first chuck roast

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gnatboy911

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jan 4, 2017
281
96
Western, CO
All this talk of chuckies lately made me want one!  I've never smoked a chuck, or any beef for that matter.  I've done lots of ribs and pulled pork though.  I did a ton of reading through the archives here and here's what I ended up with:

I've always had to reload my smoker with more charcoal every couple hours in the past, and I have been reading up on the minion method.  I failed before at it, so I wanted to try again but a little differently.  I loaded up my charcoal tray (I need to build a basket) as you can see in the pictures.  I put a few chunks of Mesquite, and I had just a few apple chips left so I threw those on.  I started about 1/3 of a chimney worth of charcoal and added it to the lower right hand side of the pile.  I kept my vents pretty open for a while, until temps got up to about 175 then I closed it down quite a bit.  It took me longer to get up to 225ish than normal.  However, with a few minor adjustments here and there, once it reached temp I didn't have to load it for almost the entire cook (about 7hrs).  It was incredible.  It cruised at about 230 all day long with no adjusting needed.  I was really happy about that.


Here is the chuckie goin in....simple salt and pepper.  Nothing else.


coming out of the smoker


sliced up and ready to eat.


First off....it tasted outstanding.  salt, pepper, smoke, beef.  simple and good.

But that leads me to my next question.  I see most of you guys end up with pulled beef from a chuck, kinda like pulled pork.  This one would have taken some work to pull.  Just wasn't quite there.  It was very tender, just not fall apart tender.  I smoked it at roughly 230ish for 7 hrs.  Temp was at 185, I poked with a toothpick and it seemed tough still.  I added a few hot coals and bumped the temp up to about 250-260 for a little bit, (the wife was getting hungry).  I checked again at 192 and it still felt pretty firm.  I pulled it at 198, placed it in a pan and wrapped with foil, then a bunch of towels and into a cooler to sit for a bit while I finished up other stuff.  I knew it needed to rest. It rested for about 30-40 minutes.  There wasn't really any caryover cooking to speak of.  The temp slowly dropped until I got it out and sliced it up.

It sliced up really well, was very tender, but not pulled beef sorta tender.  thoughts on why that was?  Did it need to go longer?

Also, it seemed to have some inconsistent fat distribution (my theory).  the places that had good fat were amazing.  The fat just melted in your mouth....heaven in a bite.  Other places seemed dry, like there wasn't any fat at all in that part.  Is this common with a chuck?

Also, I never foiled it like I've seen some guys do.  Just closed the door and let it roll.

Thoughts?
 
Only pulled (chopped) a chuckie one time, but it was good.  I ran it to 208 like a PB for pulling or a brisket for chopping.  I have found 195-200 for brisket. to slice, 200-205 for chopping.  I rested about an hour and a half minim for it to continue to soften and even out, then made sure to slice across the grain. 

I have found the grain harder to determine after smoking most everything.  I usually put a tooth pick in the side or corner I want to start slicing from as I rub it and it is much easier for me later.

I would suspect if you had taken it up to about 200 or so and rested it longer it might have been more tender.  I look at outside humidity, if it is low as it is in the winter, I foil at about 170 or so to prevent a little drying, otherwise I like the bark to be crispy to mix in with my choppings.

Nice thing about a chuck is that they are usually fairly small and you can do several to practice with rather than one big chunk of something like a brisket.

Keep us posted on your next one.
 
To pull a chuck is usually around 205F IT like a pork butt. I love pulled beef sammies, but I also love sliced as you did. The looks on people's faces when you serve up a smoked sliced chuck as if it were roast beef is something else. One of my favorite Sunday meals.

Points for a great looking chuck there. Nice job!
 
Thanks guys for the compliments and points. Overall the whole piece was very tender. Quite delicious. After eating I was worried that if I'd gone up to 205 that it would have dried it out. Since, as I mentioned, there were a couple places that didn't seem to have any fat marbled in.

Is it normal for a chuck to have some sections lean, while other portions of the same cut have plenty of fat? This is the first time I've ever bought a chuck roast, or beef for that matter, my red meat supply is pretty much all wild game.

Thanks
 
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