Marinated Steak Karsón

When we grill steaks, we almost always go the traditional route. Just a sprinkle of salt right before it hits the grill. Maybe a little ground black pepper…but even that’s sometimes too much. However, a friend of ours turned us onto his marinated steak recipe (with an optional coffee rub), and we wanted to share it with you to celebrate the last days of summer. 

This recipe has more store-bought ingredients than is our norm, but in keeping with our tradition of sharing friends’ recipes that we have enjoyed over the years, we’re recording it here in our family recipe book/blog for posterity! 

A Marinated Steak Recipe 

Marinated steak on the grill is really not something our family has relied on in the past, let alone even thought of making. 

The closest we’ve come is our soy butter ribeye steak recipe, but that’s less of a marinade and more of a basting approach. 

So, when my childhood friend and high school buddy David introduced us to his friend and neighbor Chris Karson, and his marinated steak Karsón (fancy accent required), it showed us a different way of enjoying grilled ribeye.

Friend-tested and Approved 

You may remember David from our Mohonk Mountain hiking post. He’s also the original creator of our Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken recipe and family-favorite Restaurant Style Salsa recipe. Suffice it to say, he knows what tastes good. 

As it turns out, David’s neighbor, Chris Karson, was an old high school acquaintance (we all graduated from Liberty Central High in upstate New York). Chris was one year ahead of us and graduated with my sister Ginny, and we didn’t really hang out when we were kids.

But after years of living our separate lives, David reconnected with Chris when they moved onto the same street. The next thing we knew, we were sharing bonfire stories, swimming in his pool, and eating dinner at his house along with his lovely wife Tracy. 

As you may have guessed by now, Steak Karsón has often been the star of such dinners. Easy-to-make, delicious, and a welcome change of pace, Chris’s marinated steak was an immediate hit for me!

The Not-So-Secret Marinade & Coffee Rub 

So by now, you’re probably expecting a medley of secret spices! But Chris uses Stubbs Soy, Garlic & Red Pepper Marinade right out of the bottle. After marinating, he uses a coffee rub called Jake’s Grillin’ Beef Rub. 

When cooking on his gas grill, he also uses hickory chips to impart a smokier flavor to the steaks.

I’m not sure how this recipe came together, but Chris tells me that it almost made it onto a menu at a steakhouse owned by one of his friends!

How to Marinate Steak 

There are a few rules of thumb you can extract from this recipe. Chris marinates extra thick (1¾-inch or 4.5cm) ribeye steaks overnight.

He has his steaks cut at Butcher Boys in Monticello, NY, to ensure that he gets steaks that are the right thickness! Chris explained to us that steaks this thick allow you to get more char on the outside while still keeping a medium/medium/rare center. Any thicker, and you’ll have an overcooked outside and an undercooked center. 

He marinates his steak in a resealable ziplock bag. If you’d like to reduce your plastic usage, you can also marinate the steaks in a covered dish, and just flip them halfway through marinating to ensure coverage on both front and back.

Regardless of your approach—and it’s a bit of stating the obvious, but—the key is to get maximum contact between steak and marinade. If you’re short on time, let the steak marinate for at least an hour or two, but overnight is best.

We had a great time cooking and photographing the making of Steak Karsón right in our own backyard. It was a delicious steak dinner, accompanied by a bonfire. Chris supplied his acoustic guitar and singing skills with song requests from the group late into the night. (Did I say he was a multi-talented guy?) 

Please enjoy this marinated steak to celebrate the end of summer!

Marinated Steak Karsón Recipe Instructions

Place the steaks into a ziploc bag, along with the marinade. Press all the air out, making sure the entire surface of the steak is coated in marinade, front and back. Refrigerate and marinate overnight. 

1 to 2 hours before you’re ready to grill, take the steaks out of the fridge. Let them sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 hours. Preheat your grill until it’s searing hot! Aim for 450-500°F (230-260°C).

If using a gas or regular charcoal grill, place the hickory chips in a bit of heavy duty foil. Place in the grill (for gas, just place on the grate; for charcoal, nestle it among the briquettes). This will impart a smoky flavor to the steaks.

If using a grill with hardwood lump charcoal (which already gives the meat a smoky flavor), skip this step. We used our hardwood lump charcoal, and found that the hickory chips actually didn’t make a huge difference to the flavor, as the charcoal already adds a lot of smokiness!

Just before grilling the steaks, you can add the optional coffee rub. Adding coffee rub gives the steaks a different, more complex flavor, although some prefer more or less (see discussion above). How much you use is your preference! 

When the grill is hot, place the steaks on the grill and cover.

After a couple minutes, check the steaks. Turn them 45° to 90° to get those grill marks. Cover the grill again,  then flip them every 3 minutes, leaving the grill covered in between turns for 12 minutes total cooking time.

This will give you medium rare for a steak that’s 1.75 inches (4.5 cm) thick. If your steaks are thinner, you may need less time. If you’d like your steak cooked more well done, you can cook them a bit longer. Ribeye is actually one of those cuts that actually tastes pretty good at both medium rare and medium. 

To take the guesswork out of it, you can also use an instant read thermometer and follow this temperature guide: 

• 120°F for Rare 
• 130°F for Medium Rare
• 140°F for Medium
• 150°F for Medium Well 
• 160°F+ for Well Done

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