Chimichurri Sauce (and Marinade!)

8 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Chimichurri sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you’ll enjoy all summer long. You’ll love this traditional Mexican chimichurri as the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.

We love Chimichurri sauce served over everything, but over a good Ribeye Steak is basically the answer to my steak dreams. This chimichurri is actually our secret weapon to freshen up the flavors in our Ultimate Slow Cooker Pot Roast and Slow Cooker Roast Beef (Sliceable!).

Chimichurri Sauce on top of steak

Chimichurri Inspiration

I didn’t intend to post my chimichurri sauce recipe. What I had planned, was to do just a ribeye and sauce topping. However, earlier this month I was lucky enough (seriously, this was basically the best trip ever) to be invited to Orlando, FL to the Universal Resort. I was pampered and spoiled within an inch of my life thanks to Universal Orlando. On this trip, I had probably the most delicious chimichurri steak of my life. It made me crave chimichurri sauce like crazy afterward.

Thanks to that trip I actually made this chimichurri marinade recipe in 6x the original quantity, and two summer grilling parties later, I’m still not tired of it. No joke, this is the best chimichurri sauce recipe EVER.

More about Orlando

In case you’re wondering more about my inspiration to post about this delicious Chimichurri Sauce, it was this delicious post from my amazing trip to Orlando. We were enjoying a fabulous meal at Mythos Restaurant and the menu had a Beef Medallions with Chimichurri. I was immediately sold.

We were hosted by Universal Orlando and had an absolute blast. We stayed at the Cabana Bay Resort which is one of Universal’s Resort properties and the most amazing blast to the past with 1950’s beach decor. The rooms were so much fun and the food was fantastic. Cabana Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando

And we had an absolute blast and felt literally like kids in a candy store at Toothsome for dinner. We had shakes and delicious food and fun appetizers. Then we browsed around the amazing Candy shop in the front of the restaurant. Each of us ordered different shakes which were all the size of our head, and even though we were full from dinner we enjoyed every last bite!Toothsome Restaurant in Universal Orlando

Thanks to Universal Orlando, Squatty Potty, and Kia for the amazing cars you guys allowed us to roam Orlando in!

What is Chimichurri?

What is Chimichurri sauce? It’s a sauce or marinade that is essentially olive oil and vinegar with very finely chopped fresh herbs, spices and garlic. If you were to add mayonnaise instead of olive oil, or even just half mayonnaise and half olive oil, you’d have a very flavorful salad dressing. Chimichurri is traditionally used in Mexican or South American cooking for grilled meat. Most importantly, it will pretty much change your grilling life. In just five minutes, you’ll have a sauce so delicious you’ll want to top it on every. single. thing. in your house.

Chimichurri sauce in bowl with red chili flakes

How to Use Chimichurri Sauce

You can use chimichurri for any kind of meat, to flavor rice, salsa, or as I said – to make a salad dressing. But one of my favorite ways to use chimichurri sauce is on a delicious steak. Most Brazilian and Argentinian restaurants you go to have chimichurri steak and they’re serving it usually with sliced flap meat (skirt steak) or ribeye cuts. I’m not partial to one or the other since those are my two favorite steak cuts of meat.

Fun random fact, the best cut of meat EVER is the deckle. This is the cap that goes around the top of the ribeye steak and if you come to our house and your steak is accidentally missing the cap you can rest assured I stole it. I’m not even sorry <– I love Joey.

Last summer we actually had a cookout with an entire deckle covered in this chimichurri sauce and people literally just stood around the cutting board eating the meat faster than it could cool off.

Chimichurri marinade or sauce served with meat

How to Make Chimichurri Sauce

So, wondering how to make chimichurri? It is basically the easiest sauce you’re going to make.

  • You put all the ingredients, cilantro, parsley, vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, olive oil and garlic into a food processor for 10 seconds.
  • You can absolutely eat it immediately, but if you can give the sauce 20 or so minutes to sit the garlic, it will perfume the whole mixture.
  • You top it on every single thing in your kitchen and eat as much of it as you can.

more Recipes With Chimichurri Sauce and Marinade

Chimichurri in bowl to use as sauce or marinade

Tools USED TO MAKE Chimichurri Sauce and Marinade

  • Food Processor: This is the newer version of the one I have used and loved for ten years. It is a workhorse and the new model has similarly awesome reviews…and it is so affordable!
  • AllSpice Spice Rack: I use this spice rack and fill up the bottles with freshly purchased spices and it’s basically one of the most beautiful things in my kitchen. When you’re working with a large number of spices, not having to hunt and peck through your cupboards makes everything go at warp speed.

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Chimichurri Sauce

Chimichurri Sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you'll enjoy all summer long that is the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Course Marinade, Sauce
Cuisine Brazilian
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 cup fresh parsley flat leaf
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions

  • Add all the ingredients to your food processor.
  • Pulse or run the food processor for 10-15 seconds.
  • Don't run too long or the mixture will lose texture and become a creamy sauce.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Also originally seen on ?Argentinian Chimichurri

Nutrition

Calories: 126kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 154mg | Potassium: 56mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 805IU | Vitamin C: 10.9mg | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 0.7mg
Keyword: Chimichurri (Easy Sauce & Marinade)
Chimichurri Sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you'll enjoy all summer long that is the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.
Chimichurri Sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you'll enjoy all summer long that is the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.
Chimichurri Sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you'll enjoy all summer long that is the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.
Chimichurri Sauce is an addicting, crazy easy marinade and sauce you'll enjoy all summer long that is the perfect topping (and marinade) to all things grilled.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I absolutely love this, I have marinated steaks with it, added it to my hamburger meat before cooking, added Greek yogurt and used it as a dip. I am a sauce person and this is by far my favorite all around sauce!

    1. Thanks for catching that. No onion was used in this recipe. I’ve edited to read correctly now. Enjoy!

  2. Pedro is correct. Chimichurri is not mexican. It is from Argentina. You can subsitute different herbs tho. Sometimes I add fresh basil along with the parsley. Cilantro is more of a mexican herb so I would say no to that as well.

    1. Chimichurri is from Argentina. No Mexico or Brazil.
      And is just parsley and spices with garlic
      No cilantro…No

  3. I just go all googoo over every recipe you post!!! Your pictures are beautiful and your foods seem delightful! Excited to try this chuimichurri sauce!!!

  4. It was so great to see you again! This Chimichurri looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it 🙂

  5. This looks amazing, I’m all about chimichurri this summer too. It’s so good and versatile like crazy. I could eat it over steak every day of my life and never get sick of it.

  6. I hear ya, chimichurri sauce is super addicting! It’s so delicious. We can’t wait to try your recipe (and for BBQ weather!)