Steak Taco Marinade
by Sommer Collier — on Sep 3, 2025 This easy marinade recipe makes restaurant-quality steak tacos at home with budget-friendly flank steak, skirt steak, or nearly any cut of beef you like! It features simple ingredients like citrus juices, classic spices, and fresh cilantro for the most flavorful marinated steak for making tacos, burritos, salads, and more.
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
Steak tacos always catch my eye on the menu at Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. However, they can often be expensive for the amount of steak you get. While I love elevated tacos over ground beef tacos, they do tend to bump up the budget. But thankfully, as with many of our favorite recipes like fried fish tacos, shrimp tacos, and carne asada tacos, it’s easy to make restaurant-quality dishes in your own kitchen… And save money!
If you’re looking to make the most amazing steak tacos at home, you need to start with an incredible marinade. The simple combination of fresh ingredients gives steak a bold and zesty flavor that is perfect to stand up to all sorts of taco toppings like shredded cheese, pico de gallo, guacamole, and salsa!
While You’ll Love This Marinade for Tacos
- Your choice of beef – This marinade for tacos is perfect to tenderize tougher and more budget-friendly cuts of meat, like skirt steak or flank steak.
- Incredible flavor – We combine citrus juices with fresh cilantro, garlic, spices, and a hint of brown sugar for a steak marinade that’s bright, savory, tangy, and slightly sweet.
- Versatile steak – We’re using the beef to make classic tacos, but you can use it to make steak burritos, taco salads, or burrito bowls!
You’ll definitely add this recipe to your Taco Tuesday lineup! And Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and…
Ingredients and Tips
- Steak – This marinade is fabulous with your choice of flank steak, skirt steak, hanger, bavette, or even sirloin steak if you’re feeling a bit fancier.
- Liquids – We use soy sauce, orange juice, and fresh lime juice. Fresh-squeezed juice is best, but not totally necessary.
- Cilantro and garlic – These two ingredients give the marinade a pop of freshness and add deep Mexican food flavors.
- Spices – A simple blend of ground cumin, chili powder, and dried oregano.
- Brown sugar – This helps to tenderize the meat further, and balances the bold savory flavors of the spices and steak.
- Habanero peppers – Totally optional, but we love the heat that habaneros bring to marinated steak!
How to Make Steak Taco Marinade
Tip for Success – You can cook the steak either on a grill or in a hot skillet. Either way, heat the grill/skillet to medium-high, between 400-450°F.
Find the full Steak Taco Marinade recipe with detailed instructions, storage tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Serving Suggestions
Move the steak to a cutting board after cooking, and allow to rest for several minutes so the juices settle and distribute evenly throughout the meat. Then cut the steak into thin slices, against the grain for the best texture. You can then chop it up even more to make smaller street tacos with steak, if you like!
Pile the steak onto flour or corn tortillas and load on your favorite taco toppings (see below). You can also add the pieces of meat onto taco salads or fajita salads, burritos or lower carb burrito bowls. Or simply enjoy it with your favorite Tex-Mex side dishes like street corn salad, papas bravas (fried Mexican potatoes), or verde rice.
Best Toppings for Tacos
- Shredded cheese or crumbled cotija cheese
- Fresh pico de gallo
- Homemade salsa like spicy salsa matcha, more mild avcado tomatillo salsa verde, vibrant roasted tomato salsa, or our famous classic homemade aalsa recipe.
- Avocado slices or guacamole
- Sour cream or Mexican crema
- Other fresh toppings like chopped cilantro, diced onions, or sliced green onions
Storage Notes
- Storing Leftovers – Discard any used marinade immediately after removing the pieces of raw meat. After cooking, the marinated steak will keep well for up to 3-4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Freezing – You can freeze cooked steak for up to 3 months. After it cools, place the meat in a freezer-safe plastic ziploc bag, and squeeze all of the air out before sealing and freezing.
- Reheating – I suggest lightly reheating pieces of steak in a skillet on the stovetop. Trying to reheat meat in the microwave runs the risk of it becoming overcooked and dry.
Frequently Asked Questions
To get the flank steak or skirt steak super tender for tacos it should be in the marinade for at least 4 hours, but no longer than 24 hours. Any longer than a day, and the meat will get over-tenderized and mushy.
No, not quite… Our carne asada marinade recipe doesn’t include orange juice or soy sauce, and instead uses pungent fish sauce. The flavor is more savory than in this brighter marinade recipe.
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Steak Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds steak flank, skirt, hanger, bavette, or sirloin steak
- ½ cup soy sauce GF if needed
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 bunch cilantro about 1 cup leaves
- 4-6 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder or ground ancho chile
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Optional: 1-2 habanero peppers or 1-2 jalapenos
Instructions
- Tenderize the Meat: Use a fork to poke holes over the entire surface of the steak, on both sides. OR use a meat mallet to hammer the meat on both sides. Place the steak in a large baking dish (or a large Ziploc bag) to marinate.
- Make the Taco Marinade: Set out a blender or food processor. Add the soy sauce, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro, garlic cloves, brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, and dried oregano. If you want to spice things up, add 1-2 chili peppers, stems removed. Purée the ingredients until they are smooth.
- Marinate the Steak: Pour the marinade over the steak and move the steak around so it's coated on all sides. Cover the dish (or zip the bag) and place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, but up to 24 hours.
- Cook the Meat: You can cook the steak either on a grill or in a hot skillet. Either way, heat the grill/skillet to medium-high, between 400-450°F. When the grill or pan is hot, carefully oil the grates, or add a little oil to the pan. Cook the steak for 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness – 3 minutes per side for thinner cuts of steak under 1 inch thick, or 5 minutes per side for thicker cuts. Allow the meat to rest for at least 5 minutes after cooking.
- To Serve: Move the steak to a cutting board. Cut the steak into thin slices, against the grain for the best texture. Pile the steak onto tortillas and add your favorite taco toppings.
Notes
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- Storing Leftovers – Discard any used marinade immediately after removing the pieces of raw meat. After cooking, the marinated steak will keep well for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
-
- Freezing – You can freeze cooked steak for up to 3 months. After it cools, place the meat in a freezer-safe plastic ziploc bag, and squeeze all of the air out before sealing and freezing.
-
- Reheating – I suggest lightly reheating pieces of steak in a skillet on the stovetop. Reheating meat in the microwave risks overcooking and drying it out.
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- Shredded cheese or crumbled cotija cheese
- Fresh pico de gallo
- Homemade salsa like spicy salsa matcha, more mild tomatillo avocado salsa verde, or vibrant roasted tomato salsa
- Avocado slices or guacamole
- Sour cream or Mexican crema
- Other fresh toppings like chopped cilantro, diced white onion, or sliced green onions
