Bison substitute

Best substitute

Lean ground beef, 90/10 or leaner, for ground bison

Use the same amount by weight as the bison you are replacing

Best for burgers

Close match

The everyday answer for burgers, chilli, meatballs, tacos and pasta sauce, as long as you buy it lean.

Other bison substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Lean beef sirloin, top round or eye of round, for bison steaks and roasts
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
The lean beef cuts, which match bison's defining characteristic rather than fighting it.
What changes
Best for
steaks, roasts, kebabs, stir-fries, sliced cold for sandwiches
Choose these over ribeye or strip for a bison recipe, because the recipe's temperatures and timings were written for meat with almost no internal fat, and a well-marbled cut behaves differently in the pan. Eating quality is genuinely close: firm, dense, beefy, cooked to 130 to 135F and rested. What is missing is the slight sweetness and the pronounced iron note bison carries. Salt these cuts at least forty minutes ahead, or right before cooking, never in between, and slice against the grain.
3Beef chuck, for bison stews, braises and pot roasts
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Marbled shoulder beef for anything that simmers for hours, where the bison recipe would have called for bison chuck or stew meat.
What changes
Best for
stews and casseroles, pot roast, braises, slow cooker recipes, pies
The result is richer, glossier and more mouth-coating, because chuck brings intramuscular fat that bison does not, and correspondingly less clean and mineral. This is arguably an easier braise than bison, which can go dry and stringy if it is pushed too hard. Drop or reduce any bacon, butter or extra oil the bison recipe added, since that was there to compensate for lean meat. Skim the surface fat before serving.
4Venison or elk
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The closest meats to bison on flavour, texture and cooking behaviour, if you have a hunter in the family or a good specialty counter.
What changes
Best for
steaks, burgers, chilli, stews, sausages, recipes where the lean, mineral character is the point
The best matches on this list. All three are dark, dense, very lean and iron-forward, and all three follow the same rule of cooking hot and fast to medium-rare or long and slow with fat added. Venison is the most strongly flavoured of the three, with a resinous, faintly liver-like edge that people call gamey; elk sits between venison and bison; bison is the mildest and sweetest. Somebody who found bison too plain will like venison, and somebody who found venison too strong should stick with bison or elk. Substitute freely with no adjustment beyond keeping an eye on the pan.
5Ground turkey thigh or dark ground chicken, for a non-red-meat version
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The poultry route for bison burgers, chilli and meat sauces when you want something leaner or cheaper.
What changes
Best for
chilli, meat sauce and bolognese, tacos, meatballs, stuffed peppers
Only really works in dishes with strong seasoning behind them. A bison chilli made with ground turkey thigh is a perfectly good chilli, savoury and rich, but the dark red colour and the mineral depth are gone, and the flavour reads as poultry underneath the spices. A bison burger made this way is a turkey burger, and everyone will know. Buy thigh meat rather than breast if you can, since ground turkey breast at 99 percent lean is drier than bison and will make a chalky patty. Brown it harder and longer than you would beef, because pale poultry needs the work to build any savoury colour.
6Lamb shoulder or ground lamb, for depth rather than for accuracy
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
The choice when what you liked about bison was intensity, and you would rather have a strong flavour than a close one.
What changes
Best for
burgers, braises and stews, meatballs, chilli with warm spices
Honest framing: this is not a bison substitute, it is a different good dish. Lamb has the depth and stands up to bold seasoning the way bison does, but the flavour is unmistakably lamb, sweet and slightly funky from its own fat, where bison is clean and mineral. Lamb also renders far more fat, so drain ground lamb after browning and skim a braise, or the richness tips over. Best where the recipe already leans warm and spiced rather than in a plain grilled steak.

What is Bison?

Bison is Bison, sold in American supermarkets as buffalo or ground buffalo meat, is red meat from the North American bison, and it eats like a leaner, slightly sweeter, more mineral version of beef.

Cooking tips

Everything unusual about cooking bison comes from one fact: it carries very little fat, inside the muscle or around it. That is why bison recipes tell you to use lower heat, shorter times and a lower finishing temperature. When you swap beef in, you are adding fat back, which widens your margin for error. When you swap bison in for beef, that margin narrows sharply, so set a timer and use a thermometer.
Bison steaks and roasts want to come off the heat around 130 to 135F for medium-rare, and they will keep climbing five degrees as they rest. Expect them to get there about a third faster than the same weight of beef. Past medium, bison turns dry and slightly livery, which is the same failure mode as venison and the reason people wrongly conclude they dislike it.
For bison burgers, handle the meat as little as possible and make the patties slightly thicker than you would with beef, with a dimple pressed into the centre. Lean meat has nothing to lubricate it, so overworked bison patties turn dense and rubbery. A tablespoon of grated butter, olive oil or even a spoonful of grated onion mixed into a pound of bison keeps it juicy without changing the flavour.
For bison chuck, shank or short rib, cook it long, slow and wet, and add fat from outside: a couple of rashers of bacon, a spoonful of butter, or a piece of pork belly in the pot. This is not optional garnish, it is what makes very lean meat pleasant over a two-hour braise. Reverse it when you substitute beef chuck, which brings plenty of its own.
Ground bison browns faster and darker than ground beef and gives off much less liquid, so a pound of it will catch and stick in a pan that would have been swimming in beef fat. Start with a teaspoon of oil, keep the heat at medium rather than high, and do not walk away.

Frequently asked questions

Can I substitute beef for bison one to one?

Yes, by weight, with one adjustment: match the leanness. Use 90/10 or leaner ground beef in place of ground bison, and lean cuts like sirloin, top round or eye of round in place of bison steaks and roasts. If you use fattier beef, drain it after browning and cut out any extra oil, butter or bacon the bison recipe added to compensate for lean meat.

Is bison the same as buffalo?

In American shops and on American menus, yes, the words are used interchangeably and buffalo meat, ground buffalo and bison all mean the same animal. Strictly speaking, true buffalo are water buffalo and African buffalo, which are different animals entirely, but you will almost never encounter their meat in a US supermarket. If a recipe says buffalo meat, buy bison and vice versa.

Does bison taste gamey?

Much less than most people expect. Bison is milder than venison or elk and reads mostly as a clean, slightly sweet, iron-rich beef, not unlike good grass-fed steak. Any strong flavour people report usually comes from overcooking it, since lean red meat takes on a dry, livery note past medium. If you are substituting because you were worried about gaminess, beef will taste rounder and fattier rather than dramatically different.

What is closest to bison if I cannot get beef either?

Elk first, then venison, then lamb. Elk and venison genuinely match bison's leanness, dark colour and mineral flavour and need no adjustment beyond watching the pan, with venison being the strongest tasting of the three. Lamb matches the intensity but not the direction of the flavour, so it makes a good dish rather than a convincing bison one, and you will need to drain or skim the extra fat it renders.

Can I just leave the bison out?

In a chilli, stew or pasta sauce, yes, and it holds up better than you would think, since the spices, tomatoes and aromatics carry most of the flavour. Replace the bulk with brown lentils, black beans or finely chopped mushrooms, use a well-seasoned stock instead of water, and brown the mushrooms hard to build back some savoury depth. In a bison steak or burger recipe there is nothing left once you remove the meat, so pick a different dish rather than gutting that one.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Bison substitute

Other bison substitutes

2Lean beef sirloin, top round or eye of round, for bison steaks and roasts

3Beef chuck, for bison stews, braises and pot roasts

4Venison or elk

5Ground turkey thigh or dark ground chicken, for a non-red-meat version

6Lamb shoulder or ground lamb, for depth rather than for accuracy