What is a Sirloin Steak?

John57 - I would just go with whatever your personal preference is. They say that a medium steak is somewhere around 400 calories, but there is a lot of variation in this.

How thick is the steak, is it lean or not, boneless, with or without fat? If you are counting calories I would concentrate more on how it is prepared, and what you use after it is done cooking.

You can have a small 3 oz sirloin steak that doesn't have very many calories by itself. If you take that same steak and smother it with sirloin steak sauce and other toppings, that can add on more calories than the meat itself.

My thinking is, if you are going to enjoy a good steak, fix it the way you like it and enjoy it! It's not every day that I get a really good steak, so I am going to have it made the way I like to eat it.

Does sirloin steak have many calories? Since it is not as expensive a cut of meat like filet mignon, I wonder if there is much difference in the amount of calories?

I know it would also depend of what you use to marinade and top your steak with, but if you are counting calories for just the meat itself, does it make much difference in what type of steak you use?

The biggest reason I buy sirloin steak is because it does not cost as much as some of the other cuts. I think the key to cooking sirloin steak is the way you prepare it ahead of time.

It seemed like I was always overcooking the steak, and then it was tough and hard to chew. I started doing a couple different things that made all the difference in how my steak tasted.

First I would use my meat tenderizer tool to make the steak flat and ready to absorb the spices. There are a lot of great sirloin steak seasoning recipes out there and many of them have all kinds of different spices in them.

Mine is very simple. Some Italian spice seasoning, garlic and my secret ingredient - dry orange peel. I mix this with a little bit of olive oil and rub on the meat.

After cooking for only a few minutes on each side, then I add salt and pepper to taste. Another tip is to let the steak rest for a few minutes after cooking because it will continue to cook even after it is removed from the heat.

BBQ sirloin steak is one of my favorite dishes. It tastes a lot like a hamburger with sauce, and sometimes, I prefer to put it in a bun than to cut it up and eat the pieces separately.

If the meat has been frozen, I put it in the refrigerator the night before I plan to cook it so that it can thaw thoroughly. The next day, I soak the meat in BBQ sauce for a couple of hours before cooking it. I think the flavor soaks in best this way.

I cook it in the oven after adding extra BBQ sauce to the pan. As a side dish, I prepare roasted potatoes with parsley and season-all on top, tossed in olive oil so that they will brown better. It has become a family favorite.

Is there a good over the counter sirloin steak seasoning that I can buy to improve the flavor of my steaks? A few years back I saw an ad in a magazine selling mail order steaks for what seemed like a great price.

Well, I fell for it hook line and sinker and now I have a freezer full of pretty mediocre sirloin steaks that I ultimately ended up paying too much for. I have tried cooking them different ways, marinating them, cutting them into little pieces, you name it. The flavor is always just mediocre. I feel like if I rubbed them with a really bold seasoning rub that might make them a little more edible. I hate to waste all this meat but its getting kind of hard to eat.

I love to have sirloin steak when I eat steak and eggs. I know that sirloin is not considered the finest cut of steak, but somehow that is a benefit when you are eating it for breakfast. There is just something so meaty and chewy about the steak it is the perfect compliment to the eggs and toast. And because the flavor is not overwhelmingly beefy it does not drown out the other flavors in the meal. Also, sirloin steak tends to be cheap so I can afford to splurge a little and have myself a nice breakfast.

I use sirloin tip steak to make steak fajitas, and I have never been disappointed with the quality of the meat. The spices I add enhance its natural flavor, and I cook it quickly to avoid making it tough.

I cut the sirloin tip steak into thin slivers. Then, I place them in a carton with cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper. I put a lid on it and shake it vigorously until all the pieces are coated.

Then, I cook the meat over medium heat in a skillet with vegetable oil, red and green bell peppers, and onions. It only takes about three minutes on each side to get the meat browned and only slightly pink in the center.

I wrap all this up in flour tortillas when it's done, and it is so delicious. My husband likes to add sour cream and shredded cheddar, but I like to enjoy the flavors without any distractions.

@Perdido – Maybe you ate a bad sirloin, because to me, they are excellent when prepared correctly. I always order mine medium rare so that it stays tender and juicy.

True, I sometimes find tendons in my sirloin, but if you cut it up into small enough pieces, you can usually avoid being surprised by one. Also, it's not as hard to chew that way.

I like my sirloin stuffed with garlic and onions. The flavor carries throughout the meat as it is cooked, and no piece is left bland. You don't even need any steak sauce if the flavors have been delivered internally.

@mentirosa-- That's true, it does make good hamburger meat. I buy sirloin and have it ground at the butcher when I want to make a nice juicy hamburger.

Some people make the mistake of getting round sirloin for hamburgers which is a pretty lean piece of meat. Others make the mistake of picking steak with a lot of muscle like the flat bone which takes away from the tenderness. Sirloin is a good choice. It has a small amount of muscle and also enough fat that adds flavor to the meat and doesn't cook too quickly and burn if you plan on making barbeque sirloin steak hamburgers.

The only trick is to get rid of the bone, but butchers do that for you if you have them grind it at the store.

@ysmina – I love New York strip steak, and to me, it tastes so much better than sirloin steak.

This steak is more tender and flavorful than sirloin. For years, I wouldn't order steak at a restaurant, because all I had ever eaten was sirloin steak, and I didn't like it. I finally gave in and tried New York strip steak, and it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

I didn't even need to put steak sauce on it. The natural juices marinated it perfectly.

Sirloin steak can be kind of stringy. You take a bite, and you find a tendon holding on as you try to pull it away from the rest. This nauseates me.

You will never find gooey, stringy tendons in strip steak. It's pure meat bliss.

@ysmina-- Sirloin and strip steak are not the same. Strip steak comes from the short loin which is lower and towards the head of the animal whereas sirloin is closer to the rump.

I'm not an expert on beef but I have friends who have this down to a science and pride themselves in knowing exactly which part of the animal each steak comes from.

I think for the most part though, we can categorize them in horizontal blocks. If you can imagine a cow, the hump area is where round steak comes from, next is sirloin and then short loin.

The mid section of the animal closer to the belly is where the most tender meat is and sirloin is definitely one of the most tender. Some people might argue otherwise but I agree with you that beef sirloin steak is an acceptable alternative to tenderloin steak.

I always buy sirloin beef steak and I think it tastes great. It does have some bone but I think that adds flavor to the meat while it's cooking, especially when it's cooked with sauce.

I know the tenderloin is more popular and well known in cuisine, especially 'filet mignon' is the most expensive dish served in many top restaurants. But when I'm buying steak for dinner, I don't need to pay extra for tenderloin, the flavor between that and sirloin is really not distinguishable to me.

By the way, sometimes next to the sirloin, I see a steak called 'strip steak' at the store. It looks the same as sirloin, is there a difference?

Also a good cut of meat to make hamburgers. Nice flavor and good lean to fat proportions.