Use a marinade on them before grilling. Try making a chimichurri sauce and put steaks in a plastic bag,add chimichurri and let marinate in fridge for 3-4 hours or at room temp for about two. If you put them in fridge let them come to room temp before cooking.

I don't think strip steaks are ever as tender as the ribeye cuts.

I agree, I'd marinate them, then either grill them or make them into kebabs. They are too good for swiss steak, IMO, but would make a perfectly fine steak sandwich sliced thinly along with some grilled onions.

Annie

I just grill them! don't know where you live, but here just about 150 miles north of KC, they are the part of the T-bone that isn't the tenderloin.
If they were tough....then that was a tough old steer!...Or you over cooked them.
That cut of meat is variously called, strip steak, Kansas City Strip, New York strip or Shell Steak...
At least in this part of the world.
It's called KC strip in New York and New York strip in the mid west.....
Make sense?>?
No? Me neither!
Linda c

I have always thought that KC strips and New York strips were the same thing. At least they were when we lived in Grand Rapids. Moe ran Interstate, a national trucking company and one of his guys from the Kansas area use to bring me KC steaks. They were the same cut as what I had always called New York Strips and they were melt in the mouth tender. Around here a New York strip is almost as tender as a Rib Eye. I never marinate this cut. Like Linda suggested I would try grilling one and make sure it is rare to medium rare.

Ann

I agree that if what you are speaking of is a New York strip then it should be tender. However, I do not think they are as tender as a ribeye or filet m. But, that said, I like my steaks medium. Nice and pink but not bloody with a good sear on the outside. I marinate mine for about 30 minutes in soy sauce, lime juice, olive oil and garlic powder. I find they turn out best if I let them warm up some before cooking. I don't think I've ever let them get to room temp but they do sit at least 30 minutes on the counter. I also cook mine on the grill outside.

In the winter, I'll still only marinade for 30 minutes with soy sauce, rosemary and garlic. I then sear on high heat in a cast iron pan, flip, put in high heat oven 400 - 450, cook a couple of minutes and flip again. Sorry I can't give exact times. The thickness and coldness of the steak determines the length of time. I use the push test to see if it is the right done-ness and always err on the side of underdone. I can always stick them back in the oven a bit if too pink.

On more thing, did you let them rest before serving? I'm sure you did, but just checking.

Yep, I marinated them in a teriyaki/ginger sace, let them come to room temperature, cooked to medium rare and let rest. It's probably just me. I don't have a grill. I'll try them again. Sure as heck not gonna waste them.
Maybe save them for company and cook myself a ribeye. LOL

If it is a NY strip, which I believe it is, it would not be as tender as a ribeye, nor as fatty. It would not be as tender as a filet, nor as bland.

- from a NYer whose favorite cut is NY Strip (if you could not tell!) and who never heard of a KC Strip until relatively recently.