What Is Beef chuck steak and How Can I Use It?

If beef chuck steak has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 38 recipes to try it in.

Key Points

Chuck steak is a marbled, beefy shoulder steak, cheap but chewy from hard-worked muscle.
Braise it 1½ to 2 hours, or slow-cook 6 to 8 hours, until it pulls apart near 195°F.
Grilling it to medium-rare leaves it tough; there is no time to melt the collagen.
The flat iron, from the top blade, is the rare chuck cut tender enough to grill.
Simmer gently, never boil, or the fibers seize and the meat goes dry and stringy.

What is beef chuck steak?

A chuck steak is a steak cut from the shoulder of the steer, the same hard-working region that gives us pot-roast cuts. It is marbled and deeply beefy, but it carries the tough connective tissue of a muscle the animal leans on all day.

That is the whole tension of the cut. Chuck steak has more flavor than a lean sirloin and costs a fraction of a ribeye, yet thrown on a hot grill like a tender steak it fights back, chewy and tight.

The fix is to play to its strengths. Either braise it slow until the collagen melts, or marinade and slice it thin, but do not treat it like a quick steakhouse cut.

For the full story on the shoulder and its roasts, see beef chuck; this page is about the steaks cut from it.

Cooking Chuck Steak

The most reliable route is low and slow. Brown the steak hard in a hot pan, then braise it in liquid, partly covered, at a gentle simmer for about 1½ to 2 hours until a fork slides in easily.

That moist heat is what turns the tough fibers silky, the idea behind a classic Easy Swiss Steak and the slow-cooked Crock Pot Smothered Steak. A slow cooker does the same work over 6 to 8 hours on low.

The collagen does not start surrendering until the meat is held well past steak temperatures, so do not test doneness with a medium-rare reading. A braised chuck steak is ready closer to 195°F (90°C), when it pulls apart, as in Braised Beef with Tomatoes & Herbs.

There is a faster path for one chuck sub-cut. The flat iron, cut from the top blade, is genuinely tender and grills like a good steak, the rare exception in this otherwise braise-it shoulder.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Chuck's rich, fatty flavor wants assertive company that can stand up to a long cook. Onions and garlic, tomato, a splash of red wine or dark beer, and firm root vegetables all hold their own, and a hit of acid keeps the braise from turning heavy.

That savory backbone carries a saucy Steak Rancheros.

The biggest mistake is grilling a regular chuck steak to medium-rare. It has no time to break down its collagen, so it eats tough and tight no matter how good the meat looked raw.

The second is boiling instead of simmering a braise. A hard boil seizes the muscle fibers and squeezes out moisture, leaving stringy, dry meat in greasy liquid. Keep the surface barely trembling.

Substitutes

For braising, blade or arm steaks from the same shoulder behave identically, since they share the same marbling and collagen.

A thick slice of beef chuck roast, cut into steak-sized pieces, is the most natural stand-in and often cheaper per pound. Short ribs work too and run even richer.

If you specifically want to grill, swap to a true tender cut like sirloin or flat iron rather than forcing a chuck steak onto high heat. The reverse swap, putting sirloin into a long braise, leaves you with dry, grainy meat because it lacks the fat and collagen.

Buying and Storing

Chuck steak shows up as blade steaks, 7-bone steaks, and arm steaks, all coarse-grained with generous white marbling. Look for that marbling and a deep red color, plus a visible seam of connective tissue, which is the collagen that will melt during a braise.

A line of gristle through the middle is normal for the cut and not a defect; it dissolves with slow cooking.

Keep raw chuck steak in the coldest part of the fridge and cook it within 3 to 5 days, or wrap it airtight and freeze for up to a year. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, never on the counter.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 oz (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 69Calories from Fat 48

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 5.4g 8%

Saturated Fat 2.2g 11%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 19mg 7%

Sodium 19mg 1%

Total Carbohydrate 0.0g 0%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars ~

Protein 4.8g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 0% • Iron 3%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find beef chuck steak: Beef chuck steak is usually found in the meats section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Beef chuck steak is a member of the Beef Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 牛肉夹头牛排
British (UK) term: Beef chuck steak
en français: paleron de boeuf
en español: filete de carne de vacuno de la tirada

How much does beef chuck steak weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 ounce	28 grams
1 lb	453 grams

Beef Products

Beef, short ribs 58 Beef, steak 94 Beef liver 36 Suet 51 Corned beef 76 Rump steak 5 Beef roast, rump 38 Beef, tenderloin 63 Beef, filet mignon 50 Stewing beef 184

Recipes using beef chuck steak

There are 38 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Beef & Beans

Slow cooker beef and beans with cubed chuck, salt pork, and pinto beans simmered in tomato paste, garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Old-school cowboy comfort food, low and slow until the beef pulls apart.

Venison & Redcurrant Casserole

This is a wonderful recipe for either a dinner party or Sunday lunch. Whether or not you use redcurrants in the actual sauce or purely as a decoration depends very much on the time of year and variety of redcurrants you can find. End of summer home-grown redcurrants add a wonderful sweet tartness to the sauce, however imported under-ripe fruits can impart a certain bitterness and are probably best left for garnish. If you do not use fresh berries add a little extra redcurrant jelly.