Description
Chaps is cheek meat, and cheeks do the hardest work on the animal. All that chewing builds deep marbling through muscle that no quick-cook steak can match. Cooked slow, the collagen breaks down into a sauce that coats the rice instead of sitting under it.
It is the cut that makes pilau taste like it came out of a hotel kitchen, and the reason a plain beef stew can taste like more than the sum of its parts. Brown the pieces first, then give it an hour and a half with onions, tomato and whole spices. Salt it late. One kilo feeds four generously, or portion it into two bags and freeze one.
Cut across the grain into chunks about the size of a thumb, which is how we cut it unless you say otherwise. Ask for it trimmed if you want less fat in the pot, though the fat is where the flavour lives.
About this cut
- Cut from
- The chap — shoulder and chest trimmings
- Best for
- Stews, pilau, soups, mincing
- Texture
- Bony, fatty, deeply flavoured — built for long cooking
- Portioning
- Cut to pot size
- How to cook
- Boil then simmer. This is the cut that makes a stew taste like a stew.
- Butchered at
- City Market, Stall 56, Muindi Mbingu Street, Nairobi
Cut fresh when your order comes in. Not frozen. If you want it cut differently, say so in the notes at checkout.
Keeping Beef Chaps 1kg
- In the fridge
- 3–4 days in the coldest part of the fridge, on the bottom shelf, covered loosely.
- In the freezer
- Up to 4 months. Wrap it tight — air is what turns beef grey.
- Defrosting
- In the fridge overnight, never on the counter. Cook it within a day of defrosting.
Minced beef and offal are the exception: cook within 1–2 days, or freeze on the day you buy.
Questions about Beef Chaps 1kg
Is this halal? +
Yes. Every cut we sell is halal, and it is butchered at our stall at City Market in Nairobi.
Can I choose the exact weight? +
On the cuts sold per kilogram you can order any weight from 0.5 kg in quarter-kilo steps. We cut as close to the weight you choose as the piece allows, and the price is for the weight you ordered.
When will it arrive? +
Same day across Nairobi if you order before 6:30 PM. You pay by M-Pesa to till 9700565 when you place the order, and we start cutting as soon as it is confirmed.
Can you cut it differently? +
Yes. Thickness, trim, boneless, diced for stew, minced through the mincer — write it in the notes at checkout and the butcher will do it.
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