Beef Chuck Tender Roast

Life will be a little less complicated for me after this week-end. Our son, wife, and grandson are moving to their own place. They both found work and rented a home just three blocks away. They have been with us for six months. Other than keeping my nose out of their business, I didn’t do very well at times; the hardest part was cooking to please all their tastes. I do all the cooking. I did manage to please everyone a few times.

I only had to cook to please myself tonight. My wife left for an overnight trip to meet with two friends she worked with as secretaries for the FBI in DC in the 60’s. My son and grandson would be busy moving some to their new home and my d-i-l would be at work.

I usually buy all my meat from my local butcher but look for some good specials at Walmart when I shop for groceries. They had a cut I had never seen before, a beef chuck tender, 2.3 pounds. They had one marked managers special, wasn’t as pretty as the others but to me it had some marbling. The grain was running lengthwise so looked like it would slice up nice.

Chuck told me it should be cooked low & slow. I coated it with some olive oil and rubbed on some Penzey’s beef roast seasoning, covered & in the fridge for 4 hours. I got it on at 1:00 pm, on my new frog mat. I did it for ½ hour smoke mode; it was running about 190 deg. Then I went to 225 deg until an IT of 120 deg. I then placed it in a pan on some onion slices with a cup of beef broth; I made it with a cup of water and a teaspoon of better than beef bullion base. I covered it with foil and was looking for an IT of 160 deg.

I also put on two whole onions with butter and some grey sea salt to use in a sandwich.
I let it rest for about 45 minutes before slicing. I sliced it by hand, about 1/8 inch & back in the juice I had poured the fat off. It went in the fridge until I was ready to eat. The roast really shrunk and I figured I should have pulled it at 135 to 140 IT.

For my supper I made a small spinach salad with blue cheese dressing. I sliced half of a small baguette in half, some au jus on the bottom half, a generous portion of beef, some of my smoked onions and smoked sharp cheddar cheese. I drizzled some olive oil on the top half of bread and all went under the broiler to melt the cheese and toast the top half of bread.


The Roast

Adding the rub

After one hour on smoke

Ready to foil

The onions

Ready to slice

Slicing up

In the Au Jus

Cheese melted and bread toasted

My Plate

Smokin Don