Chimichurri is what cuts through a fatty grilled steak when you don't want to mask it with more fat or sugar, just chopped parsley, garlic, and oregano suspended in olive oil and sharpened with red wine vinegar. No cooking, ten minutes of chopping, thirty minutes of resting on the counter, and it's ready.

Equipment

Hand-chopping the herbs is not a shortcut skipped for convenience, it's the texture the sauce depends on, so a knife that actually holds an edge matters here. I use the Handmade Damascus Kitchen Knives with Leather Roll, a food processor bruises parsley into paste and this doesn't. I mix everything in the Large Capacity Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl with Scale, wide enough that the oil and vinegar coat the chopped herbs evenly instead of pooling at the bottom. And because this needs to sit at room temperature to develop, then move to the fridge, I store it in the Le Parfait Super Jars with Wire-Bail Clamp Lid, the clamp seal keeps the garlic smell contained.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped, tightly packed
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, finely chopped (or 2 teaspoons dried)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 small shallot or 2 tablespoons red onion, finely minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, adjust to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

Ingredient Selection

Flat-leaf parsley only, curly parsley is more bitter and doesn't chop the same way. Fresh oregano over dried if you can get it, dried works but the sauce reads flatter. The vinegar matters more than people expect, a cheap harsh red wine vinegar will make the whole sauce taste sharp instead of bright, use one you'd actually put on a salad.

Method

Mise en Place

1. Chop the herbs by hand: Finely chop the parsley and oregano. A hand chop gives chimichurri its rustic texture, a food processor turns it into more of a paste.

Combine

1. Combine the aromatics: In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped parsley, oregano, minced garlic, and minced shallot.
2. Add the liquids: Pour in the olive oil and red wine vinegar, then add the red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Stir well to combine.

Rest and Adjust

1. Rest the sauce: Let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving. This matters more than any other step, it's what lets the raw garlic mellow and the flavors actually meld.
2. Taste and adjust: Taste after resting and adjust with more vinegar for brightness, more oil to soften the acidity, or more salt as needed.

Serving and Application

Spoon it over grilled steak, especially skirt or flank, right off the fire. It also works as a marinade for chicken or pork before grilling, a finishing sauce for grilled vegetables, or stirred through roasted potatoes.

Popular Variations

• Chimichurri Rojo: Common in Argentine steakhouses, adds smoked paprika and a spoonful of tomato paste for a deeper, smokier version.
• Uruguayan Chimichurri: Typically milder, with less garlic and a lighter hand on the chili flakes.
• Cilantro Chimichurri: Substitute half the parsley with fresh cilantro and add a squeeze of lime, pairs well with grilled fish or shrimp.

Make Ahead, Storage and Reheating

This is a raw herbs-and-garlic-in-oil mixture, which is a real food safety category, not just a shelf-life question. Oregon State University Extension's publication on herbs and vegetables in oil (SP 50-701) is direct about it: the mixture must be refrigerated and used within 4 days, or frozen for longer storage. Commercial garlic-in-oil products are acidified to prevent bacterial growth, and while acidification procedures have been researched for a few common herbs and vegetables, the directions have to be followed exactly, so it is not a casual workaround for a homemade batch. Keep it in the fridge, not on the counter past the initial 30-minute rest, and don't stretch it past four days. Bring to room temperature before serving since the olive oil solidifies when cold.

History

The origin is genuinely contested, not just under-documented. The popular story ties chimichurri to 19th-century gauchos on the grasslands that are now Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, but the sauce doesn't actually show up in cookbooks until after the late 1950s, a gap that undercuts the tidy gaucho origin story without disproving it outright. The name's etymology is similarly uncertain; the most cited theory traces it to the Basque word tximitxurri, meaning roughly "a hodgepodge." Whatever its exact starting point, the sauce absorbed the cooking of the European immigrants, Spanish, Italian, Basque, who settled the region, which is part of why versions vary so much from one Argentine or Uruguayan kitchen to the next.

Nutrition

Estimate only, not a lab analysis. Sodium below excludes the added salt: kosher salt density varies by roughly 2x between common brands (Diamond Crystal vs. Morton), so 3/4 teaspoon adds somewhere around 840–1730mg of sodium depending on which you use, add your brand's figure to the totals below. Oregano and the shallot/red onion are minor contributors and not separately itemized.

References

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Chimichurri
• Oregon State University Extension Service: Herbs and Vegetables in Oil (SP 50-701)

Related Guides

Chimichurri's natural home is a churrasco grill, and Brazilian Mixed Grill (Churrasco Misto) is the whole-table version of the meal this sauce was built for. Its closest cousin on this site is How To Make Pesto Genovese, another raw herb sauce that lives or dies on how you chop it. And for the cooked, sweet counterpoint brushed onto the same piece of grilled beef, see How To Make Barbecue Sauce.

Thank You

Thanks for cooking through this one. If you try the Rojo or cilantro version, I'd like to hear how it went, drop me a note through the contact page. Gochujang and mayonnaise are next up in this batch if you're after a different direction for the grill this week.

Chef Alan
Wine Drop Cookery
35 years, Six Four Diamond Awards