Beef Tongue substitute

Best substitute

Beef cheeks

Use the same amount by weight as the beef tongue you are replacing

Best for tacos de lengua

Close match

The best substitutes for beef tongue are beef cheeks, which are the closest thing on the animal in both silky texture and rich flavour, or slow-braised beef chuck shredded for tacos, which is what most taquerias would hand you if they ran out of lengua. Tongue's job in a dish is texture: a dense, fatty, almost buttery softness with no chew and no fibre, which is why lean cuts do not stand in for it well. Beef cheeks and shin come closest because they are also collagen-heavy.

Other beef tongue substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Beef chuck, braised and shredded
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The everyday substitute, available in any supermarket, and honestly good in a taco even though it is not a texture match.
What changes
Chuck has plenty of collagen, so it braises soft in about three hours, but it separates into shreds and strands where tongue holds together in tender slabs. In a taco with onion, cilantro and salsa verde most people will happily eat it and enjoy it; side by side with real lengua it eats fibrous rather than buttery. Cut it in large chunks and do not let the pot boil hard.
Best for
tacos, burritos, stews, everyday cooking, wide availability
Add a tablespoon of oil or a piece of beef fat to the braise. Tongue is much fattier than chuck.
3Beef shank or oxtail
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Both are extremely gelatinous, and that is the specific quality you are trying to replace.
What changes
The braising liquid turns sticky and lip-coating exactly as it does with tongue, and oxtail in particular has a rich, sweet, almost unctuous quality very close in spirit to lengua. The differences are practical: you are picking meat off bones, the yield is low, roughly half the raw weight for oxtail, and there are more distinct fibres. Buy about twice the weight the recipe asks for if you use oxtail.
Best for
stews and soups, rich braises, gelatinous sauces, Caribbean and Mexican dishes
Oxtail has become expensive. Beef shank gives most of the same effect for much less.
4Pork tongue or lamb tongue
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The same organ from a smaller animal, so the texture is exactly right and there is nothing to compensate for.
What changes
They are milder and slightly sweeter than beef tongue, and they cook much faster, in about 60 to 90 minutes rather than three hours. Because they are small, you need several to feed a family, and they still need peeling after cooking. If you can find these, they are the true substitute rather than an approximation.
Best for
any tongue recipe, tacos, cold sliced tongue, smaller portions
Common at Latin, Eastern European and halal butchers, often cheaper than beef tongue.
5Beef brisket, point end
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The fatty point or deckle end of a brisket has enough fat and collagen to braise into something genuinely rich, and it slices into slabs rather than shredding, which puts it closer to tongue's presentation than chuck manages.
What changes
The flavour is straightforwardly beefy, and there is a distinct grain you can feel with every bite. Cook it whole and low, about four hours at 300F, then chill and slice it cold across the grain for the tidiest result.
Best for
sliced tacos, sandwiches, braises, make-ahead cooking
Use the fatty point, not the lean flat. The flat end is far too lean to imitate tongue.
6Beef tendon plus chuck, cooked together
Close match
About one part tendon to four parts chuck by weight
The closest reconstruction of tongue's texture from supermarket parts, and worth the trouble if the silky quality is what you loved.
What changes
Tendon melts into pure gelatin after three to four hours, which coats the chuck and gives the whole pot the slippery, lip-sticking body that lean beef never has. It still is not tongue, but it is much closer than chuck alone, and it works especially well in pho, where tongue, tendon and brisket often share a bowl anyway.
Best for
pho, Asian braises, stews needing body, recreating tongue texture
Tendon is inexpensive and sold frozen at most Asian markets.

What is Beef Tongue?

Beef Tongue is Beef tongue, sold as lengua in Latin markets and ox tongue in Britain, is a whole muscle from the animal's mouth that turns exceptionally rich, soft and gelatinous after two to three hours of simmering, then gets its rough skin peeled off before serving.

Cooking tips

If you are cooking real tongue, the peel is the whole game. Simmer it two and a half to three hours until a knife slides into the thickest part with no resistance, lift it out, and pull the rough outer skin off while it is still hot. Once it cools the skin welds itself on and becomes very hard to remove.
Chill cooked tongue before slicing it. Warm tongue tears and crumbles into ragged pieces, but a tongue cooled overnight in its own liquid slices into clean quarter-inch pieces that you can then crisp in a hot pan with a little of the fat, which is how the best taquerias serve it.
Whichever substitute you use, keep the pot at a bare simmer with a few lazy bubbles, never a rolling boil. Hard boiling tightens muscle fibres and squeezes water out, which is exactly the opposite of the soft gelatinous result you want.
Substitutes that shred, like chuck and brisket, benefit from being crisped after braising. Spread the cooked meat on a hot oiled pan or skillet and leave it alone for two minutes until the edges brown. That crust replaces some of the textural contrast tongue provides on its own.
Save the braising liquid whatever you cook. It is full of gelatin and is the best thing to moisten the meat with when you reheat it, and thinned with a little stock it becomes the consomme served alongside lengua tacos.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest substitute for beef tongue in tacos de lengua?

Beef cheeks, which braise to nearly the same soft, gelatinous, sliceable texture and taste cleanly beefy. If you cannot get cheeks, braise beef chuck for three hours, shred it, then crisp it in a hot pan with a little fat. The taco will be very good, though the meat reads as fibrous and shredded rather than buttery and dense. Keep the onion, cilantro and salsa verde exactly as they are.

Is lengua the same as beef tongue?

Yes. Lengua is simply the Spanish word, used on Mexican menus and in Latin butcher shops, and ox tongue is the British name for the same thing, usually from an adult steer rather than an actual ox. Recipes for lengua guisada, tacos de lengua and pressed cold ox tongue all refer to this cut, and the cooking method of long simmering followed by peeling is the same in every tradition.

Can I just leave the tongue out?

If it is one meat among several, such as in a pot of pho or a mixed grill, yes, leave it out and increase the others, and nothing important is lost. If the dish is named after it, like tacos de lengua or lengua en salsa verde, then it is the dish, so substitute another braised cut instead of omitting it. Do not try to fill the gap with extra vegetables, which changes the meal entirely.

Why is beef tongue so hard to find?

Most supermarkets do not carry offal because it turns over slowly, so tongue goes to restaurants and specialist shops. Try a Mexican or Latin American carniceria, a halal butcher, a Korean or Chinese market, an Eastern European deli, or simply ask any independent butcher to order one, since it is inexpensive wholesale. It is also usually sold frozen, which is fine, and it takes about a day to thaw.

I do not like the idea of eating tongue. What tastes most like it?

Beef cheeks are the answer, and they solve the squeamishness without a compromise on eating quality: same silky, collagen-rich texture, deeply beefy flavour, and no organ-like note at all. Beef shank is the cheapest version of the same idea. Both give you the rich, soft, gelatinous quality that people who love lengua are actually after, in a form that looks like ordinary stewing beef.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Beef Tongue substitute

Other beef tongue substitutes

2Beef chuck, braised and shredded

3Beef shank or oxtail

4Pork tongue or lamb tongue

5Beef brisket, point end

6Beef tendon plus chuck, cooked together