Nước Chấm Marinated Skirt Steak

We love food that not only make your feel good, but also makes you say, “Wow. When can I have that again?”

While there is a lot to love about marinated meats, we find ourselves coming back to this recipe when we are looking for a flavorful, balanced meal.

This is probably because it embodies a couple of our 2020 Food Resolutions for the New Year. It’s a great way to spread your meat intake across multiple meals and is the perfect incentive to purchase local, farm-raised beef. While any skirt steak can be used, if you have the means, invest in good quality beef and thank us later.

Inspiration

It starts with a genuine love and appreciation for nước chấm. During our visit to Vietnam, we took multiple cooking courses in which we learned to make this staple. Since then, it very well may be the sauce we make the most frequently (well after our first love of peanut sauce of course).

Bringing nước chấm into our kitchen has been a transformational experience, bringing excitement to even the most mundane leftovers, and it is easy to see why.

It is the ultimate balance of flavor profiles. It’s sweet, spicy, salty, acidic, sour, and umami. But what makes it so special is that these flavors live in a union with each other. Nothing is out of balance, or reliant on any single flavor to carry the dish.

As a condiment, it pairs very well with grilled meats and fresh vegetables. So well, that one day we had the audacity to ask ourselves: “What would happen if we just marinated meant IN nước chấm instead of WITH it??”

Things got even even crazier when we had the audacity to ask ourselves: “What would happen if we reduced the leftover marinade?”

Now using nước chấm as marinade and reduced sauce are not considered traditional means of preparation. In Vietnamese, “nuoc” means “water” and “cham” means “to dip.” While we may have deviated from that original preparation, we very much enjoy the result.

Why You’ll Love it

Imagine everything that is perfect about nước chấm. Now imagine if you could impart that flavor INTO a steak. Not only is it flavorful, but it works really well to produce a better cut of meat in the end.

The acid from the limes and salt from the fish sauce work extremely well in breaking down the muscle fibers in the steak to ensure the final product is tender and moist. Combining this with the sweetness from sugar, spice from the peppers, and natural meatiness of the steak, you have all 5 flavor profiles in each bite.

Lettuce wraps + daikon pickles + radish + pickled cucumbers + scallions + carrot/daikon slaw + cilantro = Good times

Even better, we love to pair this with fresh vegetables and pickles for lettuce wraps, making it truly a balanced meal.

Nuoc Cham Marinated Skirt Steak

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes (plus marinating time)
Servings: 4 servings | About 1 pound

Ingredients:

1 pound skirt steak
6 limes, juiced
6 garlic cloves, grated
4 tablespoons fish sauce
6 tablespoons sugar
4 thai chili peppers, thinly sliced

Instructions:

Juice limes into a small bowl (add the zest if you are feeling fancy).

Grate garlic gloves into bowl with lime juice. Add fish sauce, sugar, and sliced chili peppers.

Whisk in bowl until sugar is dissolved, adjusting nuoc cham to taste as needed.

Place skirt steak in a large Ziplock bag and cover with marinade. Put bag in refrigerator until ready to cook (anywhere from 2 - 24 hours).

Remove steak from marinade and place reserve marinade in a small sauce pan. Pat dry steak with paper towel. If using grill, preheat. If cooking indoors (grill pan or cast iron pan), add canola oil and heat over medium until shimmering.

Place skirt steak over grill grates/pan and cook until well charred, about 3 minutes.

Once steak has been charred, flip and continue to cook until internal temperature has reached: 125 for medium rare, 135 for medium.

Let rest for 5 - 10 minutes. Slice and serve with pickles and everything fun.

While resting, heat saucepan over medium heat and reduce marinade until coats the back of a spoon, about half. Set aside and serve as dipping sauce.

Chef Notes:
Nước chấm is intended to be a uniquely personal sauce. While our proportions are done to our liking, feel free to adjust if you feel it needs more heat, spice, salt, or acid.

Cooking down the marinate adds to the complexity of the dipping sauce by changing the texture and flavor profile. With the flavor of the nước chấm imparted into the meat, it adds another variation on this flavor profile.

We like to serve this as the centerpiece for lettuce wraps or summer rolls because the brightness and crunch.