Apr 6, 2010

Vietnamese-Style Steak

One of our favorite cookbooks of all time is Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2006), a compendium of the best of Vietnamese home cooking. We featured this recipe in our special Steak issue (June/July 2007).

Credit: Andr� Baranowski

6 tbsp. Maggi seasoning sauce
6 tbsp. canola oil
1 1⁄2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
12 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 top sirloin steaks (about 3 lbs. in all)
Rice

1. Stir together Maggi seasoning sauce, oil, pepper, and garlic in a wide, shallow dish. Add steaks; rub all over with marinade. Cover; let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Remove steaks from marinade; scrape off most of the garlic. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add 1 steak and cook until well browned, 3–4 minutes; flip steak and cook until medium rare, 2–3 minutes more.

3. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil. Repeat process with remaining steak. Thinly slice both steaks across the grain. Serve with rice, any accumulated juices (Nguyen likes to stir her rice in the skillet with the pan juices), and a dash or two more of Maggi seasoning sauce.

SERVES 4 – 6

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #103

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Ratings & Reviews (6)

by rodglamont on 2008-02-03

this recipe introduced me to maggi seasoning which i had seen on the grocery shelves for years but never tried. a sort of celery flavoured sauce that turns this steak along with plenty of garlic into an amazing steak dish. one of the best steak recipes i've ever tried. flavour, flavour, flavour!

by LIZMARYANN on 2010-10-28

Good but I found it salty and it didn't even marinate for a full half hour.
I may have to add just 4 or 5 tbsp of the
Maggi seasoning next time.

by marylyn916 on 2012-07-09

I agree with LIZMARYANN - way too salty. According to the nutrition label, 1 t of Maggi Seasoning has 500 mg of sodium. So the 6 T called for in the recipe has 9000 mg of sodium! That's nearly 4 times the daily recommended intake of 2400 mg.

by RROPPMD on 2012-07-09

Anybody with an international flair and some cooking knowledge knows Maggi. This recipe is not what I would call Vietnamese. My wife has been using Maggi for years and any cook in Mexico knows Maggi as well as many Europeans.

by SNGAST2002 on 2012-07-10

9000 mg of sodium divided by 4 to 6 servings..... one person does not consume the whole 9000 mg. ...also. the steaks are removed from the marinade and it drains off while you are scraping off the garlic ...so not all the marinade remains in the whole dish.

by FOODFANCIER on 2012-08-07

This is a very tasty dish although I, too, reduced the Maggi seasoning to 4 tablespoons because of the sodium. While many people associate Maggi with Asian cooking, when I lived in Germany I found it an extremely popular spice there. Those who are MSG-sensitive should probably avoid using Maggi.

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