Chuck Roast on the PBC

[Deuce]

I smoked a 4 lb. chuck roast on the PBC today. I used a couple of hickory chunks for smoke. It was a 4 hour cook with temps around 285. I wrapped at 160 and took it to 205. It made some great pulled beef sandwiches.

Seasoned and ready to go


Bark at the 160 mark, time to wrap


Finished at 205, skewer went thru like butter


A pan full of goodness


Time to eat

[JPP]

That looks.... FABULOUS!

[Deuce]

Thanks JPP

[cdd315]

Nice!! Looks like a sauce on your bun .. what did you use?

[Deuce]

I used Stubbs Hickory Bourbon

[fzxdoc]

Yum. I've got to try that.

Kathryn

[SRA]

Looks great! That's on my list of items to try in the near future!

[Jerod Broussard]

I almost put a chucky on last night.....that looks awesome!!

[Huskee]

Awesome! That is one of my favs. I like pulled beef & beef ribs a notch above pork! Nicely done!

[_John_]

Somebody got their head in the way of an otherwise great shot

[Huskee]

I photobombed my own smoker shot!

[Deuce]

I almost put a chucky on last night.....that looks awesome!!

Thanks Jerod

[Deuce]

Awesome! That is one of my favs. I like pulled beef & beef ribs a notch above pork! Nicely done!

Thanks Huskee, as much as I love pork, I'll always love beef a bit more. I'll take a great steak over anything personally.

[smarkley]

I am having serious Chucky envy... planning a run to Costco to see what they have... hahahaha.

[Deuce]

I am having serious Chucky envy... planning a run to Costco to see what they have... hahahaha.

They are pretty good, makes an excellent pulled beef sandwich

[Spinaker]

Deuce, looks great man! I take it you just had it on the grate?

[Deuce]

I hung it to 160, went to grate when I wrapped it.

[Brewintim]

Nice work, Deuce! That looked like a mighty fine smoke!

[fzxdoc]

Having seen several nice chuck roast cooks on the PBC I decided to try my hand at it today.

• Two chuck roasts, nicely trimmed, from Sam’s Club, one 2.5 lbs the other 3.2 lbs.
• Dry brined with ½ tsp table salt per pound 36 hours before the cook;
• 2 hours before the cook injected Butchers Prime Brisket Marinade, 1 oz per pound into the meat. Dried the meat thoroughly, coated lightly with canola oil and generously rubbed in BBBR (salt-free).
• Prepared fire as always: 15 minute burn of 40 coals in chimney, poured hot coals over unlit ones in basket and then waited 10 more minutes with rebars out and lid off before adding meat and 3 smallish pieces of wood: Apple+Cherry+Hickory.
• Ave PBC temp: 275.
• After 2.5 hours, the meat went into to a stall at 150 internal.
• Wrapped (double wrap of heavy duty Al foil) at 3.5 hours internal temp 151 with ¼ cup of beef stock in each packet and put back on the PBC.
• One hour to internal temp 199-204. Removed meat packets from PBC
• Poured off the au jus (shouldn't that just be jus? ) into a fat separator. It was delicious, BTW.
• Let each roast sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes to minimize carryover cooking. Then on to the rewrapping.
• Rewrapped in two fresh pieces of Al foil per roast and rested for 1 hour 20 minutes in a faux cambro. Meat temperature held pretty close to 176 in the faux cambro for the entire time.

The results:
1. Such a pretty smoke ring!


2. Did not pull as easily as a pork butt does. These guys took work. The Bear Claws were awesome. I first removed all fat veins and gristle by hand and pulled the remainder with the help of the Bear Claws.

3. Served with sautéed onions and bell peppers with melted Colby and Pepper Jack cheeses as a Philly Steak Sandwich. Here’s my DH’s sandwich with one bite taken. I had to use a cattle prod to fend him off until the photo shoot was over. See his shadowy fingers moving in on that sammie?



4. Plenty for leftovers:



Final Analysis: The meat was tender but not uber-tender and juicy but not uber-juicy. The flavor was OoTW (Out of This World), smokey and spicy but not overly much of either. I'd serve this to my MIL, it was that good.

What I would have done differently:

• Had I known that this cut was going to stall for as long as it did, I probably would have kept the PBC temperature up. For about an hour I let the PBC do its thing with the temp dropping from 280 to 230. It might have been better to keep it at 270-280 the whole time.
• I pulled the meat at probe tenderness which was about 199-203. Perhaps if I had let it go a bit higher more collagen would have melted and it would have pulled easier.
• I let it rest in a faux cambro for 1hour 20 minutes while I prepared the rest of the meal (mac & cheese and arugula salad). Perhaps if had rested longer it would not have been quite as much of a challenge to pull.

It was a fun afternoon, playing with my PBC and having a tasty dinner at the end of the day.

And finally I want to give a shout out to Dave Parrish who first gave me the idea of making pulled beef and stuffing it into a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. OMGoodness what a taste sensation!

Another well-deserved shout out goes to Brian, a fellow Pitster, who generously shared his chucky smoking tips and techniques with me. Thanks, Brian!

Kathryn

[Spinaker]

Wow awesome cook and write up. This really looked amazing.

[Doc Hazard]

How would you compare this to a chopped brisket (BBQ) sandwich? Any thoughts about corning it and making pastrami? Just because it is available in more convenient sizes, and sometimes price.

[fzxdoc]

Doc, I like 'em both--chopped brisket sammies and pulled chuckie sammies. Plus I use the leftovers in similar ways. I can't say that, for me at least, one is better than the other with the exception that in my experience the pulled chuck was juicier than some brisket flats. Plus I think that a chuck is more user-friendly to smoke and, as you say, the price is easier to live with. Maybe I should do a side-by-side comparison some day! Thanks for the idea.

I'm fixing to make pastrami this weekend for the first time (pulling a fast one by starting with corned beef a le Huskee) so hopefully he or another pastrami expert can hop in here and enlighten us both.

Kathryn

[Deuce]

Nice cook Kathryn, love the taste of those Chuckies. You're right in that they do not pull as easily as a pork butt does. They take a bit more work but the taste is worth the effort. I took a 4 pounder to 210 once in the PBC and it didn't pull any differently.

[fzxdoc]

Deuce, the second time I smoked chuckies (4 of 'em), the result was waaaay better by taking them up to 209 or so. Those babies fell apart in my hands as I pulled them, and were so juicy. Maybe it varies from chuck to chuck.

Kathryn

[_John_]

Missed this topic somehow, glad it popped back up! Looks great everyone, once I get done with all of these turkeys I will give it a shot.