Homemade Meat Tenderizer for Steak
If you want delicious, tender, and juicy meat, this homemade meat tenderizer is exactly what you need. Made from a single ingredient—papaya—this natural tenderizer is highly effective. Papaya contains natural enzymes that break down the protein in meat, making it an ideal meat softener. Give it a try and elevate your next carne asada!
Perfect for Juicy Steak
Widely used in Mexico for dishes like carne asada and arrachera, this tenderizer ensures your meat will be so tender and juicy that it will almost fall apart. I have been using this recipe for years, and you might be worried about the papaya affecting the beef’s flavor, but I assure you, in my experience, it does not interfere.
How to Make Your Own Meat Tenderizer with Papaya
Tenderizing meat with papaya is a simple, natural, and healthy way to create your meat tenderizer at home. This method is perfect for making your meat tender and flavorful.
Instructions:
- Prepare the Papaya: Start by removing the skin of the papaya using a knife or a fruit/vegetable peeler. Removing the skin is essential as it can make the meat bitter.
2. Cut and Blend: Cut the papaya into chunks. Blend well until the papaya turns into a puree.
3. Marinate the Meat: Coat the meat (flank steak, roast beef, or beef steak) thoroughly with the papaya puree. Let the meat marinate in the refrigerator for about an hour.
4. Rinse and Season: After marinating, rinse off the papaya puree and season the meat as desired.
Enjoy this fantastic marinade for your next carne asada or arrachera. If you are having trouble finding papaya, try my tenderizer substitutes.
Note: While some claim that papaya seeds work wonders for tenderizing meat, my initial attempt at blending them with papaya proved to be quite messy when removing the seeds, even after straining the mixture. You can add the seeds whole if you prefer, but I advise against blending them for easy preparation.
Use this tenderizer to make these recipes:
Natural tenderizer
The best natural homemade meat tenderizer is papaya. Using papaya as a natural tenderizer is easy and affordable. If you don’t like papaya, don’t worry, the truth is that meat does not absorb the papaya flavor at all. Pineapple is also used as a natural meat tenderizer. I feel that the pineapple flavor penetrates the meat while the papaya flavor remains more neutral.
I also have a list of tenderizer substitutes besides papaya that can be useful.
DIY Steak Tenderizer: Homemade Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Blender
- 1 container
Ingredients
- 1 cup Papaya for every half kilogram or 2 pounds of meat that you want to tenderize
Instructions
- Remove the skin from the papaya
- Cut the papaya into chunks
- Add 1 cup of seedless papaya to the blender for every 1.1 pounds (1/2 kilogram) of meat you want to tenderize.
- Blend well until the papaya is made into a puree
- Bathe the meat with the papaya pulp and spread well over your meat, flank steak, roast beef or beef steak.
- Leave the papaya to marinate for about an hour in the refrigerator.
- Rinse and season the meat to prepare
Video
Notes
Nutrition
How to apply meat tenderizer?
If you use my recipe for a natural meat tenderizer made with papaya, you just have to spread the ground papaya well over the meat and mix occasionally to ensure that all the meat has a little papaya pulp.
If you use powdered meat tenderizer, just spread over the meat as if you were adding salt and let the meat rest for as long as the instructions of your tenderizer indicate.
What are the enzymes that tenderize meat?
Red meat is softened thanks to the work done by papain derived from papaya or bromelain derived from pineapple.
How long should the meat be tenderized?
When using papaya, just for a couple of hours, no more than 4, as it works so well that it can become mushy if you leave it for too long.
Surprised at how juicy and tender this steak turned out with papaya!”
I love papaya-tenderized meat. I was wanting to learn to do it myself. You might want to check your quantities. You say “1 cup for every half kilo”, which would be 1.1lbs. Thanks for the simple instructions. Never knew it was so easy.
I am glad I was helpful, let me know how it worked for you. Thanks for pointing the quantities, will check right now.