Poor Mans Brisket - Texas Style Chuck Roast
Welcome to the Mothership! Today we are doing another of our "cook it like a brisket" videos. This is the chuck roast. Usually a pretty cheap cut of meat and usually not great to use as a steak. However, if we can cook it low and slow like a brisket the results are fairly close to a brisket flat. If you are looking for a cheaper or smaller smoke, the chuck roast is a fantastic option! If you are new to smoking, this is a great place to start! Sound good? Lets get started...
YouTube Instructional: https://youtu.be/Xeqr90ZDuWQ
Step 1: Trim off any silver skin and excess fat
Trim off any silver skin left on from the butchering process.
Also trim off any excess fat, don’t pull out any fat that goes into the center of the chuck roast, as it holds the roast together.
Step 2: Salt the meat
Salt the exterior of the meat. I like to use appx 1/2 to 1 Tsp Kosher salt per lb of trimmed meat.
Put onto a wire rack and leave in your fridge until all of the salt has been absorbed.
Step 3: Apply your rub
Traditional Texas style is just salt and pepper, and sometimes garlic. I like my brisket style meat to be SPG.
Since we already applied our salt, we can liberally coat the exterior with coarse black pepper and garlic powder.
Step 4 Smoke the Roast:
Bring your smoker to appx 250 degrees and begin smoking.
My plan usually is to take it until the bark sets and then either wrap it or begin spritzing.
Because of the way chuck roasts are built, they tend to have a lot of pooling on top. For this reason you can either put something under it so the liquid runs off, or just smoke it unwrapped the entire way through.
Step 5: Pull, Wrap, Rest
Once your roast is probe tender - this will be somewhere above 195 degrees but below 203. On this ~5lb roast, it took about 5 hours at 250 degrees.
Pull it and wrap it up. I like to use butcher paper with a little bit of tallow.
We then want to let it rest for a few hours, this is crucial for all of these big beef cuts. I like to let mine rest in a pre warmed cooler, but a toaster oven or regular oven will do.
Step 6: Slice and Serve:
Slice it against the grain, and enjoy!
