An easy and perfect A1 Steak Sauce Copycat made in just 20 minutes for a fraction of the cost!
A1 Steak Sauce (Copycat)
A steak isn’t really a steak unless you top it with A1 Steak Sauce. That’s what growing up with my parents taught me. At least once a month we’d grill steaks and make baked potatoes on the side for a classic steakhouse meal (nevermind that the right way to make a steak is in a cast iron skillet!).
We’d all sit down to some delicious NY Strip Steaks (I’m team ribeye now by the way) and everyone would wait their turns for the A1 steak sauce because it was so much better than Heinz 57 steak sauce. This is THE BEST homemade steak sauce recipe and I owe a ton of gratitude to Two Dogs in the Kitchen who worked hard to make the recipe.
The worst part about A1? Well for starters the bottles were so small! And even more importantly it is pretty darn expensive. The A1 Steak Sauce ingredients aren’t expensive on their own, so there is no reason for it! You can make almost 2 cups of generic A1 sauce with this recipe.
While the ingredients may be non-negotiable here to capture that A1 Steak Sauce flavor, it is still an easy homemade steak sauce.
Can A1 Steak Sauce be used as a marinade?
A1 Steak Marinade: Add 1/4 cup A1 Steak sauce to 2 tablespoons oil, 2 garlic cloves (minced) and 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper. Add the ingredients to the steak and marinate them for 1 hour before cooking.
What is in A1 Steak Sauce?
A1 Steak Sauce is a mix of a lot of different flavors you wouldn’t expect including raisins, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, dijon mustard, orange and more.
You can certainly make a homemade steak sauce without Worcestershire, a good example of it would be a Heinz 57 Steak Sauce recipe.
Looking for more copycat sauces?
- Chick-fil-A Sauce (Copycat)
- In-N-Out Burger Spread Dipping Sauce (Copycat)
- Panda Express Sweet and Sour Sauce (Copycat)
- Tony Romas Original BBQ Sauce (Copycat)
- Zankou Chicken Garlic Paste (Copycat)
A1 Steak Sauce (Copycat)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup aged balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup dijon mustard
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves cut in half
- 2 tablespoons onion chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 orange cut into 2 pieces
Instructions
- Add the ingredients (except for the orange juice) into a small saucepan.
- Squeeze the oranges into the pan, then drop in the rinds.
On low heat, stirring occasionally, let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Careful to keep the heat low allowing for a very low gentle heat, not a hard boil.
- To check doneness dip in a spoon and run your finger over the back, the line should stay clean.
- Turn off the heat and strain out the garlic and orange pieces.
- Let cool completely before serving.
Recipe Notes
Recipe from Two Dogs in the Kitchen.
This recipe saved our Christmas dinner! I bought grass-fed steaks but forgot we were out of A-1. I only had mandarin oranges so I had to guess the amount. It was a little heavy on citrus but still delicious. I blended in the raisins-the consistency was perfect.
Thank you Sabrina!
You’re welcome, Susan.
Really good!
Excellent formula. Anyone who likes A-1 will love this. Not sure if it needed the celery seed, but I like celery seed anyway.
Here’s another method: 1 part tomato paste, 3-4 parts Worcestershire sauce. Done.
Not very chef-like but a dead ringer for A-1.
Here is a toughy.. I don’t eat ketchup. So if using tomato sauce or paste what else would be added to equal the ketchup? Molasses? Is it for the tomato aspect and sweetness?
That is tough! It’s hard to know when you change an ingredient how it will play with the others. You could try equal parts brown sugar and then add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar instead of the ketchup. I haven’t tested it and it’s a complete guess. It might not make the texture right though. If you decide to play around with it, I’d love to know if you got something to work. Good luck!
This is amazing! Had to sub a few ingredients bc we are keto – stevia drops instead of raisins and orange oil drops for the juice. Delish, and so authentic! Thanks for a great recipe!
Please tell me the orange oil not sure of that and can you share your recipe? I am keto as well.
Need a recipe for Heinz 57 sauce.
Thank you.
Tony
I’ll add it to my list to research. Thanks for the suggestion.
Very good recipe Sabrina. My suggestion would be after removing the orange rind, zip it up with a mixing stick before straining it through a sieve. It gives it a thicker viscosity that mimicks the real deal. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the suggestion, Julia.
Do you strain out the raisins or do you blend them in the recipe??
They’ll breakdown during the cooking process and the rest gets strained out with the garlic and orange. Enjoy!
How long can it be stored in the fridge? My fam loves it but I’m hoping we don’t waste the rest
I’d say it will last about a week or two in the refrigerator. So glad you all love it.
Hi Sabrina
I made your A1 Steak Sauce here’s what I found.
Taste is good. Not exact but real good. I like it!
Ease to make.
After made and cooled, it still seemed thin!
I transferred to a blender and started adding Xanthan Gum until
it had the right consistency. Trying to figure what to alter to hit that exact
flavor, but overall I give it an 8.5! Keep up the good work. How about Subway’s Southwestern Chipotle Sauce?
I’ll add that to my research list. Thanks for the suggestion!
Can I can this sauce
I’ve never tried it before.
not sure who has all this lying around. ill spend the 5 bucks on a bottle of A1 and save the headache lol
Probably all the preservatives giving you the headache! LOL
What about the raisins in the A1 Steak Sauce? Are you to strain those too? Or do I use a food processor?
Sorry for the confusion. They will mostly break down during the cooking process and then the rest will strain out with the garlic and orange. Hope this helps!
I just took out the Orange peel and then, put it on high in my Vitamixer. It ended up with the consistency of A-1 sauce. Really good!
If you spin it on high in Vitamix, it will cook it like making soup. Try that…
I’m not understanding where the sweetness that everyone is talking about is coming from. There is no sugar in the recipe. I understand that the raisins are sweet as is the ketchup, but I certainly wouldn’t think that alone could make the sauce too sweet. And 68 grams of sugar?? Can that possibly be right?
The serving size is the entire batch of the sauce. There’s a surprising amount of naturally occurring sugar in Balsamic vinegar (made from grapes) and we are using 1/2 cup of it. Sugar will sneak up on you but for the most part, it’s all naturally occurring sugar in this dish.
Very tasty. I’ve been looking for a good steak sauce recipe.
As has been mentioned, it’s a bit on the sweet side (at least for my taste), but I will be playing with this recipe – maybe using half balsamic and half cider vinegar – until it is just where I want it.
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Followed directions to a tee and it’s not thickening! What did I do wrong or what do I do??
Sounds like you just needed to cook it longer.
I made this because I was out of A-1 and didnt want to go to the store. It’s fantastic!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it!
Very good thank you for the recipe. Will definitely keep it in my recipe box. My daughter in law loves it also. Very easy to make.
You’re welcome, Brenda!
Made it exactly to recipe. It’s not bad, but doesn’t taste like A1.
I made two batches using these exact ingredients. I had a bottle of A1 to compare it too.Sauce I loved,but still does not duplicate A1, and that’s OK because I think this is better. David
no it didnt …. added some molasses …. much better