6 Sous Vide Beef Recipes for Steaks, Burgers, Brisket, and Beyond

This sous vide beef recipe roundup proves long hot-water baths aren't just for tough cuts of meat.

By
The Serious Eats Team
The Serious Eats Team
At Serious Eats, we’re a team of self-proclaimed food nerds who are ever-curious about the “why” behind cooking. The staff has worked in restaurants, test kitchens, bakeries, and other notable publications, bringing extensive culinary and editorial expertise to the table.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated February 09, 2021
Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt

Sous vide is a predictably excellent way to cook tough cuts of beef. The slow, gentle cooking breaks down stubborn sinew and leaves you with buttery, rich, juicy meat. So, of course, we developed recipes for sous vide brisket and heartier cuts like beef chuck. But we also think sous vide can be the perfect cooking method for steaks, burgers, and even tongue.

While it can be intimidating to those of us more comfortable with roasting and grilling, learning the basics of sous vide cooking is really quite straightforward, and with the right sous vide machine on hand, you'll be ready to attack any of these recipes with ease.

  • Sous Vide Smoked Beef Chuck

    Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt

    Beef chuck is an ideal alternative to brisket when you're barbecuing or, in this case, sous vide-ing. It's a cheaper cut of meat that's easier to find, and it cooks with more consistent results. Here, we sous vide the chuck until it's tender and moist, and then we move it to the grill to impart it with the smokiness and char of classic barbecue.

  • Sous Vide Smoked Brisket

    20160801-sous-vide-brisket-guide-35.jpg
    Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt

    Good brisket is really, really good—magical, even. But finding the perfect brisket, one which balances between juicy, tender meat and a charred, flavorful bark, is difficult. Making this smoked meat with a sous vide machine takes a lot of the guesswork out of fantastic brisket. Just as we do with the smoked chuck, the brisket starts in sous vide, and right when the meat is on the brink of falling apart, we move it to the grill to take on both color and smoky char.

  • Sous Vide Burgers

    20150702-sous-vide-hamburger-anova-primary.jpg
    Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt

    Making something as fast-cooking as burgers using the sous vide method may seem counterintuitive, but really it makes a lot of sense. The slow and exact cooking means your burgers will be cooked evenly all the way through—no brownish-gray circle around the nice medium-rare meat. And cooking the burgers sous vide right up until they're finished on the grill ensures they retain as much moisture as possible. You'll never want to make them another way again.

  • Sous Vide Steaks

    Anova-Steak-Guide-Sous-Vide-Photos15-beauty.jpg
    Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt

    We're not saying there's anything wrong with pan-searing or grilling steaks. In fact, we think those methods render some really beautiful meat. But for truly foolproof steaks, we always side with sous vide. The gentle heat and total control over temperature means you don't face a gradation of doneness throughout the meat. If the center is medium-rare, the edges will be, too. To achieve a nice crust (necessary for both flavor and texture), finish the steaks in a cast iron skillet or on the grill.

    Continue to 5 of 6 below

  • Dry-Aged, Sous Vide, Torched-and-Seared Bone-In Ribeyes (a.k.a. The Ultimate Steak)

    20130305-dry-age-sous-vide-steak-process-15.jpg
    Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt

    While we're talking about the benefits of cooking steak with the sous vide method, we'd be remiss not to include this dry-aged sous vide ribeye. With a good amount of fat to keep the meat moist and an impressive bone to add flavor and centerpiece value, this is a perfect dinner-party main dish. The cherry on top? We finish this steak by blasting it with a propane torch to give it the perfect crust.

  • Sous Vide Tacos de Lengua

    20101207-tongue-tacos-de-lengua-primary.jpeg
    Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

    We know tongue isn't for everyone, but give this sous vide tongue a chance and you may well have a change of heart. The tongue, seasoned with salt and pepper, is vacuum-packed with cilantro, onion, tomato, and duck or pork fat. After being cooked sous vide for at least 24 hours, the tongue is ready to be pulled apart, scooped onto corn tortillas, and garnished with your favorite taco toppings.

More Serious Eats Recipes