Air Fryer Cube Steak Recipe

Cube Steak in Air Fryer

In the beginning of our Ninja Foodi recipe creations we made air fryer steak wrapped with bacon. Man was that good!! I came across this tenderized beef at the store and it was so cheap I couldn’t pass it up. Tried it a few different ways and this was our favorite with teriyaki sauce!

Since then we figured out how to cook frozen steak in air fryer and the list goes on from there. Every time we make something new and it turns out great we just have to share so follow along…

Air Fryer Cube Steak No Flour

You don’t need to add anything to the outsides of these. Cook with just some seasonings or if you follow our lead you should marinate them in your favorite sauce first. Another lightly breaded Pork Cube Steak is good. Sauce will add moisture and tons of flavor though so it’s fork tender when done.

Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Cube Steak

It doesn’t matter what brand you use either. If you do have a Foodi this is specific to the air crisp button with the lid that is attached. With that one you could pressure cook cube steak too to compare the two since it has that function as well.

This is what ours looks like. Not really typical when buying it in the store, but we buy meat in bulk every year from a local farm. Needless to say we make a lot of easy beef recipesbecause 1/2 of a cow lasts a while….

Teriyaki 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. 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 chickendish.

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. 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 a bottle of teriyaki sauce. You could make your own sauce though using our homemade teriyaki sauce 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.

Milk is better if making chicken fried steak coated in a seasoned flour mixture, but really anything works. It isn’t that you MUST do this but preferred for the optimal flavor.

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.

How to Cook Cube Steak without Flour in Air Fryer

Put cube steak pieces and marinade in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for two to four hours. If you’re using our dry rub instead, in a bowl whisk ingredients and pat on to both sides. 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.

How Long to Cook Cube Steak in Air Fryer

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. Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

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.

Tips

Slicing right away will make the juices flow out, you don’t want that. Be patient so it turns out perfect for every bite. And there you have it!! We served air fryer vegetables and Ninja Foodi rice 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!

FAQ

Top round or top sirloin is what’s usually used. The name is because of the deep indentations in the meat. That is made with a meat tenderizer. I buy it already done but you could do it yourself.

Just wrap pieces in one layer with plastic wrap or under some parchment paper. Use the pointy side of your tenderizer facing the meat. Hit from the inside out to create divots in the protein and flatten to make more tender when cooked.

In the Southern states you might hear it called bucket steak. This name may have come about because they’re sold in cardboard buckets, who knows. Some say cubed steak instead of cube but any of the 3 refer to the same pounded pieces.

Yes it will. I prefer something with better flavor though, that is why I use teriyaki sauce instead which does the same thing (tones down the beefy flavor). Either way you’ll want to let it sit for at least 1 hour, I prefer closer to 3 hours submerged with the bowl covered in the fridge.