Easy Chimichurri Sauce
The Sauce That Lives in Your Refrigerator Permanently
Every kitchen has a handful of recipes that stop being occasional and become habitual. The thing you make without thinking about it, the condiment that gets pulled out for grilled meat and then quietly ends up on eggs the next morning and bread the morning after that. Chimichurri is that sauce, and this version takes five minutes to make with ingredients that are almost always already in the kitchen.
No blender, no food processor, no technique beyond a sharp knife and a cutting board. Just fresh parsley, garlic, shallot, red wine vinegar, and good olive oil, brought together in a bowl and left to sit long enough for everything to become one cohesive thing. What comes out is bright and herby and garlicky with a faint heat from the red pepper flakes and an acidity that cuts through richness in a way that makes it useful on almost everything.
The Knife Work Is the Whole Method
Chimichurri made in a blender is a green sauce. Chimichurri made with a knife is something with actual texture, individual pieces of parsley and garlic that you can see and taste distinctly in every spoonful. The difference is significant and worth the extra few minutes of chopping.
Everything should be minced finely enough that no single piece dominates a bite but coarsely enough that the sauce has body. The parsley should be chopped until it is almost fluffy, the garlic and shallot worked down to small, even pieces that will mellow quickly once the red wine vinegar and salt hit them. A sharp knife makes this go quickly. A dull one makes it a project.
The shallot is the ingredient that separates a good chimichurri from a great one. Milder and slightly sweeter than a raw onion, it adds an aromatic depth that disappears into the background of the sauce while making everything else taste more rounded. People will not identify it as shallot. They will just notice that this chimichurri is better than the one they’ve had before.
Fifteen Minutes Is Not Optional
Chimichurri needs to sit before it is served, and the fifteen minutes at room temperature is the step that turns a bowl of separate ingredients into a sauce. The salt draws moisture out of the parsley, garlic, and shallot, and the red wine vinegar begins to mellow the raw edge of the garlic and soften the shallot slightly. The olive oil pulls the fat-soluble flavor compounds out of the herbs and distributes them through the entire mixture.
The difference between chimichurri served immediately and chimichurri that has rested is noticeable. Served immediately it tastes sharp and a little aggressive. After fifteen minutes it tastes like itself, cohesive and balanced with every component audible rather than competing.
If time allows, an hour at room temperature is even better. A full night in the refrigerator, brought back to room temperature before serving, is better still. The flavor deepens considerably as the garlic mellows and the vinegar works further into the herbs. Make it the night before when you can.
What to Put It On
The honest answer is: most things. Chimichurri was built for grilled steak and it belongs there, spooned generously over the top so it runs into every cut and pools on the plate around the edges. But it is equally good on grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, fried eggs, crusty bread, grilled shrimp, and the homemade thick crispy fries from this blog, where the acidity of the vinegar cuts through the richness of the fried potato in a way that makes the combination feel intentional.
It is also a very good marinade. The garlic, vinegar, and oil penetrate meat quickly and leave behind the herby brightness of the parsley even after heat. Toss chicken pieces in chimichurri for an hour before roasting and the result is something that barely needs a sauce on the side, because the sauce is already built in.
Storage and How Long It Lasts
Chimichurri keeps well in the refrigerator in a sealed jar for up to a week. The parsley will darken slightly over time as it oxidizes, which affects the color more than the flavor. A thin layer of olive oil poured over the top of the jar before sealing slows this process by limiting the herb’s contact with air.
Pull it from the refrigerator about fifteen minutes before using and give it a good stir. The olive oil will solidify slightly under refrigeration and the ingredients will settle, but a quick mix brings it back to the right consistency. It never quite returns to the bright green of the freshly made sauce, but by day two and three the flavor has deepened into something arguably even better.
Easy Chimichurri Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup Parsley (finely chopped)
- 4 Garlic Cloves (finely minced)
- 1 Shallot (finely minced)
- 1 tsp Dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 3 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- ½ cup Olive Oil
Instructions
- Finely chop the parsley, garlic, and shallot. Add them to a bowl along with the oregano, red pepper flakes, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil.
- Mix the chimichurri well and allow it to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
