I personally love a good burger, but some people don’t – and that’s why I’ve developed this delicious barbecue marinade for steaks (it works just fine on pork and chicken as well, though). It makes for absolutely delicious and tender meat, and takes about 15 minutes to make – but you’ll need to leave it on the meat over night for it to work its way in properly.

You’ll need:

• 50ml whisky – whichever kind you prefer, really, but just as with the burgers I generally prefer something smoky, e.g. an Islay whisky such as Bowmore 10
• 15g (about 1tbsp) Muscovado sugar
• 50ml olive oil
• 25ml soy sauce
• 1 garlic glove, crushed
• 25ml pineapple juice
• 25ml apple cider vinegar Or freshly pressed lemon juice
• 25ml water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: 1 fresh chilli, finely chopped

And how to do it:

1. Crush the garlic and, if you choose to use it, finely chop the fresh chilli.
2. Whisk together all of the ingredients in a decent sized bowl, big enough to fit a chunk of the meat you’re using in it as well.
3. Once you’ve made the marinade, add you first steak (or whatever meat you’re using) and gently massage the marinade into the meat for a couple of minutes. Repeat for each steak and place in a baking tray.
4. Poor remaining marinade from the bowl over the meat.
5. Cover, and leave in the fridge over night.
6. Place on a medium-hot grill and cook as you desire, and that’s it!

Easy as pie! And ruddy delicious, you won’t fail to impress with this marinade, trust me. PS. I used Jura as it was the closest thing at hand, but made up for that (along with the lack of BBQ weather, I had to use my grill pan) with a bit of Liquid Smoke – if you fancy giving that a go as well, make sure to only use about as much as I did in the picture below, it’s ridiculously potent!

And just to make you jealous, here’s today’s lunch – Whisky marinated turkey breast served with a salad consisting of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, marinated grilled red pepper and marinated seared Portobello mushrooms – I used a simple marinade consisting of fresh thyme, a dash of vermouth, paprika, garlic, mustard and turmeric for the veg marinade.

Here are some related posts that you might want to read:

• Whisky Burger
• Whisky Caramelized Bacon
• Grilled bananas (with whisky, of course)
• Whisky Cocktail: Bloody Scotsman
• Whisky Bread