Sous Vide Hanger Steak

October 22, 2022

Sous Vide Hanger Steak

Hanger steak hangs from the diaphragm of the cow, a single long strip of muscle split down the middle by a tough vein of connective tissue. French butchers called it onglet and, by tradition, kept it for themselves instead of selling it - American kitchens picked up the same habit and the same nickname, the “butcher’s steak.” It has a coarser grain and a deeper, more mineral beefiness than a strip or ribeye, closer in character to skirt or flank, but it comes as one well-defined cut rather than the sub-cut confusion that follows skirt steak around.

Most steaks are forgiving about doneness - rare is always a safe fallback. Hanger steak is the opposite: cooked too rare it turns soft and stringy, cooked past medium it goes tough and chewy fast. That narrow window is exactly what sous vide is built for. A water bath held at 130°F (55°C) cooks the whole steak to an even medium-rare, edge to edge, with none of the guesswork a pan alone would leave you with - useful on a weeknight when you don’t want to hover over a skillet, or when cooking for a few people who all want the same doneness.

Before it goes in the bag, the steak needs its central sinew removed - every source that covers prep treats this as mandatory, not optional trimming. Splitting the muscle along that seam naturally separates it into two lobes, and whatever silverskin or surface fat is left comes off at the same time. That sinew is tough, largely inedible connective tissue, and it never softens at steak-cooking temperatures, sous vide or otherwise.

Once it comes out of the bath, the steak still needs a hard, fast sear - well under a minute a side in a screaming-hot pan or grill - to build the crust the water bath can’t give it. Rest it briefly, then slice it thin against the grain, the same rule that governs skirt and flank steak. Serve it with a bright herb sauce like chimichurri, a pan sauce built from the bag’s own juices, or nothing more than a butter baste and good bread.

Ingredients

Serves 4

900 g hanger steak, central sinew removed
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1-2 tbsp neutral oil (vegetable, canola, or refined avocado), for searing
1 tbsp butter, for basting (optional)

Directions

Remove the tough central sinew running down the middle of the hanger steak, splitting the muscle into its two natural lobes. Trim away any remaining silverskin or heavy surface fat, then season the steak generously on all sides with the kosher salt and black pepper.

Preheat a sous vide water bath to 130°F (55°C) for medium-rare - hanger steak has little tolerance for over- or undercooking, so hold to this temperature rather than treating it loosely. Seal the steak in one or two vacuum bags in a single layer, or use a zipper-lock bag and the water-displacement method.

Submerge the bag and cook for 4 hours. Anywhere from about 2 hours, for a firmer bite, up to 8 hours, for extra tenderness, works well; hanger steak doesn’t need the 12-24 hour hold that genuinely tough cuts like skirt or chuck benefit from.

Lift the bag from the bath, take out the steak, and pat it completely dry with paper towels - any surface moisture left on the meat will keep it from browning. Heat a cast-iron skillet or grill over high heat until smoking hot, then add the oil to the pan - or brush it over the steak if you’re grilling.

Sear the steak hard, 30 seconds to 1 minute per side, until deeply browned all over - or work it in continuous 15-second flips for the most even crust. Baste with the butter for the last 30 seconds, if using.

Rest the steak for 5 minutes, then slice it thinly against the grain and serve.

Notes

For rare, lower the water bath to 125°F (52°C); for medium instead of medium-rare, raise it to 140°F (60°C). Don’t push past that - hanger steak turns tough and chewy beyond medium, the opposite of what happens with more forgiving cuts.

A finishing touch - chimichurri, a pan sauce built from the bag’s own juices and a splash of wine, or simply more melted butter - suits this cut well but isn’t required by the technique itself.

Leftovers keep 3-4 days in the fridge. Reheat gently, or serve cold, sliced into a salad or sandwich.