Air Fryer Cube Steak Recipe

This air fryer cube steak recipe marinated tastes so good! Tender in the middle with a bit of crisp on the edges, it’s the best dinner ever packed with protein. Not frozen cube steak but fresh pieces we love with teriyaki sauce makes a great quick meal.

How do you tenderize cube steak with mallets?

I actually don’t do this myself. I’ve never not seen this for sale at the store. BUT if you really do want to try this yourself just use the pointy side of your tenderizer. Place meat under a piece of plastic wrap and pound!

How do you cook cube steak?

First of all I think a marinade is a must with this cut. You could use our steak dry rub instead but thick liquid with tons of flavor will really permeate the protein and make it even more tender.

That was gravy based, good, but higher in calories. Same goes for our slow cooker cube steak. If you have all day that one gets raving reviews also.

Cube Steak Air Fryer

When I think of a sauce to add to any meat, I automatically think teriyaki!! Maybe it is because I grew up in Hawaii, but it’s the best sauce ever if you ask me.

I followed the same concept when making this air fryer teriyaki chicken dish. It it now one of our favorite meals served with Ninja Foodi rice.

This is what you’ll need to get started:

1. Cube steak already tenderized were used, 4 of them to serve all of us.
2. I have used this bottle of teriyaki sauce. You could make a homemade version, follow the one in our spicy teriyaki chicken recipe.
   1. If you buy another brand just make sure it is thick, not thin like soy sauce.

If you need to “beat” your steak yourself, use this meat tenderizer. Want it right now without soaking? Just sprinkle salt and pepper over both sides, spritz with olive oil spray and air fry using our timing below.

Will soaking cube steak in milk make it tender?

Yes it will. I prefer something with intense flavors though. Either way you’ll want to let it sit for at least 1 hour, I prefer closer to 3 hours. Pour in a bowl submerged, cover the top and into the fridge it goes.

Milk in a shallow bowl works pretty well if you are making air fryer chicken fried steak though. This one is different because you’re using a seasoned flour mixture, a bit of breading and such so the flavors will come from elsewhere. Country fried steak is pretty amazing, I’d try that one next too.

Once they’re nicely soaked you’re ready to get them cooked. Now this is super fast I tell you. I mean cook time does vary a bit. The differences are whether you like your beef totally dead without any pink, or more rare.

I am kinda’ in between. It will stay more tender if you leave some pink in the center. You can see how “well done” ours was in 5 minutes in the picture at the top of this post. 6 minutes would make it closer to medium well.

Thickness of your pieces will change the timing a bit too. You can see the size of ours below. Two fit at a time so we did two rounds. You want your pieces to rest for a good 5 minutes so that worked out well anyway.

Slicing right away will make the juices flow out, you don’t want that. Be patient so it turns out perfect for every bite.

1. Put cube steak pieces and marinade in a bowl.
2. Cover and refrigerate for two to four hours.
3. If you’re using our dry rub instead, in a bowl whisk ingredients and pat on to both sides.
4. Preheat air fryer to 380 degrees F for 5 minutes.
5. Put two pieces in at a time allowing excess sauce to drain back into the bowl before placing them into basket. Cook as many as can fit into the air fryer basket without overlapping.
6. Close drawer of your favorite air fryer and cook at 380 F for 5 minutes. This will keep the middle a bit pink. If you do not want any pink 6 minutes might be better for you.
7. Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

And there you have it!! We served air fryer vegetables on the side and diced this into bite size pieces over brown rice.

A lot of times I cook things at 400 degrees, this is a bit lower. I think that is important to cook it a bit lower, for slightly longer so it stays super moist inside.

I know you’re going to love this but you may be thinking of other meals to make already so let me share another.

We’re going to stick with beef, since we still are getting through our cow from last year. I had a bunch of steaks to use up and came up with these killer air fryer steak bites!

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