What is a chuck tender? And how do you cook it?
From frying, roasting to griling it
The chuck tender is a tasty and friendly priced steak. A lot cheaper than, for example, a tenderloin. It was one of the forgotten cuts of beef, but has been on the rise recently and is on many menus.
But what exactly is a chuck tender? And what is the best way to cook it?
Table of contents
- Chapter 1: What is chuck tender?
- Chapter 2: How do you chuck tender?
- Chapter 3: Recipe: Grilled oriental marinated chuck tender
- Chapter 4: All recipes
Chapter 1
What is a chuck tender?
A chuck tender is a tasty tender piece of meat from the forefoot of the beef. It’s an elongated piece of meat and usually weighs between 350 and 500 grams.
Due to religious beliefs, Jewish people are not allowed to eat meat from the rear part of the beef. To still be able to enjoy a deliciously tender piece of beef, they went looking for “a beef tenderloin from the forefoot”. And they found it in the chuck tender.
The chuck tender is a “forgotten” piece of beef but is now gaining popularity. Unlike, for example, the bavette, the chuck tender does not have to do much work. As a result, it contains little connective tissue, making the structure very soft.
Other names:
Verenigde Staten: Chuck Tender
Dutch: Diamanthaas / Jodenhaas
Germany: Schulterfilet
France: Jumeau à Bifteck
Chapter 2
How do you cook a chuck tender?
The chuck tender can be cooked in various ways. Roast it in the pan, cook it in the oven or grill it on the BBQ. You can grill the piece “clean” and add salt and pepper to taste later. You can also marinate the steak in advance with a marinade or dry rub.
Frying
- Remove the chuck tender from the refrigerator an hour before cooking and let it come to room temperature.
- Just before cooking, pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
- Heat butter (⅔) and oil (⅓) in a frying pan over high heat. Place the meat in the pan and grill both sides for 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile, spoon the liquid in the pan over the meat.
- Remove the steak from the pan and let it rest, loosely covered with aluminum foil, for about 5 minutes. This allows the juices to distribute well in the meat.
Roasting
- Remove the meat from the refrigerator an hour before cooking and let it come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 80℃.
- Just before cooking, pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
- Heat butter (⅔) and oil (⅓) in a frying pan over high heat. Place the meat in the pan and grill for 2 minutes on both sides.
- Remove the meat from the pan, place it in an oven dish and put it in the oven for about half an hour. The chuck tender is medium-rare with a core temperature of 52 ℃.
- Remove the meat from the oven and let it rest, loosely covered with aluminum foil, for about 5 minutes. This allows the juices to distribute well in the meat.
Grilling
- Remove the chuck tender from the refrigerator an hour before cooking and let it come to room temperature.
- Prepare the barbecue. For the barbecue, we work with two heat zones. We will first grill the meat in the hot zone (250 ℃). We then cook the meat in the less hot zone (120 ℃) to a core temperature of 52 ℃.
- Just before cooking, pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
- Place the meat on the hot zone and grill both sides for two minutes. For a nice diamond pattern, turn the meat a quarter turn after a minute.
- Then place the meat on the less hot zone and cook it until a core temperature of 52 ℃ is reached.
- Remove chuck tender from the barbecue and let it rest, loosely covered with aluminum foil, for 5 minutes. This allows the juices to distribute well in the meat.
Chapter 3
Recipe: Grilled oriental marinated chuck tender
Grilled oriental marinated chuck tender
Ingredients
- 500 gr chuck tender
- 1 slice ginger half a cm thick
- 1 garlic clove peeled
- 1 spring onion the white part, keep the green part for garnish
- 50 ml soy sauce
- 50 ml Chinese rice wine or sake or dry sherry
- 30 ml honey
- 1.5 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- sea salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Crush the ginger, garlic and white part of the spring onion by making small dents with the back of a knife.
- Combine the soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and Chinese five-spice powder in a bowl and mix them. Also add the star anise and cinnamon.
- Put the chuck tender in a sealable bag together with the marinade (possibly also in a bowl). Mix it well and let it marinate in the fridge for 4 hours. In the meantime, you can knead the bag a few more times to rub the marinade into the meat.
- Prepare the barbecue for direct grilling. Maintain a temperature of 200-220 °C.
- Place the meat on the barbecue and grill it for a minute on both sides until it’s nicely browned. Keep the marinade.
- Then place the meat on a less hot zone and use a brush to coat the meat with the marinade once more. Continue cooking indirectly to a core temperature of 50-52 °C.
- Remove the chuck tender from the BBQ and let it rest loosely covered under aluminum foil for 5 minutes.
- Cut the chuck tender into thin slices and then sprinkle it with some salt and pepper.
Chapter 4
All recipes
Looking for more inspiration? Then see below more recipes with chuck tender. Or check our beef recipes for even more inspiration.
