So, you’ve cooked up some smoky-sweet tenderloin filets or reverse sear-strip steaks when you were hangry, and now you have a bunch of leftover steak and random ingredients on your hands. We don’t blame you. It happens to the best of us. (Or, maybe you’re wondering, who doesn’t eat all of their steak?! We see you. But, you’ll want to be prepared in case your eyes really are bigger than your stomach, at some point.)
The good news? You don’t have to let all of that delicious beef go to waste—nobody has time for that, and throwing food out isn’t good for the environment. Below, we’ll share tips for reheating leftover steak and some recipes for when you’ve got a Chopped situation on your hands.
How to Reheat Leftover Steak
You want to get double duty out of your steak, and you don’t want to mess it up. We get it. Luckily, beef is pretty forgiving, and there are a number of ways you can cook it to fully bring out the juicy, beefy flavors and feed your inner carnivore. The method you choose mainly depends on what you’re going to do with your steak, but here are a few general ways:
- In the oven. Reheating steak in the oven is one of the most tried and true methods. Set your oven to 325°F, and once it’s preheated, place your steak on a baking sheet with a wire rack and cover it loosely with foil. Cook the steak until it reaches 165°F for at least 15 seconds (we know, it’s hard to wait, especially when it comes to steak! But this is important for food safety). From there, you can remove the steak and serve it, or sear the steak in a heated skillet (make sure to add butter or oil first).
- On the stove. This is perfect if you want to save time while keeping that delicious sear on your steak. Simply put a pan over medium heat on the stove and add a bit of oil. Then, add your steak and cover the pan, cooking for about 6 minutes and flipping the steak every minute or so. Avoid cooking the steak too long if you want it to retain its juiciness. You can also add some beef broth to the pan for extra beefy flavor.
- In the microwave (yes, you read that right). It might sound weird. Microwaves are great when you’re short on time and want to heat up a Hot Pocket (or Hot Pockets, yes, we’ve all done it). But who’d microwave steak? And how do you avoid drying it out or overcooking it?
Hear us out. You can microwave your steak and eat it, too. First, cover the steak with a damp paper towel (bonus points if you use gravy or meat juices instead of water). This will retain the moisture. Heat the steak for about two minutes, but don’t just set it and forget it—cook the steak in 30-second intervals and flip the steak in between. Then, voila! You’ve recreated your tender, juicy steak.
Okay, so now you know the general methods. But what do you do with marinaded steak and other ingredients?
Here are a few ideas.
1. Leftover tenderloin? Make a breakfast hash.
Those smoky sweet tenderloin filets we mentioned earlier? They’re tasty to eat the leftovers as is, but if you want to switch it up and you have a few Yukon Gold potatoes and a couple eggs hanging around, you can combine them into a tasty breakfast hash (feel free to throw in some tomato or that lone pepper that’s on the verge of going bad, too). This dish is fairly easy, as you’re really just reheating ingredients and mixing a few new ones into a delicious hash.
Ingredients:
3-4 Eggs
Leftover steak, sliced
1 Bell pepper
1 Onion
2 Yukon potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
Salt, pepper, parsley
Directions:
Cube leftover steak and Yukon potatoes and cook your bell pepper and onions. Throw all the ingredients into a cast iron skillet (with a tablespoon of butter), cook until warm, and top with scrambled or over-easy eggs.
2. Use leftover steak skewers for Korean BBQ sandwiches.
Grilled Food and Sachi’s Korean BBQ Skewers for dinner last night? Of course, you can reheat the skewers on the grill or in the oven, but if you have some rolls or a baguette you need to use up, the marinaded ribeye goodness and bell peppers makes for a great Korean-inspired sandwich for lunch.
Ingredients:
Leftover ribeye, peppers, and onions
Rolls, baguette, or even some wraps
BBQ sauce/leftover marinade
Other stuff to throw in you have it:
Jalapeños
Slaw
Cheddar cheese
Directions:
Slice the leftover ribeye into smaller pieces and heat with peppers in the oven, a pan, or the microwave. Toast the rolls (or whatever your sandwich medium is) and once ingredients are heated, pile them onto the bread and top with cheddar, slaw, jalapeños, or whatever else floats your boat.
3. Make beef stroganoff with leftover strip steak.
You tried one of our favorite recipes by Whitney Reist, Reverse-Sear Strip Steak with Mushroom Cream Sauce, and you don’t want to let Whitney down. We got you. Leftovers from this recipe are perfect for beef stroganoff, especially since we all get a little overzealous in our pasta-making endeavors sometimes. So, if you have a lonely Tupperware of noodles in your fridge waiting for the sauce that will never appear to appear, or just have an extra box laying around in your pantry, stroganoff is a good way to go.
Ingredients:
Leftover strip steak and mushroom cream sauce
Pasta (egg noodles, fettuccine, angel hair all work) or rice
Parmesan
Directions:
Cut steak into smaller pieces and cook some noodles. While you’re doing that, heat up your steak and mushroom cream sauce in a saucepan, and once everything is cooked/heated, serve steak and mushroom sauce over noodles, top with parmesan, and enjoy!
Out of mushroom cream sauce? Check out this recipe for Easy Beef Stroganoff.
Dig in!
Now that we’ve given you a few ideas for getting even MORE out of the One True Beef, we hope you can see that leftovers don’t have to be boring, especially when they come with beef! So, dig in, enjoy, and repeat!
Try one of the recipes above or have your own creation to share? Tag us on social and we’ll give you a shoutout!
