TOUGH CHUCK ROAST

Goldwing

Cooked a nice looking Chuck Roast @ 325 deg., indirect to an internal temperature of 155 deg. Roast had an excellent flavor but was tough. Any suggestions of how to tenderize.[p]

Carl T

Kitchen Man,[p]I do my chuck roasts like briskets. Cook around 250 and take the internal temp to 200 to get pullable results.[p]Carl T

davidm

Kitchen Man,[p]Here's another way: Brown it in a pan on the stove to sear it, then put it on a 250-degree Egg until the internal temp is 110. Then crank up the heat to 500 for about 15 minutes (for a three- or four-pound roast) or until the internal temp hits 130. Let the roast sit for at least 15 minutes before carving.[p]That's the best way I've ever found to cook a chuck roast (works in the oven, too) and it's also a good method to use on any beef roast. Doing it this way to 130 degrees gives a uniform rare to medium-rare result.

Mike Oelrich

Davidm,[p] I dod some experiments about a year ago and adapted this same method (which I found in "Cookwise" by Shirley O. Corriher) for two BGEs. I seared the roast in my small BGE (vice a pan on the stove), then cooked at low temp over fire brikcks and a drip pan (or in a cast-iron Dutch oven) in my large BGE, cranking up the heat as you describe for the last temperature jump. Submitted an extremely long post about it back then, but I believe that part of the archives is long gone. Roast was pretty good, but it was still a bit tough. Carving into really thin slices helped. Also, I brined it for a couple days in a Guiness-garlic brine I concocted (about the same proportions as a water-based brine, but substituting Guiness for most of the water) and that seemed to help with tenderness and juciness. Chuck roasts aren't the easiest things to cook in the BGE unless you want to pull the meat (vice slice it). In that case, as was already posted, cook it like a brisket and you'll like the result.[p]MikeO

sprinter

Kitchen Man,[p]Last summer Char Woody and I had a contest to see who could take a worthless cut of meat and make it edible. We each chose, ironically, a gristly chuck roast. I tried to slow cook mine, came out with a great flavor but still pretty tough. CW cooked it for a little while on the grill first, then tented a pan with foil with some liquid in it and placed it in the egg and essentially steamed or boiled it. Said it came out wonderfully. The results may still be in the archives, it was a blast to do and compare results. Neither one of us told HOW we were going to cook the meat, we just did it and posted the results. His was much better than mine and he can probably tell you his method if you email him.[p]Troy