Sous Vide Chuck Eye Steak

Learn why sous vide is the best way to prepare a chuck eye steak and make an absolutely amazing meal from this cheap cut. Cooking a chuck eye steak in sous vide is a great way to show off the power of sous vide to any doubters you know, even high end restaurants!

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Lately I have been watching Alton Brown's Good Eats Reloaded.

Love it!

Alton has been going over old episodes of Good Eats and making changes to the show. Sometimes it's a recipe that is re-worked, a brand new recipe, or just some new piece of information.

So why not do some Eat Like No One Else Reloaded? 

I have some posts that have been out on the internet for quite some time. Case in point this post you are reading here, originally published all the way back on October 29, 2009. 

So won't you join me, for this Eat Like No One Else Reloaded - How to Cook Chuck Eye Steak 🙂

Note all the original text is in quotes.

Jump to:

• 🥩 What is a Chuck Eye Steak?
• 💲 Price of a Chuck Eye Steak
• 🥊 Center Eye vs Center Cut Chuck Steak
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 🔪 How to Prep
• 🛁 Why Sous Vide
• 🤐 How to Seal the Steak for Sous Vide
• ⏲️ What Time and Temperature?
• ⛵ What If the Steak Floats?
• 🔥 How to Sear
• 🏆 Buy the Best Chuck Eye Steak
• 🥩 Other Steaks to Cook
• 🥔 Sides
• Sous Vide Chuck Eye Steak

🥩 What is a Chuck Eye Steak?

Like a lot of people I pass by the T-bones, Porterhouses, and Ribeyes of the world because I just can't afford to buy them. But I still want to have a good steak. So what do I do? I reach for the Chuck Eye Steak.

We had less income then, so I for sure wasn't buying T-Bones and Porterhouse steaks. Now the reason I don't buy them is that I have several more mouths to feed! Plus both of those steaks have dropped a lot in popularity and can be hard to find at all grocery stores.

Now normally you hear about chuck eye being used as pot roast and the roast from chuck section of the cow, makes the perfect pot roast. Butchers also cut steaks from the chuck.

How can they be any good you ask? You cook a pot roast for hours and now you are saying I should cook a steak from the same part of the cow for a minutes on the grill. You might think that I am out of my mind. But I have discovered a technique that makes the chuck eye steak worthwhile to eat.

Now I have found a new way that wasn't available yet in 2009 or at least I had no clue it exists - more on that in a moment.

💲 Price of a Chuck Eye Steak

First you need to select your steak. Often I am able to find them on sale for less than $3 a pound.

 I wish!

I haven't seen them on sale for that price in a while. At least two to three more dollars per pound now is what I find. 

Expect to pay around $5.99 a pound to $7.99 a pound depending on where you are shopping.

🥊 Center Eye vs Center Cut Chuck Steak

If you can, try to find ones that say center eye or center cut. They are usually a little more expensive than just the standard chuck eye steak, but I find that you end up throwing out a lot of fat and grizzle, so the slightly more expensive cut is a similar value.

Still follow that advice.

🛒 Ingredients

Here is what you will need from the store

• 2 Chuck Eye steaks
• 4 tbsp kosher salt
• 4 tsp freshly cracker black pepper
• 2 tsp high heat cooking oil for searing

Chuck eye steaks can be pretty big, weighting from ¾ of a pound to over a pound.

You will need about 1 less tablespoon of salt and teaspoon of pepper if you use a center cut chuck eye. This is all the seasoning you need. This steak has a lot of beefy flavor that you want to allow to shine on it's own. If you are looking to marinade a steak that would better with a flank, skirt, or sierra steak.

🔪 How to Prep

Second, once you have your steak home, get it out an hour before cooking. Third, and this is the most important step, dump kosher salt (don't even think of using table salt) all over the meat. Cover both sides with so much salt that you can hardly see any red.

Won't this make your steak super salty? No.

No, I really do mean that! It won't be too salty. 

What you are doing here is drawing moisture to the surface, which will help give your steak a nice sear.

Then through the process of osmosis, some of the water will go back into the meat and take along with it the salt which will do two things: flavor the meat and break down the proteins. You can also add other seasonings of your choice that will be taken along with the salt.

I crack black peppercorns onto the steak when I add the salt. That's all it needs.

After about 45 mins or so depending on how thick your steak is, wash off all the salt and pat the steak dry with a paper towel. You will notice that the steak is now much more likely to fall apart in your hands. 

I don't wash all off the steak anymore. I don't want to add water to it. I simply rub it off with a towel or my hands. 

Need more help figuring out what different cuts of beef are good for? Check out the entire collection of posts on the different beef cuts and how to cook them.

🛁 Why Sous Vide

I promised you a new method that wasn't available in 2009, well here is.

Sous Vide!

One Christmas I got a Anova Sous Vide Precision Nano Cooker. I have since switched over to a Vesta Imersa Elite model. The design I think is better because it doesn't require as much water and is easier to use with a stock pot which is what I normally sous vide in.

What I like about Sous Vide cooking is that you can hit that perfect temperature, ever time. For a steak it's even better. You can look up exactly what temperature you want the steak done to. Want medium, set the sous vide to 140 degrees. Medium rare more your thing? Go for 135 degrees.

The steak will reach exactly 140 degrees in the water bath and not exceed it. The steak cannot go higher in temperature than the water itself. 

You are also able to cook your steak longer than you could with any other method. With a steak like chuck eye that comes from an area of the cow that can be tough, you can cook it for a longer time to break down connective tissues rending a tender steak without ever going above your desired temperature. A cut of beef that normally would only be good for pot roast can be a tender, rich, tasty steak.

🤐 How to Seal the Steak for Sous Vide

We already told you how to season your steak, now let's take you through the rest of the process. Start by sealing your steak.

Both my in-laws and friend have a Food Saver system, so they use that to seal their food before going into the bath. I start out just using Ziploc Freezer Bags like this one:

For this you use a technique called the "water displacement method". You remove as much air from the bag as possible. With the bag still partly open, start lower it into the water bath. Then close the bag and completely submerg it.

If you want a more sustainable option you can use a Stasher Half Gallon Silicone bag. It works the same way, only you can clean the bag and use it over and over again.

Something I have used before it buying reusable bags that come with a pump. You put your steak in the bag and then pump out the air. It works, not as well as a vacuum sealer. The bags themselves are reusable but I found that after a few uses I had to toss them as they weren't super durable. Still a good option to consider.

What do I currently do? I have a Vesta vacuum sealer that I use gallon sized WeVac bags with. I like the big bags because I can fit anything in them and if I need something smaller I simply cut them down.

⏲️ What Time and Temperature?

You could cook the steak for as little as an hour. I like to go to 2-3 hours to give the meat plenty of time to get tender. As for temperature, follow this guide.

Rare	120-125 degrees
Medium Rare	130-135 degrees
Medium	140 degrees

Once you got that set put your steak in the water bath and get the circulator going. I never wait for the water to come to temperature as I don't think it harms the steak to put it in right away and it's easier to put your hands into colder water.

⛵ What If the Steak Floats?

So this is a common problem. If you don't get enough air out of your bag it could still float. I have used a brick before as you see in the photo above. A metal bowl, plate or a pot will work too. Some people like to use sous vide magnets that help keep the bag underwater.

What I have found success with is pinning my steak underneath the circulator. It doesn't interfere with how mine works and the steak tends to stay place.

🔥 How to Sear

Now you certainly don't want just serve up a steak that looks like this even thought you totally could.

You need to sear your steak. My recommendation is to do it in a hot cast iron skillet for about a minute per side. Get that skillet as hot as you can get it. It just needs to get browned, it's already done being cooked.

More Pink or Red Inside

You know how when you cook a steak you sometimes only get a small amount of red or pink in the center? Well with this method you get pink or red throughout. The only part that isn't is the outer crust. How is that for perfect!

Look at all that pink in the middle!

Or better yet look at this slice from a more recent steak I cooked.

Perfection!

I hope you enjoyed this "reloaded post" If you don't have a sous vide cooker yet, I do think they are worth it That steak I had was so good. Cooked to perfection, moist, and a melt in your mouth texture. Best chuck eye steak I have ever had. 

🥩 Other Steaks to Cook

Here are some other steaks you should try out. The Flat Iron steak is another one that I love to sous vide.

• Sirloin Filet
• Flank
• Chuck Blade
• Sierra
• Teres Major

🥔 Sides

Steaks aren't the only thing I love to sous vide. Here are my favorite side dishes to try.

• Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
• Sous Vide Butter Poached Carrots
• Sous Vide Brussels Sprouts