If you love steak, and love saving money, I have great news! Walmart has given their steaks a “steak-over”, and they are so sure you’ll love their USDA Choice steak, it’s backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Walmart’s USDA Choice steaks are the highest quality cuts, expertly aged and perfectly marbled. Thanks to Walmart, I got a $50 shopping card, recipes, and a grocery checklist so I could try their steaks and see for myself.
The suggested menu came from Chef Eric Lackey of Flamestone American Grill, who created the recipes on behalf of the Walmart Choice Steak Challenge. His rub for the steaks contains 11 separate ingredients, I spent a few minutes looking at the ingredient lists on premade rubs and chose McCormick GrillMates “Cowboy Rub”, which combines roasted chili pepper, crushed red pepper, cracked black pepper, brown mustard, cloves, coarse salt, garlic, coffee, onion, sugar, cocoa powder, tamarind, paprika, and hickory smoke flavor. I wish blogs had smell-0-vision so you could smell the aroma of this rub, it is incredible!
Chef Eric’s recipe called for coating the meat with the rub and then letting it sit in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Chris wants a different kind of seasoning on two of the steaks, so I took the two smaller ones, peeled back the plastic on the black tray, coated both steaks with the rub and smoothed it out evenly with my hand, then flipped the tray upside down into a plastic storage container so I could coat the other sides. Here’s what they looked like after the first coat:
Chris grilled them over coals for about 5 minutes on each side, and after a brief rest on my plate while I anxiously waited for mine to cool down (and devoured an ear of sweet corn with butter and salt, omg so good), I started cutting in. People, it was the tenderest, juiciest steak I have ever had. Perfectly medium rare, deliciously seasoned and not too spicy on the outside, and just so, so good. I ate about 2/3 of one whole steak! I kept putting my fork down to take pictures as I ate because I couldn’t wait to share just how perfect it was 
So with the $50 shopping card Walmart sent me, I bought two packages of New York Strips, two strips in each package, Kingsford charcoal, the Cowboy rub, ears of corn, deli salad, a container of mixed cut-up melon, a big sweet onion that we didn’t end up using, and two tomatoes that we also didn’t end up using. But I can now say with absolutely certainty that the USDA Choice New York Strip steaks sold at Walmart are tender, delicious, and worth every penny I’ll spend on them the next time I’m in the mood for steak!
Visit seeforyourself.walmart.com/steak to see a short video from Scott Neal, Walmart VP of Meat, get steak recipes, shop for spices and condiments, get grilling tips, and shop for grills and grilling supplies. Let me know if you’ve had Walmart’s USDA Choice steaks, what did you think?
Disclosure: Walmart provided me with a $50 shopping card, recipes, and information to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
I'm Elizabeth, a 40-something Michigan wife and mother of three. I created Table for Five in 2005 as a way to connect with other Moms, and I've been blogging ever since. Please click the About tab at the top of the page to read more about me and my family! email: table4five@gmail.com
I’m not a great cook, so take this with the proverbial grain of salt —
sear the outside of the meat at a fairly high temperature to lock in the juices,
then allow it to complete cooking at a lower temp.
Great news for us , now i have an idea how to save when i cook a steak . Thanks for this.
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A 100% money back guarantee? We’ll definitely try them, in that case. I’d had a bad experience with Wal-Mart steaks a couple of years ago, so we stopped buying meat there altogether. But if they’re willing to stand behind it like that? You bet I’ll give it a try!
I love a good dry rub, too. From what I can see in the pictures, yours turned out perfectly. Just look at that gorgeous smoke ring on the outside. NOM!
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replied:
Having never bought a steak from them before, I had nothing to compare it to, but I did have steak at BLT Steak in Atlanta during the Coke event, and these Walmart ones were as good as those. Tender, juicy, no gristle or weird bits of fat, just delicious steak. I thought I didn’t like steak, and now I wish I could eat it every week!
Elizabeth recently posted..Last Night For Dinner We Had Amazing Steaks – From Walmart!
I”m glad to hear it, because their steaks where terrible in the past. I look forward to giving this a try!
I agree with you Jenny. I stopped using them awhile back because they were horrible, but after reading this article I don’t mind giving them a try again. It is a perfect way to save.
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replied:
I hope you do, because the way my husband cooked mine, it was absolutely perfect!
Elizabeth recently posted..Last Night For Dinner We Had Amazing Steaks – From Walmart!
Can I be nosy and ask about how much per pound their steaks were?
I don’t even walk by the produce/bakery/meat sections of Walmart here so I don’t know what prices are anymore (I basically just go in to get tubs for organizing, or more gauze for the first aid kits).
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Gotta love Walmart steaks! They’re a true life saver, for impromptu red wine dates and other special occasions. Is McCormick Cowbuy Rub really tasty as a seasoning? I just use some black pepper and salt and a little bit of worcestershire sauce for my marinade.
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Lanna,
I took a photo of the steaks in the packages, but zoomed in all the way, it’s too blurry to see how many pounds they were! One package was two huge steaks for $12, the other was two huge steaks for $13. Walmart.com says “pricing varies by store”. Sorry I can’t be more helpful than that!
Elizabeth recently posted..Last Night For Dinner We Had Amazing Steaks – From Walmart!
Gotcha, thank you. Was just curious as to whether it’s a better deal than my half a cow I bought in the fall (where I got roasts, tons of steaks, filet mignon, soup bones and ground beef). It’s not.
Lanna recently posted..Life’s been keeping us busy
Great! its really a new experience to me and appriciated please your posting regular ..
Thanks a lot
[...] Last Night For Dinner We Had Amazing Steaks – From Walmart! [...]
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replied:
MomReviews, thanks so much for the comment, you’re awesome
How can you have a non biased review when Walmart bought you the steaks?
It’s an advertisement at that point.
You should be more upfront about your process and not mislead consumers
Reviews from people who don’t get freebies have a much different take on this product.
No one should be shilling for Walmart.
Shame.
It seems that EVERY reviewer of Walmart steaks that has posted on the internet since Walmart rolled out it’s big steak push in May of this year has done the exact same thing: Accepted free steak (coupons or gift cards) from Walmart, then wrote positive reviews. Graciously though, Elizabeth Edwards and other reviewers have included a comments section with their reviews. It’s in the comments section that everyone can get a better idea of what’s what with Walmart steaks. I’m new to buying steaks from Walmart. I should say I WAS new to buying steaks from Walmart. No more to that given some steaks from Walmart are cut from Mexican cows while others (the ‘premium’ USDA Choice steaks) are cut from US cows. I won’t spend a dime at any store that sells any beef cut from Mexican cows, for reasons I explain in detail in a comment down below.
Had these steaks last night and they tasted like straight up dog.
Bottom line: Some of Walmart’s steaks are cut from US cows, some from Mexican cows. You don’t have to take my word for it, just check the back of the package for teeny tiny print under the nutrition label that says either “Product of USA” or “Product of USA, Mexico.” The premium USDA Choice steaks I gather all say “Product of USA” on the back – and carry the USDA Choice label on the front. The cheaper Walmart steaks carry only a “USDA Inspected” label on the front and “Product of USA, Mexico” in teeny tiny print on the back. “USDA Inspected” only means the USDA determined that the carcass the steak was sourced from was fit for human consumption, and gave no quality grade to the carcass. Whatever you do, wherever you shop, DO NOT BUY any steaks possibly sourced from Mexican cows. This is not some crazy right wing rant here on my part and I’m not a rancher raising beef cattle. Or any cattle. The crime situation in Mexico is so bad because of the drug cartels that the USDA had to pull it’s inspection facilities OUT of Mexico for the safety of their employees and move those inspection facilities up north into Texas. That means Mexican beef carcasses or cattle are entering the US even BEFORE they are inspected by the USDA. Walmart played a big part in helping that along here on the demand side and apparently are trying to live that down by now offering USDA Choice steak (i.e., “Product of USA”) in addition to the USDA Inspected only cheaper steaks (i.e., “Product of USA, Mexico”). And you know Walmart will continue to offer both price points in terms of steak. So as far as I’m concerned, according to my value system, any purchase of beef from Walmart promotes the entry of Mexican beef carcasses or cattle into the US BEFORE inspection!