This is how we eat steak for the same price as ground beef. A ribeye with good marbling runs about $13 a pound around here, but I’m paying $5.79 to $6.49 a pound for a whole chuck roast, cut into steaks and steak bites myself. We went a whole month without steak once because of ribeye prices, and I was done with that. Now we eat steak two or three times a week.
Why Chuck Roast Makes the Best Steak Bites on a Budget
I pick this up at Aldi or Costco, whichever has the better price that week. A 6-pound chuck roast at $6.29 a pound comes out to around $38 total, and that lasts our family of four for three full meals. That’s roughly $12 to $13 for four people to eat steak, which you will not find anywhere eating out. I look for good marbling when I can get it, but since we cook ours medium-well, some of that marbling cooks out anyway, so don’t stress if the piece you find isn’t perfectly marbled.
How to Cut Your Chuck Roast for Steaks and Steak Bites
Pat the roast completely dry with paper towels first — this matters for both texture and how well it sears. Then slice it into steaks a little more than a quarter inch thick, closer to a half inch. I’ll cook some of these as whole steaks and cut the rest into bite-sized pieces for steak bites. The smaller end piece that won’t make a good steak is perfect for cubing into bites too, so nothing goes to waste (except the big fatty chunk, which goes straight to my dog).
How to Cook Steak Bites in a Cast Iron Skillet
Get a cast iron skillet smoking hot with a high-fat cooking fat — beef tallow, bacon fat, or pork fat all work. Spread the steak bites out so they’re not touching each other; overcrowding the pan will steam them instead of searing them, so cook in batches if you need to.
- Don’t touch the meat once it’s in the pan. Let it sear until it releases easily when you shimmy the pan, about 2 minutes.
- Flip and cook the other side about a minute and a half more, until medium-well.
- Pull the steak bites into a bowl with a generous pat of grass-fed butter and a pinch or two of salt.
- Toss immediately while hot so the butter melts and coats everything. Don’t skip this part — that buttery, beefy sauce at the bottom of the bowl is pure gold.
Whole steaks get the same hot-pan treatment: don’t move them until they release easily (about 2 minutes on the first side, 2 more on the second for medium-well), then finish with a pinch of salt and a pat of butter on top.
Freezer Tips for Steak
Here’s my trick for individually frozen steaks: tear off a piece of parchment paper and crinkle it up first so it lies flat instead of rolling back on itself. Lay each steak flat on its own piece, then roll it up individually. Once you’ve got several wrapped, toss them all together into a gallon ziplock bag. This way my husband can grab just one or two for his lunch without defrosting the whole batch, and they thaw out fast since they’re thin.
This is our go-to for eating carnivore on a budget, and honestly, these steak bites taste just as good as anything you’d pay steakhouse prices for. Give it a try and let us know what you think.