chips with cheese, beans and guacamole, so the marinade needs to stand up to all that. Ramsay’s steak sandwich uses the same philosophy of bold flavour against rich meat.
Which cuts should you marinate and which should you skip?
This is the rule that ties all six marinades together. Flank, bavette, skirt and hanger are lean cuts with tight fibres, so acid and salt in a marinade break them down and season deeper than a last-minute sprinkle can reach. Every one of the marinades above is designed for those cuts.
Once a lean cut like flank is marinated, it wants a hot, fast cook and a thin slice against the grain, which is exactly the London broil.
Ribeye, sirloin, fillet and T-bone already have fat running through the meat doing that job for you. Ramsay doesn’t marinate any of them. He just seasons with salt, pepper and oil, then sears in a hot pan with butter, thyme and crushed garlic.
That’s sirloin steak approach and it’s the reason he doesn’t have a “one marinade fits all” recipe. The miso tacos are the one exception, but there the marinade flavours after cooking rather than tenderises before.
What about a red wine marinade?
The closest is his Fit Food rosemary chimichurri which uses 35ml red wine vinegar as the acid, mixed with parsley, oregano, garlic, rosemary and chilli. It’s technically a sauce you spoon over after cooking rather than a soak, but the vinegar does the same tenderising work on the surface.
If you compare the three acids across these marinades, balsamic is the sweetest so it caramelises on the grill, red wine vinegar is the sharpest so it cuts through fattier cuts, and mirin from the miso version is the subtlest so it lets the umami lead. The red wine jus works alongside any of them if you want a sauce as well as a marinade.
