Are you craving a mouthwatering steak that is tender, juicy, and full of flavor? This Sous vide chuck steak recipe is an easy, foolproof way to achieve steakhouse-quality results at home. With a simple setup, you’ll enjoy tender, flavorful steak that’s cooked to perfection.
Table of Contents
In this recipe:
Take a cheap cut of meat like the chuck-eye steak and turn it into your favorite steak recipe. How is that even possible? The sous vide machine. It’s the slow cooking method that, combined with a quick sear, turns home cooks into pro chefs. It’s the best way to get the perfect cook every time, and we’re breaking down just how easy this cooking process really is.
🥩 The Cut: What is Chuck Eye Steak?
Also known as the pour man’s ribeye, the chuck eye steak is one of our favorites in the Girl Carnivore Meat Lab. Why? Because it has the bold, beefy flavor, you can only get from the chuck primal. This cut of beef is loaded with marbling, making it rich in flavor. It’s cut from close to where the ribeye is cut from, but it’s often times more budget-friendly.
It’s a great cut for quick cooking methods, like grilling or pan searing, where you can get the perfect outer crust but keep the internal temperature medium-rare to medium for the best bites. Just like the Denver steak, if we see it on the menu, we’re ordering it. And we recommend all steak lovers give this one a go.
We don’t often see chuck eye steaks, also called English steaks, at our local grocery stores, but you could ask the butcher or order it online from one of our favorite places to buy meat online.
Why sous vide?
Sous vide cooking is a method of cooking food in vacuum-sealed bags in a water bath at exact temperatures, ensuring consistent and flawless results. It’s known for its ability to produce perfectly cooked, tender, and flavorful dishes.
Which means, the sous vide method is the ultimate cooking technique for precision cooking. It’s science that you can use in the kitchen to make feeding a crowd easier and more accurate or just to nail a perfect medium-rare steak temperature every single time. It’s a great method for taking tough cuts of meat and making them fork tender, like beef short ribs, or giving you edge-to-edge even results with a bigger cut like prime rib.
We love sous vide with tender cuts like filet mignon or tougher chuck steak because it makes the steak tender and cooked perfectly, breaking down any tough connective tissue while keeping in as much of the signature beefy flavor as possible. The finished steak barely needed a knife; it was so tender.
Ingredients
We love keeping things simple when it comes to steaks, but for this steak, we recreated a version of a Delmonico steak we had at steakhouses years ago.
- Chuck eye steaks
- Garlic confit – though fresh garlic cloves will also work, we find the flavor from garlic confit to be far more intense
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Ancho Chili Powder
- Coffee spice blend – we mix espresso powder with our favorite Jack Daniel’s Steak rub
- Umami compound butter or garlic compound butter
You will also need:
- Vacuum sealer (we use the FoodSaver machine) and sous vide vacuum bag
- sous vide immersion circulator
- bucket
You could shortcut and use ziplock bags, but we find it can be hard to get all the air out. And we don’t trust the seal. If you’re going to be trying this cooking method out, invest in the machine and vacuum seal rolls that you can cut to make the perfect fit for any cut.
How to make chuck steak in the sous vide
Although sous vide steaks sound like they are meant to be served only at the best French restaurants, they are really easy once you’ve done it a time or two. Here’s how simple this sous vide chuck steak recipe is.
- Start by prepping your water bath for 115 to 120 degrees F. Once the water has come to temp, move onto the steaks.
- Remove the chuck steaks from the package and pat them dry with paper towels. Tie them into a nice round shape using butcher’s twine. Add it to a vacuum seal bag with the garlic confit on top and seal the bag.
🥩 Pro Tip: Adjust the temperature of the water bath to about 5 to 10 degrees less than your desired internal temperature. This will cook the steak to the temp you have selected, and when you finish the steak in a hot cast iron skillet at the end, it will add a few degrees and continue to cook as it rests.
- Carefully place the bag in the sous vide water bath, making sure there is no water getting into the bag. Then let the sous vide machine work its magic for a cook time of 2 to 4 hours.
- When the steak has cooked through, remove it from the water bath and sous vide bag. Pat it dry and discard the bag. It will be a greyish-brown color. Although its cooked through at this point, searing helps give it a more appealing color and that edge-to-edge crust that makes biting into a steak satisfying.
- Sprinkle the steaks with salt. Then mix the ancho chili powder, espresso powder, and steak seasoning in a small bowl. Liberally coat both sides of the steak.
- Meanwhile, preheat a clean cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Wait until the pan is just smoking, and add the steaks. Sear them in the hot skillet for 2 to 3 minutes until a good sear forms from edge to edge. Using tongs, flip them and sear the other side.
- Remove the steaks from the pan and immediately top with a slice of homemade compound butter, tent loosely with foil, and let the steaks rest for 10 minutes. You could skip the compound butter, but it’s our trick to getting indulgent umami flavor just like your favorite restaurant.
- Finally, remove the kitchen string and slice the tender steak into thin strips against the grain to serve.
Girl Carnivore Expert Recipe Tips
- We love many of the tools we use daily (and know some of them are silly), but the sinker weight is the best tool we have purchased to go with our sous vide machine. This helps hold your food down while it’s cooking, so you don’t have to worry about it bobbing about. It dries quickly and takes up minimal space when you’re not using it. For us, it’s essential when sous vide cooking. See all of our favorite tools on our shop page.
- If you know your sous vide machine is accurate, you won’t need your meat thermometer for this recipe. However, it’s always good to double-check just in case.
- Want to lock in even more flavor? Try charring the steak over a hot charcoal grill for the final crust and flavor of smoking wood.
What to serve with this steak recipe
These steaks are rich and meaty. We balance it with roasted great beans or garlicky broccolini, smoked cabbage, and a perfectly tender foil-wrapped potato. We also love serving this with crispy onions or caramelized onions on top, and sometimes, if we’re feeling incredibly indulgent, pair it with deviled crab or butter-poached lobster tails for the ultimate steakhouse experience.
Wine Pairing:
Because the chuck steak has such a robust beefy flavor, you can pair this sous vide steak with bold red wines like Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Tempranillo.
Leftovers and Reheating
Wrap up any leftover sous vide steak tightly in foil with any drippings and store in the fridge for up to 4 days. We love to use leftovers in scrambled eggs, breakfast burritos, quick steak tacos, sandwiches, and even in a quick steak salad tossed in Thousand Island dressing.
To reheat, pop the steak, wrapped in foil, in an oven preheated to 325 for 5 to 7 minutes until heated through. Alternatively, slice it and fry it until just heated through.
More sous vide recipes
Beef Recipes
Sous Vide Ribeye
Beef Recipes
Sous Vide Denver Steak
Pork Recipes
Sous Vide Pork Loin Recipe
The sous vide chuck steak recipe unlocks the secret to achieving perfectly tender and juicy steak with ease. It’s all about cooking the steak just right in a warm water bath at the precise temperature. This method ensures your steak retains all its mouthwatering flavors and moisture. It’s your gateway to cooking like a pro at home and leaving a lasting impression on your guests. The next time that steak craving hits, give this sous vide recipe a shot – it’s a guaranteed winner!
Sous Vide Chuck Steak
Recommended Equipment
- sous vide immersion circulator
- bucket
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Chuck eye steaks 2 steaks
- 4 tbsp Garlic confit or 6 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Ancho Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Espresso powder
- 1 tbsp Jack Daniel’s Steak rub
- 2 tbsp Umami compound butter or garlic compound butter
Instructions
Prep the steaks
- Prep your water bath and the sous vide immersion circulator to 115 to 120 degrees. See our note below about desired internal temp for your personal preference.
- Remove the steaks from their package and pat them dry. Shape the chuck eye steaks into even circular steaks and secure with butcher’s twine.
- Transfer the steaks to a vacuum seal bag and add the garlic over each.
- Seal the bags.
Cook the steaks:
- Carefully lower the sealed bags into the preheated water bath, making sure no water seeps into the bags.
- Allow the steaks to cook in the water bath for 2 to 4 hours.
Sear the steaks:
- Using tongs, lift the steaks out of the bath, and remove them from the bags. Discard the bags and the garlic.
- Pat the steaks dry.
- Season the steaks with the salt.
- Combine the black pepper, ancho chili powder, espresso powder and steak rub in a small bowl.
- Liberally coat both sides of the steaks with the spice blend.
- Preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat until just smoking.
- Place the steaks into the dry pan and sear for 60 to 90 seconds per side to form a good crust.
- Flip and repeat on the other side.
Serve:
- Immediately remove the steaks fromt he pan and transfer to a clean cutting board.
- Place a slice of compound butter over each steak and tent with foil to rest for 10 minutes.
- When ready to serve, remove the kitchen twine and using a sharp knife, slice the steaks into thin strips against the grain.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Want to lock in even more flavor? Try charring the steak over a hot charcoal grill for the final crust and flavor of smoking wood.
Nutrition
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Save Recipe BookmarkRecipe FAQs
We like to keep the time short for steaks, as too long in the sous vide bath can cause the texture to get too soft. We cook our chuck-eye steak for 2 to 4 hours in the sous vide. For larger cuts like a whole beef chuck roast or beef short ribs, we go for a longer time of 24 hours to really make the most of a tougher cut.
The temperature you set your sous vide machine to will be the temperature of the water bath. We love a steak doneness of no more than medium for chuck steak, so we set ours to 115 – 120 degrees F, knowing we will pan-sear to finish the steak and add the crust. After the steak rests, it is a perfect 130-135 internally.
Nope, you can stick the steak right from the freezer into the water bath. However, make sure it’s in a vacuum-sealed bag, and add the garlic as we recommend in the recipe card for the best flavor.
