My Mom’s 5-Ingredient Puerto Rican Steak Dinner Cooks in Under 15 Minutes

Bistec encebollado—Puerto Rican steak and onions—was a quintessential weeknight dinner in my home growing up. As a kid, I always looked forward to this savory, tangy, and tender steak, though I would often push the tender-crisp browned onions aside on my plate for my mom and dad to pick at during dinner. But trust me, now that I’m older I enjoy those flavorful onions just as much as the steak. 

And now with hungry young mouths of my own to feed (as my new role as bonus mom), school weeknight dinners are a bit chaotic. Luckily, my mom is always there to help, answering my texts and phone calls, and she’s even given me recipe suggestions: Her bistec encebollado that I grew up loving is now also one of my family’s favorites and part of our weekly dinner routine. I appreciate how easy and fast this dish is to prepare—beyond the steak and onions you need just a handful of basic pantry ingredients, and everything cooks in under 15 minutes (minus the hands-off marination time).

Selecting and Preparing the Steaks

Cube steak is what is traditionally used for Puerto Rican bistec encebollado, and it’s the cut I prefer to use in my recipe below. Cube steak, also sometimes sold as cubed steak or minute steak, is a tough cut of beef, usually from the top or bottom round, that has been mechanically tenderized, often done with a “Swissing machine” or a meat cuber, to create indentations on the surface of the steak. It’s cheap, accessible for me, and already cut and prepped, which means less work in the kitchen.

Because it’s a tougher, less fatty cut of beef than more expensive cuts like rib-eye, slicing it thinly makes sense—this shortens the muscle fibers, making them more tender and easier to chew. I can easily find thin cube steaks at my local market, but if it’s unavailable where you live you should be able to find top or bottom round steak—cut either into larger steaks or roasts—at most supermarkets and butchers. With the help of a butcher (or a sharp knife of your own), these roasts can be turned into half-inch thick fillets and pounded a quarter-inch thick, replicating the traditional cube steak. Even if starting with cube steak, it’s important to still pound the steaks briefly to ensure even thickness and to tenderize further before marinating.

Why You Should Marinate Your Steaks for Bistec Encebollado

As Tim Chin discusses at length in his Serious Eats deep dive into marinating meat, most marinades rely on two key ingredients: salt and acid. Salt over time deeply seasons the steak and ensures it will retain more moisture once cooked. This is especially helpful for leaner, thinner cuts like the one used here. As for the acid, bistec encebollado relies on distilled white vinegar. Not only does vinegar impart a bright, tangy flavor that’s a signature of this dish, but with just a little time—at least one hour or up to 12 hours—it tenderizes the steaks. Just be careful not to let the meat sit in the acidic marinade much longer than the maximum suggested time of 12 hours, as the acid may turn the meat mushy.

The seasonings beyond the salt and vinegar are simple—just garlic powder, oregano, and black pepper. The flavors of these additional seasonings won’t penetrate the meat—they’re just a surface treatment—but with the steaks cut so thin, a surface treatment is a huge flavor boost. I toss the onions in with the steak marinade as well to streamline the prep and to enhance the flavor of the onions.

Cooking the Steak and Onions

Once marinated, the steaks are cooked and then set aside to rest while the onions are fried quickly in the same skillet. High heat is your friend here, so working quickly with a preheated pan is going to be your best bet to ensure even color on your steaks. It also helps develop fond, those good brown bits at the bottom of a pan that add additional flavor and color to your dish (this fond is then scraped up and folded into the onions). The onions should soften slightly, but still retain some of their crisp bite—that texture is another hallmark of this dish.

Serve the steaks topped with these tender-crisp onions. I grew up eating bistec encebollado with steamed white rice and stewed beans, but the dish also pairs well with a nice green salad. With this simple and nostalgic recipe in my weeknight dinner rotation, I find it’s easier to plan ahead and get dinner ready. And the rave reviews from my kids is the cherry on top—or I guess the onions on top in this case.

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