Best Beef Cuts for Steak Sandwiches

The enemy of a steak sandwich is a slice that will not bite through. Everything below is about avoiding that.

Slice thin, across the grain, always

A thick slice in a sandwich pulls out whole on the first bite and takes the filling with it. Thin slices across the grain sit in layers, bite cleanly and carry sauce between them.

“Uh, and I can't prove this, but, uh, muscles that get used, get flavor and muscles that don't get used, stay tender. And that's why the tenderloin, those back muscles on the animal, back muscles on a four-legged animal don't get used much. That's where the saying living high on the hog comes from.”

Gray Shipley

The cuts that suit it

• Flat iron. Even, tender, slices beautifully, and inexpensive enough to use generously.
• Bavette or hanger. More flavor than anything at the price, loose grain, made for this.
• Strip. If you want it to feel like a steakhouse sandwich. Trim the cap or render it hard.
• Leftover roast. Chilled roast slices thinner than anything you cut warm.

“I go for the lesser-known cuts. But to me, I'm more interested in things like the flat iron and the chuck eye and the bavette steak that people know a little bit less about.”

Gray Shipley

The ones that disappoint

• Filet. Tender but bland in a sandwich, where it is competing with bread and sauce.
• Anything well done. It tightens, and tight beef in bread is chewy.
• Thick-cut anything. See above.

Cook it rare

Rarer than you would eat it on a plate. The beef sits in a warm sandwich and carries on cooking, and a steak cooked to medium before it is sliced will be medium-well by the time anybody eats it.

“I think the easiest thing to do is to overcook it. And we've conditioned people to be fearful of foodborne illness, but clean, well-prepared meat that's raised responsibly, processed, handled responsibly, you know, that's not as much of a concern.”

Gray Shipley

Using up leftovers

A sandwich is the best use for yesterday's steak, and the only one that improves on reheating it. Slice it cold, thin, and let the warm bread and sauce bring it up rather than putting it back in a pan. There is more on that in how to reheat steak.

The one worth knowing about

Signature Flat Iron Steak

Dry-aged flat iron. Gray rates it above a ribeye for tenderness, and it costs considerably less.

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Loose grain, deep flavor

PM Hanger Steak

Hanger steak. One central sinew to remove, and then one of the most flavorful things on the animal.

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Cleaner, firmer, easier to cook evenly

Signature Strip Steak

A dry-aged New York strip with a firm fat cap along one edge that tells you when the pan is ready.

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The thin cuts are compared in hanger vs skirt vs flank, and flavor by cut in most flavorful cuts of beef.