This recipe will produce a pair of smoked chuck roasts with one sweet and spicy and the other.. savory only. It’s a great way to serve smoked chuck roast and give your guests a choice of flavors while using the same cut of meat. I am also going to show you how using brown butcher paper to wrap the meat is better than foil.
These will, of course, feature my Jeff’s original rub recipe (purchase recipes here) and the one and only Jeff’s Texas style rub recipe (purchase recipes here) which you can purchase from this website so you can start making your own rubs at home and not have to buy the overly salty store-bought stuff.
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Helpful Information
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Brine Time: 6 hours
Cook Time: 8 hours (approx.)
Rest Time: 2 hours
Smoker Temp: 225-240°F
Meat Finish Temp: 200°F
Recommended Wood: Pecan
What You’ll Need
A pair of 2-3 lb roasts.
Kosher salt (for dry brine)
Olive oil
Jeff’s Texas style rub (purchase recipes here)
Mustard, Yellow
Jeff’s Original rub (purchase recipes here)
Brown or pink butcher paper, unwaxed and FDA approved (optional)
Dry Brine – Side 1
Note: This dry brining process simply seasons the inside of the meat and because it works so well, I recommend it highly. I don’t like things overly salty and this creates a very well balanced, perfectly seasoned piece of meat throughout. I still use my rubs on the outside and it balances very well with the seasoning that is inside.
Place the chuck roasts on a cookie sheet or a couple of plates and sprinkle kosher salt onto the top sides. There’s no specific top or bottom so whichever side is facing up will be deemed the top side.
When you dry brine, you don’t want to completely cover the meat with salt but you don’t want to be scared to use it either. Be generous but not too generous.
You can see the salt coverage by looking at the picture below.
Once the salt is added, set the plates uncovered into the fridge for about 2 hours.
After only about 20 minutes or so, the salt will be completely melted and the slurry that has formed on the top will begin to be drawn into the meat.
Dry Brine – Side 2
After a 2 hour dry brining process on the “top” side, we’ll remove the meat from the fridge, flip it over and add the same generous portion of salt to the new side.
The 2nd side of this dry brining process can go anywhere from 4 hours to overnight. Mine was overnight so I went ahead and just placed them in a bowl with a lid. You could also just use the same plates you used for side 1.
Apply the Rubs
It is usually important to use something on the meat to help the rub to stick better. The list of things that you can use is long and exhaustive but some of my favorites are olive oil and yellow mustard.
These two are exactly what we are going to use.
The olive oil works best with the Texas style rub(purchase recipes here) and the mustard works great with the original rub (purchase recipes here).
Brush oil onto the top and sides of one of the chuck roasts then do the same with yellow mustard onto the other one. It is now set and stone which one will be the sweet and spicy and which one will be savory only.
Sprinkle a healthy dose of my Texas style rub onto the oiled chuck roast making sure to get the rub on the top as well as the sides of the roast.
Apply the Jeff’s original rub to the mustard coated chuck roast. Once again be sure to apply it to the top and the sides.
Let the meat sit until it begins to get a “wet” look meaning the rub is absorbing some of the juices from the meat and then flip them over to apply rub to the bottom side.
Apply the Texas style rub (purchase recipes here) and Jeff’s original rub (purchase recipes here) to the correct chuck roasts to finish the seasoning process.
They are now ready for the smoker and should be left sitting while you go get the smoker ready.
See how the rubs absorbed the juices from the meat while I was getting the smoker ready?
Smoke Time
Setup your smoker for cooking at about 225-240°F using indirect heat and pecan wood for smoke if available. Any other smoking wood will work just fine.
If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up.
Once your smoker is up to temperature, the smoking process can begin.
Place the chuck roasts on a Bradley rack, cooling rack or a Weber grill pan if you wish to make it easier to transport the meat to and from the smoker.
You can also just set the chuck roasts right on the smoker grate. I just put a new door on my Bradley digital 4-rack smoker and cleaned the smoke generator and decided to use it for this run. It’s old and has some crazy temperature swings but it works quite well considering.
Let them smoke cook for 4 hours or until they reach about 160°F. This time will vary depending on how thick the roasts are and how cold they are when they first go into the smoker. If you have the “Smoke” thermometer by Thermoworks, you can just set an alarm to let you know once that temperature is acquired.
Wrap in Paper and Continue
At 160°F, the smoked chuck roasts need to be wrapped, preferably in 30-inch kraft paper. You can also purchase 18-inch kraft paper as well for smaller items.
So what’s the big deal about wrapping in paper vs. wrapping with foil or just placing it in a foil pan?
When you wrap briskets, chuck roasts, etc. in foil, the meat ends up very moist but you can tell it’s been braised. This is because of all the steaming action that happens inside the foil.. it just can’t breathe.
With the paper, it is able to breathe while still holding in some of the moisture to keep it from drying out. It even lets a little smoke through and the paper does a great job of soaking up any extra grease.
With paper, the bark remains firm instead of soft and mushy like it does with foil.
Many famous barbecue restaurants use paper during the last few hours of cooking briskets and for holding them.. they do this because it works very well.
So there you have it, try using brown kraft paper if you haven’t and It think you’ll love the results you get.
Once you get the chuck roasts wrapped in paper, poke the thermometer probe through the paper into the meat so you’ll know exactly when the meat is finished.
Finish and Slice/Pull
Continue to cook the chuck roasts wrapped in the smoker until they reach about 200°F.
At this point, it is best if you can hold them in a empty ice chest or let the heat in the smoker decrease to about 150-170°F and hold them there for a couple of hours. This resting period is almost magical and does wonders for large cuts like brisket, pork butt and even chuck roasts.
Note: you can also set your oven to 170°F and let the smoked chuck roasts rest in there, still wrapped in paper and on a sheet pan of course.
See how the paper soaked up a lot of the juice. In turn it sort of self bastes during the resting period.. these babies were juicy!
After the resting period, remove them from the paper and slice the chuck roast across the grain with a very sharp knife or you can pull/chop the meat for pulled beef sandwiches.
Mine was literally fall-apart tender which is what I wanted and the flavor was absolutely incredible.. I was literally salivating while I took the pictures.
Be sure to let me know whether you liked the Texas style or the original sweet and spicy best. I think I prefer the original over the Texas style this time but it’s a very close call.
Delicious!
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Printable Recipe
Smoking a Pair of Chuck Roasts
Print
Prep time
35 mins
Cook time
8 hours
Total time
8 hours 35 mins
A pair of smoked chuck roasts gives your guests the option of eating savory Texas style smoked chuck roast or an equally delicious sweet and spicy version.
Author: Jeff Phillips
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Hot Smoking
Serves: 6
Ingredients
A pair of 2-3 lb roasts.
Kosher salt (for dry brine)
Olive oil
Jeff's Texas style rub
Mustard, Yellow
Jeff's Original rub
Brown or pink butcher paper, unwaxed and FDA approved (foil can be used if you do not have butcher paper)
Instructions
Place the two chuck roasts on a plate or other container and evenly sprinkle about a teaspoon of kosher salt on the top of each.
Place the roasts in the fridge for two hours.
Remove the roasts from the fridge, flip them over and apply salt in the same manner to the other side.
Place the chuck roasts back into the fridge for 4 hours to finish the dry brining process. No rinsing required.
Apply a layer of mustard to one of the chuck roasts and then a generous application of Jeff's original rub (top, bottom and sides).
Apply a coat of olive oil to one of the chuck roasts and then a generous application of Jeff's Texas style rub (top, bottom and sides).
Place the roasts into a smoker preheated to 225-240°F and smoke cook with pecan wood until the meat has reached an internal temperature of 160°F.
Wrap the roasts in brown butcher paper and place them back into the smoker to continue cooking until they reach a finished temperature of 195-200°F.
Let the meat rest for 2 hours, still wrapped, in an empty cooler or an oven/smoker heated to about 170°F.
When the resting period is over, the meat can be unwrapped and sliced, pulled or chopped depending on how you want to serve it to your guests.
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