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This super easy Chimichurri Sauce recipe is made in the food processor with fresh herbs and comes together in under 5 minutes. It’s fantastic over grilled meats and vegetables!
Recipe Highlights
- We make it for catering events all the time and serve with grilled steak as an alternative to BBQ sauce and it’s always a HIT.
- You can use Chimichurri sauce as a salad dressing or it makes a great marinade.
- This green sauce can be made with any protein or you can modify ingredients, like our Jalapeño Chimichurri.
Growing up I remember my folks using A-1 or other similar steak sauce to douse over grilled steaks. Not my thing these days. A good steak doesn’t need much to jazz it up. That being said, I simply cannot resist a good authentic chimichurri sauce drizzled over some grilled or smoked meats!
And while steak can be great on its own, chimichurri sauce can do wonders for beef, chicken, pork, fish, and so much more! One of the most popular dishes we serve at Ember & Vine catering events is Smoked Tri Tip served with Chimichurri Sauce. It’s popular for a good reason. It’s damn delicious, that’s why!
Table of Contents
What is Chimichurri Sauce made of?
Chimichurri sauce may look like an Argentinian version of pesto of sorts, but it’s quite different (and made without any nuts). It’s more of a salsa or sauce originating from South America, but without tomatoes.
The classic version is a mix of simple ingredients. The important part is making sure they are fresh ingredients.
- fresh parsley – Use flat leaf parsley versus curly parsley for better texture and the best flavor. It’s the main herb and important to be fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves.
- shallots (or red onion)
- cloves of garlic
- fresh oregano
- red pepper flakes – You can adjust the heat level by increasing or decreasing the dried red chili peppers. This recipe is low heat.
- red wine vinegar – You can substitute with apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar depending on how much vinegar flavor you want.
- olive oil
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- Optional: You can add fresh cilantro if you like the flavor. Simply sub out some of the parsley for cilantro based on your personal preference.
There are certainly variations, but this is its most basic form. Traditionally you would hand chop everything and layer it together. But you can also can take a little help from the food processor (like I do for large catering events) and toss everything in to let it do it’s thang!
Using the food processor you can make a big batch of chimichurri sauce in under 5 minutes. The difference in flavor between hand chopping and food processing is minimal. Nobody will ever know by taste! Boom.
Tip: If you want that classic hand chopped look, but still want a shortcut, pulse all of the dry ingredients in the food processor, then transfer to a bowl and slowly mix in the wet ingredients.
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What to Serve Chimichurri Sauce on
- Grilled steak of any kind
- Picanha Steak
- Smoked beef, especially Smoked Tri Tip
- Grilled Chicken
- Grilled Fish (great on Cod) or with shrimp skewers
- Reverse Seared Pork Chops
- And so much more (I’m not kidding, I even serve it on scrambled eggs)
How to Store Chimichurri Sauce
Place in a sealed glass container, and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. When you pull it back out it may harden up due to the oil, but it will soften back when you leave it out for a few minutes at room temperature.
Hand Chopping
If you don’t have a food processor, or prefer a chunkier style of Chimichurri, here are the steps to follow:
- Prepare a medium bowl. Start by hand chopping the parsley, garlic, shallots, and oregano and add to the bowl. Then add the salt, pepper, and red chili pepper flakes.
- Add the lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Stir, and then add slowly stir in olive oil until you get your desired texture. You don’t want too much oil as it will become too wet. Stop adding oil when the consistency becomes paste-like.
For a variation on this chimichurri sauce recipe try our jalapeño chimichurri sauce as well.
*This recipe was updated from this post in 2014 with new pictures and content. The recipe remains the same.
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Easy Chimichurri Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh Italian parsley, loosely packed
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 2 tablespoons shallots, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- ½ lemon juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped , (dry works okay too, but fresh is more fragrant)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
- ½ – ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except olive oil in the food processor and pulse a few times until everything starts to break up.
- Start slowly adding the olive oil. Start with just ½ cup, and then slowly add more and pulse a few more times. Don't puree, just a few pulses will do. If it’s too thick add more olive oil until you get to your desired consistency. Serve over grilled or smoked beef, chicken, pork, fish, and even vegetables.
Video
Notes
- Prepare a large bowl. Start by hand chopping the parsley, garlic, shallots, and oregano and add to the bowl. Then add the salt, pepper, and red chili pepper flakes.
- Add the lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Stir, and then add slowly stir in olive oil until you get your desired texture. You don’t want too much oil as it will become too wet. Stop adding oil when the consistency becomes paste-like.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Turned out so perfect! I made it to go with some simple steak and baked potatoes and I wanted to put it on everything! I thought the garlic would be too much but it’s perfect!
I’m so happy to hear this! Cheers 🙂
Finally, somebody does “the original chimichurri” with “parsley” and no jalapeno pepper.
Cilantro was never used in Argentina till recently when a substantial inflow of immigrants from Peru, Bolivia, and other neighboring countries in which cuisine is prevalent the use of it.
This was so easy and super delicious. I made this to put over the top of another recipe I found on here (Grilled Cod with Chimchurri). For that recipe, I swapped the cod for Chilean Seas bass. The chimichurri sauce was an outstanding final touch to the meal. Pro tip: We paired Sea Bass w/ chimichurri with the Prosecco Risotto recipe (also from this blog). It was a restaurant quality meal! Perfect way to spend a weekend in cooking with friends.
Loved this recipe!- perfect for my steak and potatoes!
Can I sub the red wine vinegar ?
You can sub with any acid really. White wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar. It adds a tang. If you don’t like vinegar in general then play with the lemon juice portions and salt.
How long can this be stored for? Can larger batches be made and frozen?
In the refrigerator we have used it up to two weeks. As it cools the oil hardens preventing oxidation, so it helps preserve. For the freezer it will last up to three months. I would not overfill the container giving room for it to expand. As it warms up the texture will liquify again.
I actually dont have a food processor… did you say something about layering this recipe when hand-chopped? If so, how is this done? Thank you!
We just updated the article and recipe for steps to chop it up.
Everyone in my family loved it!