BOURBON HONEY STEAK TIPS
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Bourbon Honey Steak Tips – This recipe makes tender, succulent, flavorful, and easy steak tips that are perfect for a fast meal or hearty appetizer.
For a quick and easy dinner, I like to serve these with Creamy Mexican Kale Slaw or Tex Mex Coleslaw. These two side dishes are best made early and allowed to sit a few hours in the fridge.
BOURBON HONEY STEAK TIPS
These steak bites are slightly sweet, a little salty, and have a wonderful hint of bourbon. The marinade is spectacular. However, you don’t have to just use this marinade for steak tips, it’s great on a whole steak. For an 8 or 12 ounce steak, I recommend marinating it for 4 to 6 hours so the flavor really penetrates the protein.
THE SECRET TO PERFECT STEAK TIPS
- Marinating long enough.
- Cooking in a cast iron skillet.
- Cooking at a really high temperature.
These juicy, tender steak bites take only 10 minutes to make. However, for optimum flavor, I recommend marinating them for a couple of hours.
Searing in a really hot cast iron skillet until the outside is charred but the inside remains juicy really adds a jolt of flavor!
INGREDIENTS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
- Steak. If I’m going to eat steak, I eat good steak. I prefer filet, ribeye, or a strip steak for steak tips. For cheaper cuts, I recommend tri-tip or top sirloin. For cheaper cuts of beef, you can marinate them longer.
- Bourbon. You can use any bourbon of your choice. As with wine, I don’t use a bourbon when cooking that I wouldn’t drink. Subsequently, you can use whiskey, rum, brandy, or cognac. Red wine is another alternative. Furthermore, the alcohol dissipates leaving only the wonderful flavor. With that being said, I understand some readers don’t drink or cook with alcohol. You can get liquor extracts (aka liquor essence) that are formulated without alcohol (get them here). Add 1 teaspoon bourbon extract to 1/4 cup low-sodium beef broth for the most authentic replacement for bourbon in this recipe. If you don’t care about the bourbon flavor at all, you can simply use low-sodium beef broth. (get it here)
- Honey. You can substitute agave nectar, coconut sugar, or brown sugar.
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper. If you use ground pepper, do yourself a favor and purchase a pepper mill and black peppercorns! Freshly ground black pepper is 100x better than powdery pre-ground black pepper! (I LOVE this automatic pepper grinder. It runs off batteries. Most pepper mills will come filled with peppercorns then you simple reorder when it’s out. Don’t purchase a huge bag of peppercorns, like other spices they do get old and lose flavor. I like this brand of peppercorns.)
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Bourbon Honey Steak Tips
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds steak
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup bourbon
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic clove minced
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- See post above for substitutions
- In a bowl with a lid, whisk together honey, bourbon, soy, Worcestershire, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add steak cubes, seal, shake, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Heat your cast iron pan on medium-high heat. When it's hot add vegetable oil and butter. Once the oil and butter ripple, add steak.
- You probably need to cook it in a couple of batches. You don't want to crowd the pan so that the steak sear and don't steam.
- Cook until seared on all sides. Remove from pan. Pour pan drippings over the top.
- Garnish as desired.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
Made these for Mother’s Day 2025. One word… EPIC !! Slightly modified cooking style over high heat charcoal and reduced the marinade in a cast iron with butter on low boil until slightly thicker and spooned it over the top during plating. Remaining reduced sauce served in dipping dishes. Used New York steaks cut into cubes and skewered. Side was char grilled artichokes and baked potato.
LOVE this! Thank you – I even love your side choices! Thanks for commenting!
Can these bee made ahead of time?
Yes they can just be careful with them dry out
Is there a dipping sauce that you would recommend for these? Thanks!
We’ve never dipped them in sauce because they’re kinda juicy, but I think I’d like a creamy sauce if I did. Maybe this Chipotle ranch Buttermilk ranch, or Lulu’s wow sauce.
Is this bourbon sauce or straight whiskey? Wanna make tonight
The 1/4 cup bourbon is straight bourbon.
Could I add beef broth to this?
Yes
This recipe was probably the best thing I’ve ever cooked for my husband in the 30 years we’ve been married. Thank you for a perfect recipe and making me look like a rock star for once.