Last Sunday I threw several full cut boneless chuck steaks on the grill. We had them on sale at my store for a pretty good price. For some reason there are still some good deals out there. I keep waiting for the effects of the high fuel prices to kick in. So far so good.
Anyhow I picked out a very large boneless chuck primal (a large hunk of beef) and cut four steaks off the front which is connected to the prime rib. You see the loin and the rib are connected and that is where all the high end steaks come from. The loin is connected to the top sirloin which is connected to the round on the hind quarter and the rib is connected to the chuck on the front quarter and both the rib and the loin meet in the middle.
Now that I got you thoroughly confused let me just say that where the chuck meets the prime rib is where the eye of the chuck can be found. You see the chuck eye is part of the same muscle as the prime rib. The rib meat extends up into the chuck about 4-6 inches getting smaller as it goes. That chuck eye eats just like a rib eye only it has a lot of regular chuck meat around it that isn’t nearly as tender.
So what I did at work was cut four nice big boneless chuck steaks off the front of the chuck They each had a very nice large chuck eye.
I took the steaks home and placed them in my special secret marinade that keeps evolving. How do you improve on perfection? I don’t know but it seems to be happening. I now squeeze several limes into my soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, onion powder, pepper blend. Boy is it good. Even Ben, my “hates everything” 6 year old, loves it. For those of you that haven’t been paying attention I use about 6 parts soy sauce to 1-2 parts balsamic vinegar to 1-2 parts olive oil, 5-6 little limes and season to taste.
I soaked the steaks overnight and grilled them after church last Sunday and they were great. The wife and kids whipped up a quick potato salad some baked beans and potato rolls and I was in heaven.
We ate up all the chuck eyes and saved a good portion of the chewier parts. Vickie, my wife, is going to put the leftovers in a crock pot to get it tender for some very flavorful beef stroganoff for tonight’s dinner.
We make a simple beef stroganoff. We will take the leftover meat and cut it into strips. Then I’ll chop up an onion and a clove of garlic, place it in the crock pot with the meat and just enough water to cover and cook until tender. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours once the water begins to simmer. Once it is tender I add some instant beef gravy mix to the meat and water solution to thicken, brown and flavor it up some.
Then we take a couple of cans of mushroom soup and a cup or so of sour cream and add to the meat and water, season with salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce to taste. You can slice up some mushrooms if you like but I can’t get my kids to eat them so I don’t bother anymore. Serve over rice or egg noodles or maybe some nice homemade biscuits.
Another thing I like to do with the leftover steak is to cut it into strips and cook until tender, same as above. Add some gravy packets or instant beef gravy mix to the broth and meat (make sure you mix the gravy thoroughly with water before adding to the hot broth to avoid lumping) and maybe 1 can of mushroom soup. Thicken with corn starch, and season with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce to taste and serve over mashed potatoes or rice. Very tasty and hearty.
You should be able to get your butcher to cut you some steaks off the front of the chuck or have him cut you a 5 inch roast off the front then you can peel the chuck eye out, slice into steaks and grill them up just like you would a rib eye. If you have trouble distinguishing the chuck eye from the rest of the chuck your butcher can show you. Chuck eyes are a favorite steak of many of us butchers because it’s cheap and very good.