12 Affordable Alternatives For Veal That Are Still Tender

Even if you're a dedicated carnivore, you may not have much experience with veal. It's never really been as mainstream in North America as it is in Europe, so it's something a lot of people only encounter in restaurants.

There are a couple of reasons for that. Veal is meat from an immature calf, so that means the animals are small, and you don't get a whole lot of meat from one. Also, there was a pushback against veal at one time over how veal calves were treated (most experts agree that veal is okay to eat now, after changes in the industry). Taken together, this is why veal is expensive (USDA figures put most cuts in the range of $10 to $15 per pound) and relatively hard to find.

Why should you care? Well, some of Europe's greatest cuisines lean heavily on veal, which is why you often see it in restaurants. I'm a trained chef and former restaurateur myself, and I've worked with it professionally. But I've also spent decades as a home cook on a budget, so I've frequently adapted veal recipes to work with less-expensive meats. Here are some of the choices I've used, and can recommend.

Veal has a few distinctive characteristics as an ingredient. Its color is a delicate pink, rather than a deep, beefy red; its texture is very tender and soft; and it has a mildly understated flavor. Choosing a substitute means balancing its paleness, tenderness and mildness, because you won't necessarily get all three. Budget adds a fourth consideration: A beef tenderloin is mild-flavored and tender, for example, but it's the opposite of affordable.

To my taste, the closest substitute for veal in most recipes is a pork tenderloin, instead. It's a small cut and very lean, which rules out a few recipes (we'll get to those later), but otherwise it's perfect. Tenderness? Check. Delicate pink hue? Check. Mild flavor? Check. I'll concede that it's not the cheapest cut of pork, but you can regularly find it on sale (at the time of writing, USDA figures showed national average prices in the range of $3 to $4 per pound). Also, because there's so very little waste, that brings down your real cost per serving.

All you really need to do with it is remove the thin sheath of membrane, aka "silverskin," that lines one side of the tenderloin (forgetting that is the biggest mistake people make with pork tenderloin). Once that's removed, you can stuff and roast it, cut it into thick medallions or thin "scallops," or dice or slice it however your recipe tells you.

Another excellent alternative to veal in many recipes is turkey breast. These are readily available year-round, but especially around the holidays because small households often don't need a whole bird.

Turkey breast has a more recognizable flavor than veal, but it's still mild enough that your recipe's flavor profile will come through. It's just as tender as veal, though, and when cooked you'd find it hard to identify which was which just by looking. That makes the turkey breast a useful option, for its culinary qualities, easy availability, and relatively low cost. At the time of writing, for example, the national average price for a bone-in turkey breast was just $1.78 per pound.

One other advantage of a turkey breast, compared to pork tenderloin or other alternatives, is that it's big enough to provide a few nice, large cutlets. Veal is often used that way, especially after it's pounded thin and breaded, as it is in a traditional Wiener schnitzel. One decent-sized breast is plenty to feed four or five, especially if a couple of those are kids (because you'll get a few smaller pieces from the breast as well). It's a favorite meal in our house, with or without the traditional garnishes.

Many of the most mouth-watering veal recipes call for veal steaks or chops (they're arguably the perfect cut of veal for beginners), rather than thin cutlets or stewing meat. Pork tenderloin is a bit small to fit the bill for those recipes, but rib and loin cuts provide an excellent substitute.

Rib and loin chops both come from the side of a hog's back, and include some of the same muscle groups. Rib chops come from the front, nearer the shoulder, and often include the bone. Loin chops come from the rear, nearer the hind leg, and are often (but not always) boneless. Both are tender, though rib cuts are richer and better-marbled. They're both mild-tasting, like veal, and while they're not quite as tender they're pretty close. They're also more affordable, usually landing somewhere between $2 and $4.50 per pound, which is among the pricier pork cuts but less than half the cost of veal.

As a rule, try to substitute like for like. A recipe for bone-in veal rib chop will work best with a pork rib chop, for example. A boneless loin chop lends itself to cutting and flattening for recipes like this crispy baked veal Parmesan, where the meat mallet tenderizes it to be more like veal. One caution: you shouldn't braise pork loin, because of its leanness (it gets dry). For stewed or braised veal recipes, I'll mention a couple of other alternatives that work better.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are just about as common a cut as anyone could ask, and at least one of the stores in your area probably has them on sale in any given week. That, and chicken's mild flavor, makes it a substitute you can work with when you're on a budget. You're probably already up to speed on the prices for these in hour own area, but the national average for boneless, skinless breasts as I wrote this was under $3 per pound.

Chicken breasts are smaller than turkey breasts, so you won't get as many servings from them, but they're still a good substitute. It's usually best to butterfly the chicken breast and treat each one as a single adult portion, though if the breast is a large one you may be able to get two decent-sized cutlets from it and a few smaller pieces to serve the kids (or set aside for other uses).

Chicken breast is a decent substitute for veal in recipes like veal Milanese. You can even use it in some stewed or braised veal dishes, though it's less suitable for those because it's too lean for proper slow-cooking. It works better in speeded-up "simplified" versions of those recipes.

As I mentioned earlier, most veal substitutions are a tradeoff between tenderness, flavor, appearance and cost. With pork sirloin you're giving up a bit of tenderness, but in return you're getting what's usually a pretty economical cut (about $2 a pound for a roast, and under $3 for chops, at the time of writing).

To begin with, pork sirloin is an excellent choice for cutlets. These aren't automatically breaded, by the way: you might think of cutlets as a breaded piece of meat, but it really just means the meat is sliced thinly. They aren't breaded in veal marsala, for example, or saltimbocca, two of the classic Italian veal dishes. That said, although you can use pork sirloin perfectly well in either dish, it really shines in breaded schnitzel-style dishes.

Another big plus of pork sirloin is that it works well in braised veal recipes, where its texture and its moderate quantities of connective tissue and marbling are a plus. This means you can use it in stews and other braised dishes. It can also fill in for veal breast, as a larger cut for roasting or slow cooking.

Earlier I spoke of veal's tenderness, pale color, and mild flavor. Although veal can be thought of as "baby beef," beef is actually a fairly problematic replacement for veal. That's partly because of how tenderness and flavor are related, in beef cuts.

Tenderness in beef cuts relates directly to how the muscles are used. The types of steak that need tenderizing, for example, almost always come from well-used muscles around the shoulder and hip joints. They're also often known for their big, beefy flavor, though not invariably. So, finding a beef cut that's moderately tender, but doesn't have a big, beefy flavor, is a tricky thing.

I find that sirloin is a pretty good compromise as a replacement for veal chops or steaks. On the price front, it's not as economical as some cuts (it can be under $7 per pound, but prices in the $8 to $9 range are more common), but it's easier to find than veal. Although it's not as tender, it's still not super-tough or chewy, and its beefy flavor is not bold enough to completely overwhelm dishes where the seasoning is designed for veal.

Sirloin works pretty well in schnitzel-type dishes (it's basically a chicken-fried steak, when you get right down to it), but like pork sirloin, it can also go into stewed or braised dishes. You might even go with half beef sirloin and half pork, so the beef flavor isn't as strong. The only place it would be really inappropriate is in something like a classic blanquette de veau (or veal stew), where a really pale color is the whole point.

You might be surprised that I suggest a relatively tough cut like eye of round as a substitute for tender veal, but it actually works out reasonably well in certain specific cases. That's because the meat has a nice, fine grain, ideal for slicing, and its beefiness is relatively subdued in comparison with other beef cuts. You'll typically find it in the mid-$5 to mid-$6 range in price, so roughly half the cost of veal.

If you look at an eye of round you'll see that it's very lean, with minimal fat or connective tissue, so like a pork tenderloin you'll have very little waste. Unfortunately its fine-grained texture translates to lots of tough muscle fibers, so eye of round is really best-suited to recipes where it will be sliced thinly. Schnitzel-type dishes, where the slices of meat are tenderized by pounding, are a perfect use-case for eye of round. However, they're not the only option.

One of this cut's most common uses, ordinarily, is that it's roasted and sliced to make roast beef sandwiches. Its texture is perfect for that, giving slices that hold together beautifully and stand up to some handling. That makes it a surprisingly good substitute for veal in vitello tonnato, a classic dish from Piedmont. The canonical version is made from a cut of veal round, poached (or roasted) and then thinly sliced, and served cold with a mayonnaise-like sauce based on ... tuna. It sounds odd, but it's genuinely wonderful.

Sometimes the veal dish itself dictates which substitutes will work. Osso buco is one of those. Osso buco is one of Italy's classic veal dishes, made by braising veal shanks. Shanks are unusual, because they're one of the very few cuts that manages to be tough even in the case of veal and lamb. That's because they're the tough muscles from around the calf's ankle and, well ... its calf, in human terms. They're dense and full of connective tissue, which is why they're tough when undercooked but lush and rich after they're slowly prepared and all of those the tissue breaks down.

Your closest substitute for a veal shank is a pork shank, which is similar (if not identical) to veal in its flavor and richness. When prepared in the same way as a veal shank, with the traditional flavorings and a hand made gremolata garnish, it's every bit as tasty. Pork hocks will do in a pinch, if that's what your grocer has. The hock begins where the shank ends, so they're smaller and less meaty, but that can be a positive for people who aren't big eaters.

Another obvious alternative to veal shanks for osso buco is beef shanks, which are the exact same cut but from an older animal. Some grocers keep them on hand regularly and some don't, because as a tough cut they're often simply used up in ground beef. If your local store has them, the price typically falls in the $4 to $5 per pound range.

Beef shank differs from veal shank in a couple of ways. One is that it has a much bigger, beefier flavor, because it comes from a mature steer. Another is that you might find it makes for oversized portions, so allowing one shank for two people is often your best bet. It means you miss out on every diner having a bit of marrow bone in their portion, but not everybody's keen on the marrow anyway. Also, because the beef shanks are both larger and tougher, they'll take longer to cook.

While beef shank is the most direct alternative, it's not necessarily your only or best beef cut for osso buco. Although they won't give you the traditional appearance on your plate or at the table, beef short ribs or even oxtail make excellent substitutes for shank. Shank will usually be cheaper, if you can find it, but if you see a good sale price on short ribs or oxtail this is a good way to use them.

I've already suggested both sirloin and eye of round as alternatives to veal in some dishes, and sirloin tip is a third entry in that camp. Despite the name, sirloin tip is actually cut from the round, so it has much of the fine-grained texture you'd get with eye of round.

As I've mentioned before, these substitutions balance considerations like tenderness and flavor against price. Sirloin tip isn't as tender as sirloin (let alone veal), but you'll see it fairly often as a (relatively) low-cost feature at your local supermarket's meat counter. This makes it an appealing option, depending on the dish you're making.

Its relative toughness means you're best using this cut for schnitzel-style dishes where you'll pound out the beef with a meat mallet. That tenderizes it, and makes it much more pleasant to eat. Sirloin tip also holds up well under slow cooking, which several of my other suggestions don't (it's often sold as stew meat), so it's an alternative to consider for braised or stewed veal dishes.,

Not all veal dishes call for whole cuts from a given muscle. Many recipes in the European repertoire call for ground veal, using it in everything from pasta and pasta sauces to meatballs and even an Italian veal meatloaf called polpettone.

You certainly can just replace the ground veal in these recipes with ground beef, as most of us do when we make a meaty pasta sauce, but all beef isn't an ideal substitute. The flavor is different, and so is the texture. Ground veal is more delicate, in both respects. Replacing the veal with ground pork, similarly, isn't quite the same because of pork's richness and slightly sweet flavor.

Veal falls neatly between beef and pork in flavor, so your best bet is to get a 50-50 mixture of both. The pork tones down the beef's flavor and texture, and the beef helps balance the pork's richness, which gives an end result that's a lot closer to veal. Veal is naturally lean, so get the leanest pork and beef you can find at a reasonable price.

Although veal is usually the star of the show, wherever it's used, you'll occasionally find it playing a supporting role. Often, that's the case in recipes where veal is part of a mixture, along with beef and other meats, to give a nicely balanced flavor and texture.

Beef, pork and veal together, for example, are often referred to as a Holy Trinity of meats for pasta dishes, where their flavors and textures meld beautifully together. In much the same way, classic recipes for meatloaf often called for all three kinds of meat until veal became hard to find after its ethical issues were called out. Yet that mixture of savory beef, rich pork and tender veal works really well, and nailing that perfect texture is harder without the veal.

I've found that both ground turkey and ground chicken work pretty well in that "third meat" role, as substitutes for veal. Both are milder and tenderer than ground beef or pork, which makes them a good pick from the culinary perspective. They're also usually available at a pretty reasonable price — $3.50 per pound for turkey and $3.74 per pound for chicken, at the time of writing — which makes them budget-friendly as well.