Sauce Your Cutting Board for Better Steaks

A good sauce lets me overlook a multitude of sins—I’m thinking of the garlic sauce from a particular pizza chain. But takeout aside, the right sauce can save an overcooked piece of meat or lackluster rice bowl. And while I’m not usually the type to sauce my steak—I like to let the meat speak for itself—it is quite handy to have a few board sauce recipes in my back pocket, come grilling season.

Board sauces are a concept that originated with Chef Adam Perry Lang. The concept: Make a simple mixture of ingredients—prepped on a cutting board—then set a just-cooked steak (or steaks) on top. As the meat rests and then during carving, the steak’s juices mingle with the mixture, creating a low-effort sauce. The slices are tossed with the board sauce, then served as they are, without the formality of a platter. It’s easy and breezy, but it also can save a steak you took a little further than you intended.

We have a few different flavor profiles for board sauces. The first is a Worcestershire Butter Board Sauce, which uses pantry staples and requires zero knifework. It’s super savory with W-sauce, butter, Dijon and curry powder, and can be scaled up with ease. If that’s not quite what you’re looking for we also have recipes for Roasted Pepper and Balsamic Board Sauce, Salsa Verde Board Sauce, and Miso-Scallion Board Sauce. (Board sauces are good on other proteins, too; I especially enjoy the Miso-Scallion sauce on grilled shrimp, no need to slice the shrimp.)

Another sauce I use a lot in my own kitchen is our 1-1-1 sauce, which we usually brush onto crispy chicken thighs, but can be brushed on anything. I’ve even used to it season ground turkey, because ground turkey needs all the help it can get. It’s super easy to make. All you need is equal parts soy sauce, mirin and sake (though I recently used gin in a moment of desperation). You can toss in some ginger, garlic and/or dried mushrooms if you have them. Let it simmer on the stove until it thickens slightly, strain out the solids if there are any, then use it as a marinade, drizzle, whatever you desire, keeping in mind it will thicken and intensify with further heating, which is not a bad thing.

And if you’re looking for a flavorful way to cut down on food waste, give our Cilantro Stem and Ginger Scallion Sauce a whirl. I hate tossing herb stems. They pack tremendous flavor and a fresh crunch that the leaves lack, and they make a versatile condiment that can go on anything from grilled meats to scrambled eggs and everything in between.

Desserts need sauce too, and caramel is probably my favorite. While I’m quite intrigued by our recently-published recipe for Whipped Caramel, I prefer caramel in a pourable form, and this Miso-Caramel is more refined and deeply flavored than the typical salted caramel.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.