London broil substitutes

The cut that is sitting under the London broil label most of the time, sold under its real name.

Best for

marinated broiled beef, sliced roast beef, steak sandwiches, cold beef for salads

Not a substitution so much as a translation, and the finished dish is identical. If your store has both, buy whichever is cheaper per pound. Ask the butcher to cut it about an inch and a half to two inches thick, which is the shape London broil recipes assume. Marinate four to twelve hours, broil, then slice as thin as you can manage across the grain.

Neighbouring cuts from the same rear leg, similarly lean and similarly priced.

Best for

marinated broiled beef, roast beef, sandwich beef, budget cooking

Very close, with a slightly firmer and marginally chewier bite than top round because the muscle fibres are a little coarser. Nobody eating thin slices with a marinade on them will pick the difference. Bottom round in particular benefits from a longer marinade, eight hours rather than four, and it punishes overcooking harder, so pull it at 130 F.

The other cut that gets sold as London broil, especially in older recipes and East Coast markets.

Best for

quick weeknight marinate and broil, steak salad, fajitas, sliced steak sandwiches

Much thinner than a round-based London broil, so it broils in six to ten minutes total instead of twenty, and it tastes a touch richer and more distinctly beefy. Its coarse grain means thin cross-grain slicing is mandatory. If your recipe gives a long broiling time, ignore it and watch the meat. This is the better choice when you want dinner in half an hour.

A step up in tenderness for a modest step up in price, and available everywhere.

Best for

marinated broiled beef, steak served in slices, cooks who want a more tender result

Noticeably more tender and juicier than round, with a slightly richer flavor, so the dish is simply better. The trade-off is that the marinade matters less, meaning the tangy soy, Worcestershire and garlic character many London broil recipes rely on penetrates less deeply into a more marbled cut. Reduce the marinade time and consider spooning some over the sliced meat at the end.

The leanest and often cheapest roast in the case, and the strictest test of technique.

Best for

very thin sliced roast beef, cold beef sandwiches, tight budgets

It has even less marbling than top round, so the margin for error narrows to almost nothing: at medium it is dry and faintly livery, and at medium-rare sliced paper-thin it is genuinely good. Salt it the day before, marinate it, and use a thermometer rather than a timer. Its neat cylindrical shape actually slices more evenly than a top round slab.

Named because chuck is often the only cheap beef left, and because using it as London broil is the classic mistake.

Best for

pot roast, shredded beef, slow-cooker dinners

Broiled like London broil, chuck comes out chewy and gristly no matter how long it marinated, because its toughness comes from connective tissue that only melts with hours of moist heat. If chuck is what you have, change the plan: braise it covered at 300 F for three hours and serve it as pot roast. Delicious, but it is not London broil and no marinade will make it so.