Beef Chuck Is More Than Stews and Stews
Summer is fast approaching, and with it the grilling season. While steak enthusiasts are eager to hear rumors of homemade dry aging experiments or the huge tomahawk they spent money on, it’s rare to hear someone rave about a chuck steak. Talking about a missed opportunity: Chuck is an incredibly tasty, versatile and affordable piece of a cow. Treat him right and he can’t do anything.
You probably already know that ground beef, which comes from a cow’s shoulder blade, is great for stews and stews. In that regard, it has everything you could dream of: the fat, aroma, and plenty of connective tissue that make the stew taste deliciously rich. Cook that sous vide and all that fat and collagen pours on the inside of the meat, giving you a decent roast that rivals even the trendiest ribs.
But there is much more than just fiction and burgunnon. (Although, it is understandable that this is the choice for those who). It is chock-full of flavorful, tender meats that just go to a hot skillet or grill as it does in a brazier, and much less expensive than comparable cuts from other parts of the animal. If you are into burgers or steaks on a budget, chuck should always be your first choice. That’s why.
Burgers
Specialty hamburger blends are in vogue these days, but whether they intend to or not, they all revolutionize the characteristics you get from a shredded chuck: a good fat-to-meat ratio and lots of rich, meaty flavor. Experimenting with other cuts is expensive – and as a psychologist, ex-butcher and longtime friend of Trey Trainam told me, it probably isn’t worth it:
There used to be a rich guy who came to my old job and asked for a whole (!!!) clipping. What people don’t realize is that the tenderloin actually contains a ton of connective tissue that we usually trim off. So I was here, tossed a $ 125 tenderloin, silver and all, and gave this dude probably the worst ground beef he could ever wish for.
Sure, you can play with the different ratios of fillet, short rib and brisket, but why bother? Keep burgers simple: all you really need is freshly ground chicken, a hot skillet, and lots of salt .
Steak
It is true that the chuck gets harder and harder as it gets closer to the cow’s head, but the areas bordering the ribs are juicy, tender and incredibly tasty. Take the cartridge eye, for example: it’s the same muscle as the ribeye, but farther forward on the cow. Sure, the shoulder muscles work harder than the rib muscles, so they’re not exactly the same, but they’re pretty darn close.
“[The slot nipple] is about two inches that connects the latch muscle to the lower back where the ribs begin,” explains Trainum, “so structurally speaking, it’s basically a semi-ribeye steak.” [It’s] also a few dollars cheaper per pound than ribeye: you have a steak at $ 8 a pound, but if you cut two inches or so in the lower back, you now have a steak at $ 12-15 a pound. What’s the difference? A little!”
If you see eyes in the grocery store, take a look at them. As with any steak, a salty shower and some time in the fridge are all you need, but a koji and fish sauce massage will really bring out the flavor.
Even if you have a great butcher, it can be tricky to get your eyes on. The boneless marble-trimmed fried chicken, which often includes a portion of the eye, works best. Trimmed, frayed to a thin layer and marinated , the humble fried chak has been my choice for a fajitas steak for many years: between chopping and marinade, it’s as tender as you like, with an unmatched flavor. Of course, it is not as delicate as real ribeye, but the taste is almost identical – and for a third of the price, I cannot say that I mind.
Marinated Chuck Fajitas Steak
If you can find chak-ai steaks, be sure to use them here, but if you can’t, boneless fried chak with great marbling will do. All fried chicken has a lot of connective tissue, so ignore it and focus on the fat moving through the muscles. You want as much as possible: Lean boneless chicken makes a good roast but an awful steak.
Ingredients:
For the marinade and onions:
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro, stems, and everything else
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon adobo seasoning, garlic, or seasoned salt
- juice of 2-3 limes
- 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
- 2 tablespoons olive, canola, or vegetable oil
- 1 12 oz can or bottle of shit lager (I used Miller Lite)
- 2 medium onions, halved, peeled and sliced into half moons, 1 inch thick
For steak and pepper:
- 1 fried boneless chicken 2–3 lb. (or 2 lb. chicken steak)
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips
- 1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips
- 2 tablespoons of neutral, high smoke point oil (I like vegetable oil), plus more if needed
Serve:
- Warm tortillas
- Lime wedges
- Chopped cilantro
- Guacamole
- Re-fried
- Sour cream
Prepare the marinade first: Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk with a hand blender until smooth. If you don’t have a hand blender, use a regular blender to grind everything except the beer, which froths and may overflow, until a smooth paste, then transfer to a bowl and add the beer. Add the chopped onion to the marinade and let it rest while you cook the steaks. (If you’re using chak-ai steaks, skip to the chopping and marinating steps – they don’t need to be chopped.)
Sharpen the knife so that it is as sharp as possible, then place the fried chicken on a large cutting board with the main strip of connective tissue running horizontally. Use the tip of your knife to cut this fabric, dividing the roast into two segments. Cut as much of the membrane as possible from both sides.
From here, you can either leave the two main parts as they are, or continue to take them apart. I like the latter because it additionally separates the marbled meat well from the cartilage, which does not break down when frying in a pan. In addition, smaller steaks absorb more marinade and cook faster.
Look for thicker connective tissue veins and use them to guide incisions. Be sure to also trim off the largest clumps of solid fat that you can save for other use if you like. I have also trimmed and reserved any particularly greasy or filmy cuts — these are best for braising or braising — but you can use every last bite of the sliced meat. The fatty parts taste incredible and we will soften them anyway.
By the way, take a heavy skillet and a sheet of plastic wrap and place the cut pieces of the cartridge on a cutting board so that the fibers run parallel to the surface of the board. Piece by piece, cover the meat with plastic and shake it on both sides with the pan until it reaches the desired thickness. Smooth them lightly for thicker steaks, or do your best and chop them to a fineness; as long as they are about the same thickness, all is well. I made mine about an inch thick, but it should have been half an inch – they were stuck in the marinade.
Transfer the steaks to the marinade and mix thoroughly with your hands or with a spoon. Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the marinade so that everything is submerged in the water. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.
About an hour before you want to cook the steaks, remove them from the marinade, pat dry and transfer to a baking sheet with a wire rack on top. Leave at room temperature for about an hour until they are no longer cold to the touch. In the meantime, drain the marinade from the onions and combine in a bowl with the chopped peppers.
Open the kitchen windows and turn on a fan, if you have one. Heat a wide cast iron or stainless steel skillet over medium to high heat for 3 minutes before adding the oil. Continue heating the oil until it starts to flicker and you see several plumes of smoke escaping from the surface. Gently press the steaks into the hot oil and cook, turning them over as often as you like, until the insides read 125 ° F (for medium-rare) or 135 ° F (for medium) on an instant thermometer. Repeat as needed if you have too much steak for the skillet. When they’re done, transfer the steaks to a platter or cutting board and let sit for 10-15 minutes.
Raise the heat to high and add a little more oil if the pan looks dry. Add the peppers and onions to the pan and cook, scraping off any burnt nutrients from the bottom of the pan until they are lightly browned and slightly tender. This should take 5 to 10 minutes.
Slice the steaks diagonally to the grain into the thinnest strips you can handle, and stack the tortillas with the peppers, onions, and other toppings you like. But don’t push yourself to do your best – in my experience, most of a steak never turns into a tortilla.