Sous Vide Beef Cheeks Once, Savor in 3 Different Ways

Learn how to sous vide beef cheeks and how to turn them into multiple different meals in 15 minutes or so whenever you want.

Have you cooked beef cheeks sous vide? If not, please put it on your to-do list. It will blow your mind. 

If you have, we are going to do something a little different. 

We will sous vide beef cheeks once and savor it in three different ways, including the classic beef cheeks with red wine sauce, delicious Korean beef lettuce wraps, and an authentic Thai beef salad. 

Once you’ve got sous vide beef cheeks in your fridge or freezer, these three meals can be assembled in 15 minutes to 30 minutes whenever you want. 

In this article, we’ll cover how to prep meals with sous vide beef cheeks and how to make them step by step. Get ready for some well-planned and serious deliciousness. 

A Few Words on Beef Cheeks

Did you know that cattle make about 30,000 chewing movements per day? 

As chewing muscles, the cheeks are subjected to heavy strain and are heavily infused with connective tissues. Due to the meat’s structure, several hours of cooking are necessary to turn the firm, connective tissue-rich cheek meat into a butter-tender flavor bomb.

Only through long, slow braising at low temperatures does the collagen transform into creamy, melting gelatin, making the beef cheeks tender and juicy and developing a distinctly intense flavor.

The cooking keywords here are long hours and low temperatures. That’s why beef cheeks are the perfect candidate for sous vide cooking. 

Sous Vide Beef Cheeks Time and Temperature 

Now, let’s look at the best time and temperature to sous vide beef cheeks. 

I researched since I hadn’t cooked beef cheeks very often before, and they are not in my cookbook. And I found this fascinating Reddit thread where somebody did an in-depth experiment on six different time and temperature combinations for sous vide beef cheeks. 

He also had his friends come over to taste-test the results, and the winning combination was 180°F (82°C) for 9 hours. So, I followed suit and absolutely loved the fork-tender and braised-like texture. 

Here are sous vide beef cheeks time and temperature options. You can choose based on your preference and schedule.

Temperature	Time	Doneness and Texture
131°F (55°C)	48 hours	Steak-like medium-rare
140°F (60°C)	48 hours	Steak-like medium
165°F (74°C)	48 hours	Braised-like fork tender
180°F (82°C)	9-12 hours	Braised-like melt-in-your-mouth tender

Essential Equipment 

• A sous vide immersion circulator. I used an Anova Precision Cooker to cook the beef cheeks.
• A large pot or a sous vide container. My go-to is an Anova sous vide cooking container, which holds up to 16L of water with a removable lid and a rack. If you’re ready to pick up proper sous vide gear, consider getting this Anova set, which includes a sous vide machine and a container. 
• A vacuum sealer. When it comes to sous vide meal prepping, I highly recommend using a vacuum sealer. It keeps your sous vide food fresh for longer and freezes quickly without freezer burn. 
• Vacuum sealer rolls. For meal planning purposes, I cut three custom-cut bags from an 8-inch 50-ft vacuum sealer roll from Avid Armor for five pounds of beef cheeks, two cheeks in each bag. If you are wondering how to choose suitable bags for sous vide when cooking different foods, read Sous Vide Bags 101.
• A good knife. It is absolutely essential to a StreetSmart Chef. I used my favorite Global knife to slice my sous vide beef cheeks for different meals.

Meal Planning with Sous Vide Beef Cheeks 

Deciding on How Many Beef Cheeks to Cook

The first step of meal planning is determining how much food to cook based on how many people you plan to serve.

For beef cheeks, each cheek usually weighs around 300-400 grams (11-14 ounces) but after sous vide cooking you will find that they shrink a little. Beef cheeks are decadent and rich, so one cheek can usually satisfy two people.

Here’s my meal plan with sous vide beef cheeks and I planned for 4 servings each. Therefore, I needed 6 beef cheeks. That’s around 5 pounds in total.

Meal Name	Cuisine	Diet and Features	Time
Sous Vide Beef Cheeks with Red Wine Sauce	American	Gluten-Free / High-Protein / Low-Carb Friendly	Finish on stove, ready in 30 minutes
Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps	Korean	Gluten-Free / High-Protein / Low-Carb	No-cook, ready in 15 minutes
Thai Beef Salad	Thai	Gluten-Free / High-Protein / Low-Carb	No-cook, ready in 15 minutes

Prepping the Beef Cheeks

When prepping the beef cheeks for sous vide, trimming and seasoning them with salt and pepper is all you need to do. The taste of the natural flavor of this cut is so unique that you can slice it up and enjoy it as is after sous vide cooking. 

Allowing beef cheeks’ natural beefy flavor to come to its fullest provides a canvas for more creativity, AKA more meal options.

You see, using your sous vide machine to pre-cook beef cheeks can result in several completely different meals in less time than you thought possible. Those meals keep your taste buds happy and nourish your body and mind big time. 

I have been doing sous vide meal prep this way for a few years. Want to learn more? Check my sous vide meal prep program here. 

How to Sous Vide Beef Cheeks Step by Step

Now that we’ve got our meals planned out, we know how many beed cheeks to cook, and our equipment is lined up, it’s time to rock and roll.

1. Preheat water to 180°F (82°C) using a sous vide machine. 
2. Prepare custom-cut sous vide bags. Because we planned for three meals, let’s prepare three custom-cut sous vide bags.  
3. Trim and season beef cheeks with a generous amount of salt and a pinch of ground black pepper on both sides.
4. Place the beef cheeks in the sous vide bags and vacuum-seal them. Put two cheeks in each bag, add three cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary, and some olive oil, and vacuum-seal the bags.
5. Sous vide the beef cheeks. Submerge the bags in the pre-heated water and set the timer for 9 hours. Cover your cooking vessel to prevent water from evaporating. 
6. Store the sous vide beef cheeks. After the timer goes off, if you don’t use the beef cheeks immediately, transfer them directly into an ice-water bath to cool before refrigerating or freezing.

Now that the beef cheeks are perfectly cooked and ready to go, let’s move on to the most exciting part: rounding out our meals.

Meal #1: Sous Vide Beef Cheeks with Red Wine Sauce 

Cooking this dish using the traditional method takes hours on the stove. But since our beef cheeks are pre-cooked, this classic and gourmet dish comes together in less than 30 minutes. 

Here are the ingredients you’ll need.

• One bag of sous vide beef cheeks containing two cheeks.
• Use unsalted butter to sear the beef cheeks and cook the red wine sauce.
• Cut some onions, carrots, and mushrooms to about the same size so they cook evenly. You can also add potatoes if you want. 
• For the red wine, I am using Merlot here. You can also use Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir. Those wines reduce nicely in the sauce.
• Beef cheeks sous vide make the most wonderful juice. As the connective tissues and collagen break down during the slow cooking process, they form this thick, rich, and deeply flavorful broth that you should definitely keep. With that in your sauce, you don’t need a thickening agent. If there is not enough juice from your bag, add beef broth to make up the required amount.
• Last, a bunch of fresh herbs. Thyme, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves are all good choices. Tie the herbs together so it’s easy to remove them after cooking.

Serve it over mashed potatoes or cauliflower if you want to go low-carb, garnish with fresh herbs, and voilà!

Find the full recipe at the bottom of this article.

Meal #2: Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps

This one is super quick to put together. The secret is the Korean beef bulgogi sauce, which takes five minutes to whip together. You can use it as a dressing—that’s what we will do with our lettuce wraps. It’s also a fantastic marinade. 

Once the sauce is ready, slice some sous vide beef cheeks, radishes, and tomatoes, then prepare some fresh mint leaves and chopped green onions. That’s all you need to do. Time to assemble a perfect wrap and enjoy!

Find the full recipe here.

Meal #3 Thai Beef Salad

Like meal #2, this authentic Thai dish is ready in 15 minutes. 

Similarly, you’ll start making a Thai beef salad dressing first. It’s made with tamari, fish sauce, coconut aminos, sesame oil, lime juice, garlic, ginger, and Thai chili peppers. So, the entire meal is gluten-free with no added refined sugar but bold flavors. 

The rest is to assemble the salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and lots of fresh herbs, along with sous vide beef cheeks and the dressing. 

Find the step-by-step instructions and recipe here.

Here you have it – sous vide beef cheeks once, and savor them in three different ways.

The three dishes we just made are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many things you could do with sous vide beef cheeks. 

For example, you can make beef tacos and burrito bowls with sous vide beef cheeks. How about Vietnamese beef with vermicelli? Oh, and for the winter, you can make Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup or Szechuan-style beef noodle soup. 

Oh boy. My mouth is watering as these dishes pop up in my head. 

What meal would you make with your perfectly sous vide beef cheeks? Leave a comment and let me know. 

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