Also sold as: Butcher’s steak, hangar (this is an incorrect
spelling but appears frequently), arrachera (Mexico), fajitas
arracheras (south Texas), bistro steak, onglet (France).
Where it’s cut from: From the plate section of the cow (the
front of the belly); it “hangs” off the cow’s diaphragm,
hence the name.
Shopping: Hanger steak can be found in a few different
forms in the market. Straight from the steer, it comes as two
rather large, loose-grained muscles stuck together with a ton
of connective tissue and silverskin surrounding it. If you’re
lucky, you’ll have a good butcher who knows how to break
it down into two well-trimmed steaks. Each one will be
about a foot long and weigh in at 8 to 10 ounces, with a
triangular cross section.
I’ve seen these individual steaks butterflied into wider,
thinner steaks, supposedly to make for more even cooking.
Really, though, a butterflied hanger steak is too thin to cook
to medium-rare while still developing a nice crust, so I’d
avoid them. Instead, stick to a regular trimmed steak or buy
it untrimmed and do it yourself.
Trimming: You’ll want to start by removing all the
silverskin and excess fat from the exterior with a sharp,
sharp boning knife: Slide the tip of the knife under the
silverskin, grab the skin with your free hand, and then
carefully pull the knife under it, taking off as little meat as
you can. Eventually you’ll end up with a piece of meat with
two muscles attached by a thick sinew that runs down their