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Beef Stew Meat substitute

Best substitute

Boneless chuck roast, cut into cubes yourself

Use the same amount by weight, cut into 1.5-inch cubes as the beef stew meat you are replacing

Best for beef stew

Close match

The best substitute for beef stew meat is a whole boneless chuck roast, also sold as chuck shoulder or braising steak, cut into 1.5-inch cubes yourself at 1:1 by weight. Brisket, beef short ribs and oxtail all work too. The job stew meat does in a stew is not just to be beef: it has to be a cut full of connective tissue, because that collagen melts into gelatin over two or three hours and is what makes the meat silky and the gravy thick. A lean cut like sirloin or round in the same pot goes dry and stringy, which is why buying a whole chuck roast almost always beats the pre-cut bin.

Other beef stew meat substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Beef Stew Meat with ratios

  1. 2Beef brisket (point end preferred)

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by weight, cut into 1.5-inch cubes

    A tough, well-worked cut with plenty of collagen and a distinct grain, widely available where chuck is not.

    What changes
    Best for
    beef stew, Irish stew, beef and barley soup, Vietnamese and Chinese braises, slow-cooker dinners

    Tastes cleanly and strongly beefy, and the texture is different in an interesting way: brisket keeps a defined grain and pulls into strands rather than dissolving into soft nuggets like chuck. Use the fattier point end if you have a choice, since the leaner flat can dry out. Allow an extra thirty minutes or so, and slice across the grain before cubing.

  2. 3Bone-in beef short ribs

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight, left on the bone or boned out and cubed

    The richest option, with the collagen and bone that give a stew real body.

    What changes
    Best for
    red wine stews, beef bourguignon, dinner party stews, rich gravies

    Makes the best-tasting stew on this list by some distance, because the bones add gelatin and the marbling adds richness, so the gravy thickens and shines without much help. Two costs: price, often double stew meat, and fat, so skim the surface before serving or chill the stew overnight and lift the fat off. Buy about a third more by weight if bone-in, to account for the bone.

  3. 4Beef shank or oxtail

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight, plus extra to account for bone

    The two most collagen-dense cuts on the animal, both traditional stewing choices.

    What changes
    Best for
    stews where you want a thick glossy gravy, beef and vegetable soup, Caribbean and Chinese braises, pho-style broths

    These give a stew the most luxurious body of anything here: the liquid goes genuinely glossy and coats the back of a spoon without any flour. Meat yield is low, so buy noticeably more, and cooking time is longer, three to four hours. Oxtail is expensive; shank is usually one of the cheapest cuts in the shop if you can find it.

  4. 5Pork shoulder or lamb shoulder

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by weight, cut into 1.5-inch cubes

    The same structural cut on a different animal, and just as suited to slow cooking.

    What changes
    Best for
    stews, curries, goulash, chilli, cassoulet-style dishes

    Behaves almost identically, going tender and shreddable in two to three hours, so the texture of the finished stew is right. The flavor changes clearly: pork is milder and slightly sweeter, so a beef stew made with it tastes lighter and less savoury, and a spoonful of soy sauce or a teaspoon of beef base restores the depth. Lamb is sweeter and grassier and suits tomato, rosemary and warm spices particularly well.

  5. 6Sirloin, round or other lean beef (least-good option)

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by weight

    Named honestly because it is what shoppers most often grab when the stew meat bin is empty, and it is the classic disappointment.

    What changes
    Best for
    quick stews under an hour, stir-fry style dishes, beef tips in gravy

    Counterintuitively, expensive lean beef makes a worse stew than cheap chuck. With little collagen, it never becomes silky: it goes from firm to dry and stringy, and the gravy stays thin because nothing dissolved into it. If it is all you have, change the method rather than the timing. Brown it, simmer it only thirty to forty minutes, thicken the sauce yourself with flour or cornstarch, and treat it as beef tips rather than stew.

What is Beef Stew Meat?

Beef Stew Meat is pre-cut cubes of beef trim sold for slow cooking, also labelled stewing beef, beef for stew or braising steak, usually from the chuck or round but often from whatever the butcher had left over, and its job in the pot is to give up collagen slowly so the meat turns silky and a thin broth thickens into gravy.

Cooking tips

  • Cut cubes at least an inch and a half across. Stew meat is often cut too small, and small cubes lose so much moisture over three hours that they end up dry even though the cut was right.
  • Brown in batches with space between the pieces, and be patient about it. Crowded meat steams grey, and the deep colour of a good stew comes almost entirely from that browning plus deglazing the pan with wine, stock or beer.
  • There is no such thing as beef that is stewed for too long, only beef that has not stewed long enough or was the wrong cut. If your stew tastes tough at ninety minutes, put the lid back on and give it another hour rather than turning up the heat.
  • Keep the pot at a bare simmer, not a boil. Around 190 to 200 F the collagen converts to gelatin while the muscle stays moist; at a hard boil the muscle fibres squeeze out their water and go stringy even in chuck.
  • If your substitute was lean, you can fake the missing body: stir in a tablespoon of unflavoured gelatin per quart of liquid, or add a couple of marrow bones to the pot at the start. It is a crude fix but it makes a real difference to how the gravy feels.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just buy a chuck roast and cut it up?

Yes, and you should. It is usually cheaper per pound than pre-cut stew meat, and much more consistent, because packaged stew meat is often a mix of trim from several different cuts that become tender at different rates. Cut it into 1.5-inch cubes and trim only the hard external fat.

Can I just leave the beef out and still make the stew?

You can make a very good vegetable stew, but it is a different dish. Large chunks of mushroom, especially portobello or king oyster, plus lentils or butter beans give you body and savoury depth. Add soy sauce or miso for the umami the beef was providing, and cook for forty minutes rather than three hours.

Why is my stew meat still tough after two hours?

Either it needs longer, which is the usual answer with chuck, or it was a lean cut like round or sirloin that will never go silky. Keep chuck at a bare simmer and check again every thirty minutes. Lean beef, by contrast, gets worse with more time, so pull it early and thicken the sauce yourself.

Is stewing beef the same as braising steak?

Effectively yes. Braising steak is the British label for the same thing, generally chuck or shoulder sold in thick slices or cubes for slow cooking. Buy it, cube it if it is whole, and use it exactly as an American recipe uses stew meat.

What is the cheapest good option?

Whole chuck roast in most American shops, or beef shank if your butcher carries it, since shank is often the least expensive beef in the case and gives the richest gravy. Both beat pre-cut stew meat on price and on results.

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