The Real Reason It's So Hard To Find Hanger Steak At The Grocery Store

If you've ever had a deliciously inspiring hanger steak dinner during a night out on the town, and then later went to your local grocer, hoping to purchase the same cut and recreate the magic at home, only to find there is no hanger steak available, you're not alone. It turns out there is a singular reason for the lack of hanger steaks at grocery stores: Each cow only comes with one hanger steak.

According to My Recipes, for every cow there are numerous cuts of sirloin steaks, t-bone steaks, and filet mignons, but, unfortunately, only one hanger steak, a mouthwatering, underrated cut that hangs from the diaphragm along the lower belly. "For a grocery store to sell ten hanger steaks, they would need to buy ten cows," explains Jon Elwood of beef delivery service Ranchly. "This would not only take up a disproportionate amount of storage space, but it would also require having to sell thousands of pounds of beef just to secure ten hanger steaks." If you're still set on hanger steaks, Elwood's recommendation is to search out a craft butcher or specialty beef delivery service.

If you are fortunate enough to secure a hanger steak, there are a variety of options for preparing it, including grilling. The Food Network has a recipe for Marinated Grilled Hanger Steak that begins with marinating the hanger steak for two hours or more in a flavorful mixture of Dijon, garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, lemon zest, and crushed red pepper. Then, the steaks are grilled for four or five minutes on each side to a medium-rare temperature, removed from heat, rested, and served immediately after slicing. Talk about a guest-impresser!

Another option would be to pan-sear the hanger steak and serve it alongside chimichurri sauce. According to Simply Recipes, chimichurri is an Argentinean sauce that is made with fresh parsley, oregano, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and red pepper flakes, and used both as a marinade and also as a sauce for topping grilled steak. In Today's Hanger Steak with Chimichurri Sauce recipe, the steak is marinated for at least an hour in garlic, olive oil, and black pepper, and then browned in a pan and basted with butter. Tangy, cold chimichurri sauce is drizzled on the warm, tasty steak before serving. We're getting chills just thinking about it.