Ree Drummond’s 20-Minute Steak Bowls: ‘The Flavor in This Bowl’

Ree Drummond’s steak bowls are flavor-packed bowls of grilled goodness. The Pioneer Woman dinner, which is perfect for weeknights thanks to a 20-minute cook time, includes grilled steak and vegetables seasoned with five-spice powder. For more flavor, the cookbook author serves them with not one but three sauces.

Ree Drummond’s steak bowl recipe calls for rib-eyes but any will do

Steak is the star in Drummond’s steak bowls, formally known as Five-Spice Steak Bowls. The Super Easy cookbook author uses thin cut rib-eye steaks, according to Food Network. 

But as Drummond explained on the “Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinners” episode of The Pioneer Woman, they aren’t a must-have. 

“I used rib-eye steaks but you could do skirt steak, you could do sirloin,” she said. “Whatever lil’ steaks you happen to have in your life and in your fridge” will work. 

Whatever cut of the steak, coat both sides in olive oil, five-spice powder, and kosher salt before it goes on the grill. When they’re “absolutely delicious,” Drummond puts hers on the stovetop grill inside the “Lodge” where The Pioneer Woman is filmed. 

Vegetables go on the grill with the meat for Drummond’s steak bowls

The steaks aren’t the only thing getting grilled. Drummond grills vegetables too. She puts baby bok choy, one of her “favorite veggies,” and chunks of red bell pepper in a bowl. “Then I’m just going to drizzle some olive oil, salt, and five-spice powder,” she said before tossing everything together. 

Then the bok choy and red bell pepper go on the grill with the steak. All that’s left to do is for Drummond to “babysit the steak and veggies until they’re totally grilled.” 

She recommends cooking the steaks and vegetables for a few minutes on each side until they have grill marks. 

The Pioneer Woman serves the steak bowls with 3 sauces

Drummond’s steak bowls aren’t ready when everything’s off the grill. The cooking show host gives the bowls even more flavor with sauces. 

First, she makes a mayonnaise-based “drizzle” to go over the steak. In a bowl, she mixes together mayonnaise, low sodium soy sauce, and a “little splash” of rice vinegar. 

It’s not necessary to follow Drummond’s recipe exactly because, as she said on her show, “You can adjust the amount of soy or vinegar depending on the consistency you want and the level of soy that you want.” 

Now for what she calls the “really fun” sauces. “I have some Thai chili paste and I’m just going to put a little over to the side of the bowl along with a little bit of hoisin sauce,” Drummond said. “So then you have these little surprises over to the side and you can sort of dip the steak in one and dip the veggies in the other.” 

“Boy oh boy, the flavor in this bowl,” Drummond said upon assembling the dish with jasmine rice and green onions. “Five-spice steak bowls. It’s a tongue twister and it is delicious.”