Beef heart substitutes
Beef heart substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Flank steak
Same amount by weight as the beef heart
Flank steak is the best substitute at 1:1 by weight, because it is lean, coarse-grained and made for acidic marinades and fast, very hot grilling, which is exactly what anticuchos need. Skirt steak works just as well and is juicier. Chicken hearts or lamb heart at 1:1 keep the mineral organ flavour if that is what you are after. Cubed sirloin is easiest to buy but gives you a plain beef kebab with none of the chew.
- Verdict —
- Tweak it
- What changes —
- different taste, similar texture
- Best for —
- anticuchos
Updated 19 Aug 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of beef heart | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flank steakanticuchos | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 2 | Skirt steakanticuchos | Same amount by weightYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 3 | Chicken heartsanticuchos | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Lamb or veal heartanticuchos | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Sirloin or top sirloin, cubedskewers | Same amount by weightYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 6 | Portobello mushrooms (vegetarian)vegetarian anticuchos | Same amount by volumeCut in 1-inch piecesYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
Flank steak
different taste, similar texture
The best texture match. Flank is lean with a coarse open grain that soaks up a vinegar and aji panca marinade and firms up rather than falling apart over a hot grill.
- Best for
- anticuchos, skewers, grilling, stir-fries
It tastes cleaner and plainer than heart, with none of the faint iron note. A teaspoon of soy sauce or an extra half teaspoon of ground cumin per pound of marinade closes most of that gap. Slice against the grain.
Skirt steak
different taste and texture
Beefier and fattier than flank, so it drips and chars beautifully on skewers and comes off the grill juicier than heart ever does.
- Best for
- anticuchos, skewers, grilling
The extra fat means it is more forgiving if you overshoot the timing, but it also means less of heart's dense springy chew. Trim the heavy membrane before cutting.
Chicken hearts
similar taste, different texture
The same organ, the same clean mineral flavour, and cheap and widely available in Latin and Asian markets where beef heart is not.
- Best for
- anticuchos, skewers, grilling, pan-frying
Much smaller, so thread three or four per skewer instead of two slabs, and they cook in two to three minutes total. More tender and less chewy than beef heart, and they marinate faster, so two hours is plenty.
Lamb or veal heart
different taste, similar texture
Behaves almost identically to beef heart in every recipe, with the same lean dense grain and the same tolerance for a hard sear.
- Best for
- anticuchos, skewers, grilling, braises
Lamb heart is gamier and stronger, which suits an assertive aji panca marinade well but is noticeable if the seasoning is mild. Veal heart is milder and more tender than beef.
Sirloin or top sirloin, cubed
different taste and texture
The easiest option to buy anywhere and good on a skewer, but tender and mild rather than dense and mineral.
- Best for
- skewers, grilling, kebabs
This is the honest compromise: it tastes like a good beef kebab with anticucho marinade on it rather than like anticuchos de corazon. Marinate no more than four hours or the vinegar makes the tender meat mushy.
Portobello mushrooms (vegetarian)
different taste and texture
Thick portobello pieces soak up an anticucho marinade better than almost any meat and char to a deep savoury brown on a hot grill.
- Best for
- vegetarian anticuchos, skewers, grilling
Soft and juicy rather than chewy and firm, so the bite is entirely different even though the seasoning tastes right. Cut them thick, oil them well, and grill hot and fast so they brown before they release all their water.
Questions
5 questionsCan I just leave beef heart out?
Not in anticuchos de corazon, where the heart is the entire dish. What you can do is swap in flank or skirt steak at 1:1 and keep the marinade and the grilling method exactly the same, which produces something genuinely good, just not the original. In a stew or chili where heart is one meat among several, dropping it and adding an equal weight of chuck is fine.
Does beef heart taste like liver?
No, and this is the main reason people are surprised by it. Heart is a muscle, not a filtering organ, so it tastes like a strongly beefy steak with a faint iron edge, nowhere near liver's minerally bitterness. If you find liver too strong, heart is likely to be fine.
What cut of steak is closest to beef heart?
Flank steak, followed by skirt. Both are lean, coarse-grained, cheap and built for a hard sear after an acidic marinade, which is precisely the profile heart has. Avoid tender cuts like fillet, which have neither the chew nor the structure to hold up on a skewer.
Why is my beef heart tough and rubbery?
Almost always because it was overcooked. Heart has very little collagen to break down, so there is no long-cooking stage where it turns tender again. Once it goes past medium it firms up and stays firm. Pull it off the heat while the centre is still pink and let it rest a couple of minutes.
Can I use chicken hearts instead of beef heart?
Yes, and they are the best substitute if it is the organ flavour you want rather than just the texture. Use the same weight, thread several per skewer, cut the marinating time to about two hours, and grill for two to three minutes total, since they are far smaller and cook very quickly.
Tips for substituting beef heart
5 tips- Beef heart is almost pure lean muscle with very little connective tissue, so treat it like steak, not like a tough cut. Slow-cooking it for hours the way you would braise chuck makes it dry and grainy rather than tender. Grill it very hot and fast, two to three minutes a side, and pull it at medium.
- Trimming is most of the work. Cut away the outer fat cap, the silvery membrane, and any pale valve, vessel or gristly tissue from inside the chambers. What you want is only the smooth dark muscle wall, which you then cut into slabs about three-quarters of an inch thick for skewers.
- Cut with the grain into wide slabs for anticuchos, not against it. The strips are threaded onto skewers and the grain running the length of the piece is what keeps the meat from shredding off the stick over the fire.
- The classic anticucho marinade is red wine vinegar, ground aji panca, garlic, cumin and oil, and heart benefits from a long soak of four to twenty-four hours. Any leaner steak substitute can take the same time; a tender cut like sirloin should stay in for four hours at most.
- Heart is also excellent ground and mixed one part heart to three parts regular beef mince for burgers, meatballs and chili, where it adds depth without reading as organ meat. Substitutes will not give you that effect, so if that is what the recipe is doing, use beef mince plus a little finely chopped chicken heart.