Chuletón: What It Is and How to Buy One

Chuletón is a thick, bone-in rib steak, the cut Spanish steakhouses are built on. Most often cut from the rib, the same muscle as the ribeye you already know, but thicker, left on the bone, and usually big enough for two people to share.

In the Basque Country the same steak is called txuleta or txuletón.

Chuletón, entrecôte and tomahawk

Take the bone off a chuletón and the same meat is sold as entrecôte. Leave the long rib bone on and it becomes a tomahawk.

The age of the animal

The Spanish call the animal vaca vieja, old cow. Most beef is harvested young. A chuletón traditionally comes from a cow that lived long enough for the fat to work its way into the muscle instead of sitting around the edges. That is where the deeper flavor lives.

Añojo, vaca, cebón, buey

Spanish beef is named by the age and sex of the animal.

Añojo is a yearling, more than twelve and up to twenty-four months old. The meat is pale red and mild. Vaca is a cow over four years old, with darker meat and yellow fat. Cebón is a castrated male four years old or younger. Buey is an ox, a castrated male over four years old.

Chuletón de vaca is the traditional one.

Chuletón vs. ribeye

Same muscle, different animal. An American ribeye is usually about an inch thick, often boneless, and from a young steer. A chuletón runs an inch and a half to two inches, always on the bone, and traditionally from a cow many years older.

If you have only had the American version, the flavor will read older and more savory than you expect.

How to buy one

Ask for a bone-in ribeye at least an inch and a half thick, and ask how old the animal was. If your butcher knows the answer, you are in the right shop. Look for fat with a yellow cast rather than bright white.

Most American butchers do not carry Spanish beef. Importers do, and vaca vieja is the term to search.

How to cook it

The traditional way is over hot wood coals, salted, and put in the middle of the table.

Beef Chuletón with Peach Sauce seasons the steak with salt, sears it hard, rests it, sears it a second time and rests again, then finishes with a brown-butter baste of garlic and thyme. The peach and shallot sauce is pulled straight from the fond.

Common questions

What is chuletón?
A thick, bone-in rib steak from Spain, usually from an older cow. Most often cut from the same muscle as a ribeye.

Is chuletón the same as a ribeye?
Same muscle. A chuletón is cut thicker, always on the bone, and traditionally from a much older animal.

Is chuletón the same as a tomahawk?
Close. Leave the long rib bone on and a chuletón becomes a tomahawk. A chuletón traditionally comes from older cattle.

What does chuletón de buey mean?
Chuletón from an ox, a castrated male over four years old. Chuletón de vaca is from a cow.

Can I use a regular bone-in ribeye?
Yes. Choose a thick-cut bone-in ribeye, at least an inch and a half thick.

Where can I buy chuletón?
From Spanish beef importers. Search for vaca vieja.