Steak bites are a favorite among my family! I love that the marinade really soaks into the little bite-sized chunks of steak and we all love how quick these are to get from stove to table!
The other night I had the biggest craving for a big hunk of meat. I needed protein or iron, I’m not sure which, but it was definitely the night to make these keto steak bites!
Do you ever feel that way?
Makes planning dinner easy when a craving like that hits. 😉
There isn’t much in this world tastier than a perfectly cooked steak! I love to grill them outside on our big grill, but sometimes I prefer to keep things simple and just cook them right inside on the stove.
My trusty cast iron skillet makes a fabulous steak!
Often, when I’m short on time for marinating my steak, I turn to steak bites.
Everyone just LOVES this little steak bites recipe. It’s beyond simple, but it’s just a major crowd pleaser.
These go great alongside our broccoli salad and cauliflower mac and cheese.
Ingredient Notes:
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For the steak:
Steak – I’m using New York Strip steak that’s been diced into bite-sized pieces. You can use another cut, like sirloin, especially if you’re on a budget. Any steak that you like should work well here.
Marinade – This is a super flavorful marinade and you probably have most of the ingredients at home already! You’ll mix together some oil, vinegar, water, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and a little hot sauce. You’ll also add some kosher salt, ground pepper, oregano, and rosemary. You’ll let the steak bites marinate in all that flavor for at least 30 minutes and up to 8 hours!
For the garlic butter sauce:
Butter – If there is one way to improve steak, it’s with lots of butter, and our sauce starts with melted butter.
Garlic – Some fresh minced garlic along with some garlic powder add flavor.
Parsley – We stir in a bit of dried or fresh parsley.
- Cooking steak bites is quick and simple. A screaming hot pan will cook these up in minutes.
- Marinating steak bites is also more effective than marinating a whole steak. The smaller pieces provide more surface area to soak up the marinade, and that means they are extra flavorful in less time.
- These make dinner with kids easy, since the steak is already cut into bite-sized pieces.
If you haven’t invested in a good cast iron skillet, now is the time! They really do make a difference. For one thing, they can get much hotter than a regular skillet. That makes them perfect for searing meat like steak! And if you haven’t tried bacon from a cast iron skillet, you’ve been missing out. This 12″ skillet is big enough for most recipes and it comes with a silicone handle holder! Get it on Amazon.
How To Make Steak Bites:
- Marinade – I start with my easy steak marinade. Add some hot water to a mixing bowl and dissolve in a tablespoon of salt. I know that it feels like an awful lot of salt, but I like my steak to have some flavor and it starts with a bit of salt. Keep in mind that we’re discarding the majority of the marinade, so you’re not actually consuming as much of the salt as you’d think!Once the salt is pretty well dissolved in the hot water, stir in some vegetable oil, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, hot sauce, oregano, rosemary, and pepper. It sounds like a laundry list of ingredients, but I’d bet you have most of those in your kitchen right now. This marinade is seriously just my favorite!! Whisk it all together and it’s ready for your steak!
- Steak – Slice the steaks into bite-sized chunks and then add them to the marinade. Because we’re using small pieces of meat, the steak doesn’t need to marinate nearly as long. Thirty minutes in the marinade is fine, but 3-4 hours is AMAZING.
- Sear – Heat a cast iron skillet as hot as you can get it and toss the steak bites right in, after draining off the marinade and patting them dry. Let the steak bites cook, stirring occasionally, until all the pieces are browned on the outside and cooked to your liking in the center. These go so quick, especially if you’re more of a ‘rare’ type of person. Keep an eye out so you don’t over cook your steak!
- Garlic Butter Sauce – I like to melt together some butter, garlic, garlic powder, and parsley to make a simple garlic butter for dipping the seared steak bites. The steak already has a ton of flavor, so this really isn’t necessary if it’s not your thing, but it makes it so much more fun to dip, right? 😉
Air Fryer Steak Bites:
You can make these same steak bites in an air fryer and they’ll turn out just as good. Check out my air fryer steak bites recipe! It’s got the same marinade and garlic butter dipping sauce, but is a bit more hands off thanks to the air fryer.
FAQs:
The steak bites will last in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. You could store the garlic butter sauce in the fridge too, but it’ll need warmed up and melted again before serving.
We use Frank’s Red Hot, but any variety of hot sauce will work fine here. It doesn’t make the steak spicy at all – just adds an extra depth of flavor.
What to serve with steak bites:
- Broccoli Cheese Casserole is a delicious side that my kids gobble up.
- Loaded Cauliflower Casserole is my go-to when I’m missing potatoes and want something that feels a little more indulgent.
- Keto Zucchini Fries: If you enjoy steak and French fries, these zucchini fries are a healthy alternative!
- Green Beans with Bacon and Onion: Savory green beans with bacon, AND steak bites? Why not?
Steak Bites
Ingredients
Steak Bites
- 1 pound New York Strip
- ¼ cup hot water
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon rosemary
Garlic Butter
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon minced parsley
Instructions
- Dice the steak into bite-sized pieces and place into a zip top bag.
- Whisk together the hot water and salt until the salt is nearly dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk well.
- Pour the marinade over the steak. Seal the bag and marinate for 30 minutes to 8 hours.
- When ready to cook, heat a cast iron skillet over high heat with a tablespoon of oil.
- Drain the marinade from the steak and pat the steak bites dry.
- Add to the hot skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides and cooked to your liking.
- To make the garlic butter, melt the butter in a small bowl and whisk in the minced garlic, garlic salt, and parsley.
- Serve garlic butter with the steak for dipping.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Monet Lisette says
Delicious! So happy I stumbled upon this recipe! I used a pinch of chili flakes in place of the hot sauce…and next time I will reduce the salt. All-in-all it was amazing. I will definitely be making this again! Thank you x3!
Donna Rodgers says
What kind of “hot sauce” do you use?
Karly Campbell says
I used Frank’s in this recipe.
Lys says
These are some fantastic recipes! Thank you! However.. WOW at the ads. So many. I switched to a browser with an adblocker and could finally get through a page without having to click closed multiple ads. I know it’s revenue, but it’s just so darn tiring. You can’t look at anything these days without having to endure ridiculous ads, and there are SO many of them on here.
Karly Campbell says
Hi Lys!
I hate to hear that! Were you getting pop up ads or just the ones that you scroll by? The only thing that should really be too intrusive is the video that auto-plays and scrolls with you, otherwise the rest of the ads should just be inside the content than you can scroll past. If you were getting pop ups, please let me know as those aren’t supposed to be there! It’s such a struggle balancing the user experience with earning a living to support my family – I am trying and hate to hear you had a bad experience! 🙂
Lance Klass says
Karly, you are amazing! I usually do medium rare steak on my new two-head Weber grill that my son found for me on Amazon, the least expensive but very cool grill that Weber does, apparently, but it’s time to get out and use my ancient California iron skillet! I’m planning to substitute Goya Sofrito for the salt as well as my usual salt substitute, a bit of cayenne powder, which fills the niche that salt usually fills. Otherwise very excited to be using my skillet again for steak and doing it your way, so give this 5 stars in advance!!
I musts add that your various broccoli and cauliflower based casseroles are fantastic (!) and I eat them as my main dinner dish.
Karly Campbell says
So glad you’re enjoying the recipes, Lance! Hope you love this one too! 🙂
Lance Klass says
Carly, can you recommend a cut of steak that might work best for this recipe? That would be much appreciated. I wonder if I should just go to my local butcher and get stew beef. . .
Karly Campbell says
The better the cut, the better your end result. I normally use New York strip or ribeye, but sirloin works well too.
Lance Klass says
Great! Just the direction I need; it’s gonna be either sirloin or NY strip, probably the latter if I can find a good, healthy one (I buy meats largely from Trader Joe’s or the all-natural online farm source, Moink. Thanks so much!
Pam says
This was soooooo delicious! I didn’t have veg. oil so used Tsang’s stir fry cooking oil (0 carbs) for the marinade and cooked it in olive oil. Didn’t have white vinegar so used balsamic. Didn’t have rosemary so used thyme. The steak bites were in the marinade for about 5 hours and I cooked it in my dutch oven on the stove top (I don’t have a cast iron pan). I’ll definitely be making this again.
jeff logan says
Omg! Amazing… thanks
Sheila Becker says
what do you consider a serving with this recipe , since it’s steak bites? thank you!
Karly Campbell says
I used a pound of steak and divided it between 4 people, but you can adjust as needed. 🙂
Molly says
Made this tonight! Absolutely delicious. Thanks for a new go-to steak recipe. My family loved the “tips” style steak with the dip.
Karly Campbell says
Yay! Glad to hear!
Lily says
Can I substitute vinegar with balsamic, because balsamic and Worcestershire sauce it’s delicious together.
Karly Campbell says
I haven’t tried it, but if you like the flavors I’m sure it would work here.
Kathi Day says
I made these the other night. AmAAAAAzing! I love it when I hear words like “Excellent” and “Beautiful” when I serve dinner! 🙂 The only thing that I changed was I used beef broth instead of water (and reduced the salt a little) in the marinade, and I used tarragon instead of parsley in the garlic butter. I buy whole beef tenderloin and cut it into steaks–this is a great way to use up that little end!
Jo says
Sounds lovely, but could you please confirm what type of mustard? Is that American mustard? Thanks.
Karly Campbell says
I’ve used both American and dijon and either work great. 🙂
Julie says
Loved the marinades ease but it was way to salty for me, granted thats my families own pallet talking. Will definately try it again with maybe only a teaspoon of salt. Thanks for sharing.
Karly Campbell says
Sorry to hear that! It definitely gets salty if you let the meat stay in for too long, but reducing the salt works well too and then you don’t have to worry about it. 🙂
Rchat says
Can this be made in a non stick skillet instead of cast iron?
Karly Campbell says
It can, but you won’t get as nice of a sear on the steak.
Cathy says
Look wonderful
Melissa says
Where can you get the measure utensils you used, the little jar looking ones? Loved the recipe!
Karly Campbell says
Are these the ones you mean? https://amzn.to/2JIgrNc
Jenny says
Did you use dried herbs or fresh?
Karly Campbell says
I used dried. 🙂
Caitin says
I don’t even like steak typically, but these are amazing! Definitely do NOT skip the garlic butter for dipping! Thanks for sharing! I will be making these again asap!
Karly Campbell says
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Taryn says
We gotta get you off that vegetable oil!! 🙂
Karly Campbell says
I just picked up some avocado oil at the store after doing a bit more research. 😉
Adryanne says
You can’t label this Keto you have vegetable oil as an ingredient ♀️
Karly Campbell says
Feel free to sub in whichever oil you prefer. Personally, if I’m eating foods that allow me to stay in ketosis, I consider myself eating keto. I totally understand that keto means different things to different people though. 🙂
Anita says
Way too salty!!
Greta says
what can you substitute Vegetable oil with for marinade?
Karly Campbell says
Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil…any will work fine. 🙂
Karen Ginsburg says
Looks great. I will be trying this recipe very soon. Can you make this with chicken or lamb as well?
Thanks,
Karen
Karly Campbell says
I would not use this marinade on chicken. Not sure about lamb as I never cook with it.