Best Cuts of Beef for Grilling
A grill is hot, uneven and hard to take back. That favors cuts with fat to spare and penalizes lean ones. Here is what to put over the fire depending on whether you are cooking for two or for twenty.
The question behind this one is usually how many people are coming. A grill is a different tool for two people than for twelve, and the right cut changes with it.
For two or four people: a steak worth paying attention to
- Ribeye. The best grilling steak there is. Marbling renders into the coals and comes back as smoke, and the fat gives you a minute of margin.
- Strip. Firmer bite, one straight fat cap to render, holds its shape over flame.
- T-bone. Two cuts on one bone. Keep the tenderloin side over the cooler zone.
- Flat iron. The weeknight answer. Thin, fast and hard to ruin.
For fast, hot, and full of flavor
- Hanger. Deep and mineral, cooks in minutes, slice across the grain.
- Bavette and skirt. Loose grain that takes a marinade, then two minutes a side over the hottest part of the fire.
These cuts want to be cooked and eaten quickly rather than rested long. They are also the cheapest route to real flavor on a grill.
For a crowd
Gray's answer here is not a steak at all, and it is the right answer.
“You know, burgers on the grill are the easiest way to feed a bunch of people. So, you know, pulling out the smoker and putting on a brisket or some chuck roast or some short ribs, you know, that's a good way to kind of do a lot of food and low and slow and take the time to get something that really stands out.”
Gray Shipley
Burgers let you feed everybody at once rather than cooking in relays, and nobody is standing around waiting for their steak to rest.
What to keep off the grill
- Filet and tenderloin. Too lean. The fire finds it. Better in a pan where you control the heat.
- Chuck, brisket and short rib. These want hours, not minutes. They belong in a smoker or an oven.
- Anything thin and lean. It will be past medium before the outside browns.
Two things that matter more than the cut
“Get the moisture off the surface.”
Gray Shipley
A dry surface, and two heat zones so you have somewhere cooler to move the steak. Get those right and most cuts behave.
“I like the control of gas, the control of the temperature, the control of the heat. So, I'm kind of on either end of that spectrum, but I don't like being in the middle.”
Gray Shipley
What to buy
Fat drips into the fire and comes back as flavor. The most forgiving steak on a grill.
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Flat, quick and forgiving. Two to three minutes a side and done.
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Gray's own answer for feeding a lot of people without standing over individual steaks.
View ProductThe method is in how to grill steak, the surface is in getting a great crust, and the most flavorful cuts covers why the cheap ones taste good.
Count the people first. The cut follows from that.
- Grilling and Food Safety, USDA FSIS
- Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature, FoodSafety.gov
Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.
Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.
Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and left his words alone.
Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to USDA FSIS and FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their pages above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.
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