What Is A Chuck Eye Steak
Aside from the more common meat cuts, there are also some hidden gems that you will love. This post will let you know the answer to the question, “what is a chuck eye steak?
The more common cut and technically the nearest one to a chuck eye is the rib-eye. They are present on the same part of the cow, but they have different textures and flavors.
This is because chuck eye cuts are present on the more beefy side. They have more muscles, so they tend to be more challenging than rib-eye, but they pack a lot of flavors when appropriately cooked.
While they are a bit tough, chuck eye cuts are perfect for slow and low cooking. They tend to release more of that tasty beefy flavor when cooked and smoked for long periods.
They are perfect for a budget meal as they do not cost much. Since it is from the less tender side, most people do not want to get it because of the meat’s toughness.
However, if you know how to cook them, they can be sometimes meatier and tastier than the more common and more expensive cuts of beef. So you should know about them more.
What Is A Chuck Eye Steak?
Often called the “poor man’s rib-eye,” the chuck eye steak is a cut of meat that contains harder meats than tender muscles. That is why they are not very common in butcher shops.
These types of meat cuts contain some tender muscles commonly found in rib-eye steaks, but they are not enough to make the meat tender after just a few minutes of cooking.
That is why the flavor and the texture of chuck eye steaks increase when cooked with a slow and low method; they bring out the flavor with enough seasonings on them.
Yes, you can still cook them at high searing temperatures, but they do not have enough marbling in them, so they tend to stay a bit harder than rib-eye. They are more flavorful in a sense, though.
Where Are They Cut From?
Chuck Eye steaks are located literally beside the rib-eye. That is why they have so much in common. They are more compact and tend to have harder parts because of the location.
Rib-eye cuts are from the sixth and twelfth rib of the cow. That is where you will find enough marbling and fats to tenderize the muscles when cooked under high temperatures.
The chuck eye steak comes from the fifth rib only. This is also another reason why these cuts of meat are not that common since you will only find two of them in one cow when butchered.
The counterintuitive part of this meat is that they are rare, but they are not expensive. They do have similar characteristics as rib-eye cuts, but that is only because of the proximity.
They are not that expensive because they have more muscles which translates to a more challenging cut. This meat part is used more by the cow in balancing and moving.
On the fifth rib, where you get the chuck eye steak, the cows tend to weigh that area, and so by exerting more force, they develop a more rigid type of muscle when moving.
How Do I Cook Chuck Eye Steak?
As I have mentioned above, this cut of meat is perfect for smoking or low and slow cooking. However, it does have just enough marbling to be cooked as most steak cuts would have.
So if you are planning on cooking your chuck eye steak in high temperatures, you need to carefully cook and keep an eye on it as it can be hard and dry when it is overcooked.
You need to preheat your grill to the highest temperature and brush the grill grates with a thin oil layer. It will help avoid sticking the meat on the grill as well as sear it gently.
Season the chuck eye steak and be generous with it. Some seasoning components might help tenderize the steak, so put seasonings on both sides and leave it to rest for a bit.
After about an hour, you can then cook the steak as the flavors would have likely seeped into the meat. Put the steaks over high heat and let them cook for 4 minutes on each side.
That amount of time will cook the meat to a medium-rare finish. It is also better to use a meat probe to get an accurate reading of the meat’s internal temperature when cooking.
Once the thermometer reads 135 degrees Fahrenheit, remove the meat from the grill and wrap it with foil. The meat will continue to cook while keeping all its juices and finish perfectly.
The final temperature of the meat should be around 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It should not exceed 145 degrees, but you can go for well-done at 155 degrees if you want a deeper finish.
You can get a well-done finish by cooking the steak for another 1 or 2 minutes on each side. You just need to be careful at this point since the muscles might dry out when cooked.
You can also do this process by using a cast-iron pan over the stove. It will give you more options to add juices and prevent the chuck eye steak from going dry and overcooked.
How Does It Taste?
Chuck eye steak is similar to rib-eye steak when it comes to taste. However, there is a tendency for the chuck eye steak to have a beefier taste because of the more muscle content in it.
You can also enhance this flavor by adding more seasonings to it than you usually do with your steaks. Instead of just sprinkling salt and pepper over it, you can coat it with seasonings.
This will give you more flavors to play with to get that meaty beef flavor. The chuck eye steak has a natural beefy flavor, so you only need to put seasonings that will combine.
So after coating the steak with seasonings, you need to let it sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours. This will allow the steak to absorb more of the flavors from the seasonings.
If you do not have that much time to spare, you can let the steak sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Just enough for you to see the seasonings seep into the meat.
After cooking it at a higher temperature, the chuck eye steak usually tastes better than other beef cuts that have the same muscle content. The placing is perfect for the meat’s flavor.
Because of the rib and the shoulder getting closer together on the area where you get the chuck eye steak, you will be able to taste the beef’s real flavor along with the seasonings.
The meat even tastes better if you can cook it at slow and low temperatures as long as you keep the juices in. So when you do that, make sure to wrap it with foil after cooking.
Where Can I Find A Chuck Eye Steak?
Chuck eye steaks are rare since you can only find two from a whole cow. That is why they are hard to find even in the most common butcher shops, so you need other ways to find them.
The more common way now is to search online for shops that offer such cuts. Some butcheries might accept special requests, so you can look for them online.
You can also go straight to the butcher shop and get there as early as you can so you can get the first cut of fresh chuck eye steaks. They are often not displayed, too, so finding them is a bit difficult.
If that is the case, you can request or ask the shop if they have one. If they do, make sure that they have labeled it properly, as some might confuse it with other chuck cuts.
There is a regular chuck steak and a chuck eye steak. You need to make sure that you get the right one, as the regular chuck steak can be even harder than the chuck eye steak.
How Do I Store The Chuck Eye Steak?
If you buy a chuck eye steak fresh off the butcher shop, you need to refrigerate it once you get home unless you plan to cook it right away. Do not leave it at room temperature.
Make sure to wrap the steaks with plastic wrap and then put them in a sealed container. Place the steak on the coldest part of the refrigerator to keep it fresh and safe.
By doing this right when you get home, the raw chuck eye steaks will last for up to five days. You will need to cook them right after the 5-day mark to ensure that they are still safe to eat.
You can also freeze raw chuck eye steaks as long as you wrap them individually in plastic wrap. Freezing the steaks will last up to three months or even more as long as they are properly stored.
To enhance the storage life of the steak, you can use a vacuum-sealed wrapper. That way, no contaminants from the outside will spoil the meat for the duration of freezing it.
For leftover cooked chuck eye steaks, you need to refrigerate them within two hours of cooking. After two hours, bacteria would have started developing in the cooked meat, spoiling it.
So once the steak has cooled down from cooking, you need to wrap them and put them in a sealed container before placing them in the fridge right away to prevent bacteria from getting in it.
If you store cooked steak, the USDA recommends leaving it in the fridge for up to four days only. Beyond that, the steak is unsafe to eat because of contamination within the meat.
Nutritional FactS
For every 3.5 ounces of meat, a chuck eye steak contains 25 grams of protein. It is a great cut of meat when you want to gain more muscles and avoid too much fat on your diet.
The USDA defines the 3.5 ounces of meat as one serving. For every serving, the chuck eye meat also contains around 20 grams of fat distributed and the muscles in the meat.
Because of this, the calories in the meat increases by 277. It is higher than the other budget cuts of meat, but chuck eye steak is still good as long as you burn those calories.
It also helps make our red blood cells healthier as chuck eye steaks contain a proper dose of vitamins B6 and B12 along minerals such as iron and zinc.
Conclusion
While chuck eye steaks are not the most popular meat cuts, they are perfect for low-budget meals. They taste just as good as the more common and tender cuts of meat.
The muscle content of this cut of meat is perfect for making the perfect steak or smoked meat. It is a great way to keep your protein intake while also getting just enough fat for your body.
You just need to season it generously to get as much flavor as you can. Cook it properly to get the tenderness that you want and avoid drying it out through overcooking.
Aside from that, you will enjoy the meat like most cuts as it is one of the tastier options on the market!
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