Do you enjoy your steak medium well to well done? Want your steak to turn out perfect every time, with this recipe you won’t be disappointed! The salt and soy sauce lends a hand in tenderizing while the air fryer does its magic in turning out a nice, caramelized protein-rich cut of juicy sirloin meat.
These juicy steak bites are the bomb when accompanied by rice, noodles, a stir fry or even kabobs. Use them in their simplest form and serve them with mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and an oven-roasted broccoli or roasted asparagus side dish to accompany this steak bites recipe.
This recipe is quick and easy to make. With just a few ingredients and a little prep time, you’ll have dinner on the table in under 20 minutes.
If you’re new to air frying, let me be the first to welcome you! Most air fryers have a preheat setting that helps to speed up cooking time and ensure even frying. In this case we are going to set the air fryer to 400. In addition, the batch does not need to be flipped halfway through cooking. Air fryers are like convection ovens, this means they work better when you add oil or shortening to the food.
How to Make Steak Bites
Prepare the Marinade
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. This simple but flavorful marinade will add a savory, umami depth to the steak, enhancing its natural richness.
Cut the Steak
Take a well-marbled cut of steak, such as ribeye or sirloin, and slice it into bite-sized pieces, roughly 1 ½-inch by 1-inch. These smaller portions ensure the meat cooks evenly and quickly, resulting in tender and juicy steak bites.
Marinate the Steak
Add the steak pieces to the bowl of marinade, ensuring each piece is well-coated. Toss the steak gently in the mixture, making sure all sides absorb the flavors. Let the steak sit for at least 10 minutes to allow the flavors to penetrate the meat. For an even bolder taste, you can marinate the steak for up to 30 minutes.
Preheat the Air Fryer
While the steak is marinating, preheat your air fryer to 400°F. Preheating is crucial as it helps the steak cook more evenly and gives it a nice, crispy exterior while keeping the inside juicy.
Cook the Steak Bites
Once preheated, carefully arrange the marinated steak bites in the air fryer basket, making sure they are in a single layer with some space between each piece. This allows the air to circulate freely, ensuring an even cook. Depending on the size of your air fryer, you may need to cook in batches.
Air Fry to Perfection
Cook the steak bites for 7-12 minutes, depending on how well done you prefer your steak. For medium-rare, aim for closer to 7 minutes; for well-done, go up to 12 minutes. About halfway through cooking, shake the basket to ensure even browning on all sides. Once done, the steak bites should be beautifully seared on the outside and tender on the inside. Serve immediately and enjoy!
What Ingredients do I need?
- Sirloin Steak: A cut of steak that is leaner and contains a higher amount of protein and because of this they are not as robust as a cut containing higher fat like a ribeye. Cut into bite size pieces or strips. Cuts besides sirloin steak can include new york strip steak, and beef tenderloin.
- Vegetable Oil: Oil helps the soy to spread and coat the meat more evenly as well as retain more moisture. It’s important to use some oil to make steak bites in the air fryer.
- Black Pepper: Ground black pepper adds some much needed flavor to the beef meat as well as some heat.
- Salt: When salt is used with meat it helps draw the water out of the cut and in turn tenderizes it. In addition, I always salt and pepper my steak. Sometimes, I will add garlic salt in place of salt and add a tab of butter once it is done cooking.
- Soy Sauce: Rich in glutamates, soy sauce will make your meat more tender and taste more robust while adding caramelization. Since soy sauce is loaded with sodium, feel free to use low-sodium soy sauce but I prefer my steak on the salty side as it enhances the flavor even more.
Are there any different variations you recommend?
- Onions: Add some cut up white or yellow onions to your bowl of sauce and toss well
before cooking. - Mushrooms: Steak and mushrooms go hand in hand. Simply add the mushrooms to the bowl to coat in the sauce with a little more oil and air fry them along with the pieces of steak.
- Spices: Other spices that go great with soy sauce are garlic, ginger, paprika, cumin, coriander, chili powder, lemon juice, and toasted sesame seeds. Sometimes I like to garnish with parsley.
- Sauces: Serve the steak bites with a chimichurri sauce, hummus, tzatziki sauce, A1 sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard cream, butter garlic sauce made with fresh garlic or garlic powder, steak Diane sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or Cajun butter sauce.
- Cheese: I can’t get enough of blue cheese crumbles on my steak. Once it’s done cooking, add some blue cheese crumbles to the steak and allow it to slightly melt into the meat. Many famous steakhouses now offer this option and it’s one that I really do like. It add a tangy sharp taste to the steak.
- Butter: Toss the air fryer steak in a bowl with butter once it’s done cooking. Not only will this ingredient add moisture, but flavor to it as well.
- Garlic: If marinating, add the garlic at the beginning to lock in even more garlic flavor and then cook it according to the recipe directions. If you’re like me and enjoy raw garlic, mince the garlic and toss it in a bowl with a little melted butter to serve over the beef while plating it for dinner.
Other Cuts of Meat for Steak Bites
One of our favorite variations of meat to use for this recipe is Beef Tenderloin. The bites pack a ton of flavor and are nice and tender. Another option is to use NY Strip steak. When using NY Strip you will want to either make long strips with the backfat for flavor, or you can completely remove it. I have tried using a ribeye with this recipe and it really did not come out to my satisfaction. I am a huge rib eye fan, but I prefer mine medium-rare and coming out on a hot plate.
- Beef Tenderloin
- Filet Mignot
- NY Strip
How to Serve?
Serve this recipe over a bed of steamed white rice, fried rice, or noodles like this vegetable lo mein. In addition, this recipe is great with a side dish of vegetables, or brussels sprouts. Of course, a crunchy green salad is also a great choice.
If you’re looking to host a small get together, make a double batch and serve the bites with a toothpick and a variety of dipping sauces such as blue cheese, ranch, western, honey mustard, or garlic butter sauce.
Reader Questions and Tips About Steak Bites
Should I marinate the steak overnight?
The marinated meat will have time to soak up the sauce during the preheating of the air fryer. If you would like you wait 4 hours to maximize the flavor the meat needs to be put back in the refrigerator. It is not necessary to marinate overnight but if you are prepping for a party, you can certainly do this, and it will not harm the meat. Again, be sure to refrigerate.
Should I poke holes in the steak to make it more tender and absorb more sauce?
Don’t ever poke holes in your meat to marinate. You will make the meat lose it’s juices and it’s natural flavoring.
Can I control how done my steak bites are?
Yes, if you want to pull out a piece of meat and check it at the 8 or 9 minute mark you can do this. Simply cut a piece in half but be sure to taste it to make sure the meat isn’t tough if you are going for a rarer piece.
Does it matter which oil I use?
No, any oil, a form of fat, helps extend the soy sauce to evenly distribute so no one piece of meat has an overwhelming soy sauce taste.
What type of Air Fryer do you have?
I have the Cosori Air Fryer.
What cut of beef should I use?
You can literally use ANY cut of beef. If you need to cook on a budget, but really want steak, you can use chuck roast. If you want something a little better, then you can use sirloin. My cut of meat for steak bites is Beef Tenderloin.
Some Tips and Tricks
Cooking steak in an air fryer is a quick and convenient method. Preheat the air fryer, season the steak, and place it in the basket. Cook at a high temperature for a few minutes on each side until desired doneness. Rest the steak before serving for optimal juiciness and tenderness.
Air fryer steak medium-rare: you are definitely going to want to shorten the cook time from 12 minutes to 7 minutes. I would also suggest lowering the Air Fryer temperature from 400 degrees to 380 degrees. I would also recommend that if you are looking for a particular “doneness” that it would be best to keep the steak whole before putting it into the air fryer. This way you can ensure that your steaks internal temperature will not exceed that perfect air fryer steak you are looking for.
Looking for an Air Fryer? Check out this Cosori Air Fryer. It is the same one I use!
Air Fryer Juicy Steak Bites
Ingredients
- 2 lb sirloin steak cut into 1½-inch by 1-inch
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1½ tsp ground black pepper
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Cut steak into 1½-inch by 1-inch pieces.
- Whisk together oil, pepper, salt, and soy sauce.
- Add steak to bowl and toss together with sauce until coated.
- Preheat air fryer.
- Cook in air fryer at 400°F for 7-12 minutes. 7 minutes = more rare / 12 minutes = medium-well
- Serve as main dish along with steamed rice, vegetables, or noodles.
Video
Notes
- Onions: Add some cut up white or yellow onions to your bowl of sauce and toss well
before cooking. - Mushrooms: Steak and mushrooms go hand in hand. Simply add the mushrooms to the bowl to coat in the sauce with a little more oil and air fry them along with the pieces of steak.
- Spices: Other spices that go great with soy sauce are garlic, ginger, paprika, cumin, coriander, chili powder, lemon juice, and toasted sesame seeds.
- Sauces: Serve the steak bites with a chimichurri sauce, hummus, tzatziki sauce, A1 sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard cream, butter garlic sauce, steak Diane sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or Cajun butter sauce.
- Cheese: I can’t get enough of blue cheese crumbles on my steak. Once it’s done cooking, add some blue cheese crumbles to the steak and allow it to slightly melt into the meat. Many famous steakhouses now offer this option and it’s one that I really do like. It add a tangy sharp taste to the steak.
- Butter: Toss the air fryer steak in a bowl with butter once it’s done cooking. Not only will this ingredient add moisture, but flavor to it as well.
- Garlic: If marinating, add the garlic at the beginning to lock in even more garlic flavor and then cook it according to the recipe directions. If you’re like me and enjoy raw garlic, mince the garlic and toss it in a bowl with a little melted butter to serve over the beef while plating it for dinner.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate and it’s accuracy is not guaranteed to be exact.
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17 Responses
I made this a few weeks ago and loved it so much here I am again. The steak bites had such good flavor and was so tender. I did add butter at the end and it was amazing. Love love love this recipe
This was amazing!! I ended up adding minced garlic and some garlic powder with a little extra soy sauce, air frying for 10min and the steak was flavorful and tender. My entire family loved this so much and it was SO easy for someone like me, who is very intimidated by cooking a steak. Thank you!
I’m so glad to hear you and your family loved it! 😄 The addition of minced garlic and extra soy sauce sounds like a delicious twist—I’ll have to try that myself!
These steak bites were delicious! My husband’s exact words were “I don’t see the need to ever make steak at home any other way!” However, I do have to agree with other reviewers who said the times were too long. Every air fryer is different so make sure you monitor yours. I did 10 minutes hoping to get medium and they were WELL done. They still tasted nice and juicy though, so it wasn’t a waste. I only cooked my second batch 4.5 minutes and got medium.
Thank you for the comment. I am glad you and your husband enjoyed them =)
This recipe was incredible.
Excellent, I used beef tenderloin, marinated for few hours, Air Fried for 8 minutes, it was perfect. Served it
with sautéed onions and peppers over LoMein Noodles with a Beef Stir Fry Sauce. My Husband loved it!!
This was delicious! I used elk since that’s what I had on hand. Great flavor and so easy!
Can’t wait to make this!!
Bu I agree 12 minutes was to long. The steak was way to cooked. Next I’m taking 2 or 3 minutes off the cook time. So steak over cooked but it was still very tasty
Can this be done in the rotisserie basket in an oven style air fryer and if so any change to time or temperature?
I do not have one of those, but I am sure it could be.
12 minutes is too long unless you like your steak cooked well done.
Next time I’m dropping cooking time to 8 to 10 minutes.
This batch came out Medium-Well. If you are looking for Rare to Medium I would suggest 6-8 minutes.
Glad I read your comment. 1st time making & don’t like overdone!! Thanks.
Can’t wait to try these! Sound so good and quick and easy to make.
Very easy to make and easy to clean up!