We Tried 8 Aldi Steaks And The Best One Was A Black Angus Cut

While Aldi may not have as extensive a meat department as a larger grocery chain, much less a bespoke boucherie, its small but serviceable selection usually does the trick. When one Mashed writer went shopping for Aldi steaks, the eight cuts they threw in their cart included pretty decent (and not too pricey) sirloin, strip steak, and ribeye. When they cooked and sampled all of the meat, though, their top-ranked Aldi steak was a Black Angus skirt.

The Black Angus label itself refers to the most common breed of cattle in the U.S. today but isn't an indicator of quality. There can be bad and good Angus beef and even Angus beef that may have an admixture of other cattle breeds (not that this would necessarily hurt the flavor). Whatever the pedigree of Aldi's beef, though, its skirt steak supplier seems to deal in the high-quality kind. The reason our reviewer gave for putting this cut at the top of their list was that it was beefy-tasting and tender and, at $9.49 per pound, somewhat more budget-friendly than the strip or ribeye. They also appreciated that skirt steak is thin, making it quick and easy to cook. While this cut tends to be lean, sometimes even to the point of toughness if not properly cooked, our reviewer found Aldi's offering to have a fair amount of marbling. This provided enough fat to make a nice crust when the steak was seared.

To determine their rankings, our reviewer pan-seared all eight Aldi steaks they sampled, a method that did no favors for the last-place top round (although this steak can be quite tasty when braised). We have to wonder, though, if the skirt steak, too, could have been better served by a different cooking method. The reviewer did have to cut the steak in half to fit it in the pan, underscoring the fact that its lean and large size means that it may not be the best steak for pan-frying.

Meat expert Pat LaFrieda tells Mashed that he feels skirt steak is ideal for grilling, and a flavorful marinade such as the one from our herby skirt steak recipe will help ensure that the lean meat cooks up nice and tender. Yet another way to use skirt steak is to make fajitas. After all, skirt steak was the original fajita meat, and its Spanish name "faja" (a word meaning belt or girdle) served as the dish's eponym. Faja can also translate to mean "a wad of bills," which is appropriate considering what most steaks will cost you these days. Still, if you want to make steak fajitas and get change from a $10 bill (a few cents' worth, at least), Aldi skirt steak is a pretty good bet.