Leave it alone, Chuck!

[Foresemo29]

Hey guys,

Long time listener, first time caller here... been my way through several chuck roasts but picked up a smaller one last night from the local Kroger (3.28Lbs) and was thinking about trying something that I haven't seen anyone else do here, curious if anyone has tried it.

The plan is to use the pellet traeger, fire it up (225F) at about 6:30am Friday morning, put the roast on at 7a.m. directly from the fridge on top rack with foil pan on bottom rack and then LEAVE IT ALONE until I get back home at 4:30pm. Now I know that's a super long time to leave a 3-Lb roast sitting for, but I want to experiment for a possible 'weekday smoke'. Has anyone done this?? I can't find anything on the site that doesn't recommend 6-8 hours with wrapping at some portion, whether it be at 150 all the way up to 175 degrees.

I'm thinking that if I let it smoke all day then IF I need to finish, I can put it in the oven (very doubtful I'd have to though) 'til 205ish/fork tender and can then pull it for shredded beef and just make a 'gravy' with the drippings I catch and some beef stock and pour that over the shred. But, my biggest issues I'm thinking - will this roast get way too much smoke to make it enjoyable, or will it just become a pot roast that I could have saved the pellets from doing in the crock pot...? It's only for me and the wife so just her to impress but I really want to know if this is a viable option for a weeknight dinner if I get into a pinch!


- will use a basic rub, probably night before and saran wrap
- should I inject? Was thinking that could help with the inevitable drying out from the 9 1/2 hours, would just use beef stock & some rub mixed in
- smoker temp at 200 or 225? (25 degree intervals are all I have)
- chances of neighbors stealing the roast off the smoker before I get home??


Questions/comments/concerns are welcomed! Thanks!

 

[gmc2003]

Chuckies can be pretty fatty so you may not be at the pulling stage when you get home. I always foil at the stall, but that's more so because I like to make sure I eat them for supper that day. Enjoy and keep us updated. I don't inject, and to keep the neighbors away just put a sign up that says rubbed generously with Exlax

Chris

 

[normanaj]

In for the finish.

Been a very long time since my last chuckie.

 

[smokerjim]

Although I'm not a fan of leaving smokers unattended for long periods of time, just tell your neighbors to check temps while they're there,I dont see why your plan wont work, i say if you dont try you'll never know. You could smoke it in in a foil pan with beef broth if your worried about it drying out.

 

[schlotz]

This is no different than overnight. You need a digital reporting set of probes (grate and IT) that works with wifi so it can warn you on your phone if the grate temps fall, i.e. smoker going out. Also agree with Chris, it might not be at the pulling stage when you get home, assuming the smoker continues doing its thing for 10 hours.

 

[Foresemo29]

Chuck was put on at 6:50a.m. this morning...

The wife is getting home at 3p.m. and going to give me some live feed info on what's going on at home. I seriously considered setting up a wifi camera to watch it periodically throughout the day just to monitor if there's smoke still rolling... but with this being an experiment I'm just gonna let it ride.

Pics to come, T-minus 8-hours until we see what's happened...

 

[Foresemo29]

Great success!

At a little after three, my wife told me that temp was sitting at 156F, with still a little bit of pellets in the tank. I got home about 20 to 5 and wrapped in butcher paper and cranked temp to 275F.

Since we both had things going on and weren't eating until a little later, I left it on the Traeger, cracked open a cold beer and got to work on a few things around the house. I noticed my probe beeping at me about 6:15 that we were getting to 203F IT, took it off and prodded with a fork - like verrrrrry soft butter so I threw it in the (off) oven to rest for an hour while I got to work making some adobo salsa for my quesadillas later in the evening!

7am - just on the grill (ignore the grates & tray - I'm cleaning everything this coming up week)

7:30pm Friday night - was getting worried based on looks alone

Now that's more like it...

Not the greatest presentation, but boy let me tell you h'what this was a mean contender to some of the brisket I've had in the past.

Bonus shot of a lil' itty bitty dip into my salsa...

Thanks guys! Now that I'm actually registered I'll be sure to upload more stuff when I do it!

- Forrest

 

[gmc2003]

Looks good from here

Point for sure
Chris

 

[912smoker]

Yes sir that looks like a successful cook !

Keith

 

[DougE]

Looks delicious from here. Nicely done!

 

[schlotz]

Great outcome! That salsa sure looks interesting. Care to share the recipe?

 

[Foresemo29]

Thanks guys! It was pretty good, a definite will do again!

And @schlotz sure thing on the recipe -

-3 roma tomatoes
-1 vedalia onion (halved)
-1/2 a good size jalapeño
-chipotles peppers in adobo sauce

Boil the tomatoes, onion & jalapeno for ten minutes, remove skins on tomatoes and throw into food processor or blender and slowly add in chipotles and sauce from can until desired color - and be sure to add some of the water from boiling the other veg, season with S&P. I like to make it a little more 'saucy' than salsa -, try it both ways though!

 

[smokerjim]

Looks great

 

[schlotz]

Thanks for the recipe, sounds perfect!

 

[fpagrpesc]

Foresemo29, what was the temperature you set the smoker at when you started? 200F?

 

[jaxgatorz]

Looks awesome from here !

 

[chef k-dude]

I've never smoked a Chuck roast, but might now. That looks great. You didn't tell us specifically if it was too smokey, but by your review post stating how good it was, my guess is it was just fine. I have read that meats like this stop taking on smoke in to the flesh (smoke ring) at the stall or 165, so while the exterior may continue to blacken, its really not penetrating deep in to the meat the rest of the time.

 

[Foresemo29]

Foresemo29, what was the temperature you set the smoker at when you started? 200F?

200F for about 10 hours and then 275F for maybe another 2 or so -ish!

 

[Foresemo29]

I've never smoked a Chuck roast, but might now. That looks great. You didn't tell us specifically if it was too smokey, but by your review post stating how good it was, my guess is it was just fine. I have read that meats like this stop taking on smoke in to the flesh (smoke ring) at the stall or 165, so while the exterior may continue to blacken, its really not penetrating deep in to the meat the rest of the time.

Not too smoky at all, which is one of the primary things that I was worried about but the smoke ring on it was beautiful!

I feel (re: FEEL, not scientifically proven by any standards of mine) that beef tends to be a lot more forgiving with a long period of smoke whereas I will always wrap pork shoulders, tenderloins, chicken, etc (PS, chicken breasts on smoke for a couple hours & then wrapped in butcher paper with a pad of butter is a crowd pleaser at my place). That being said, I almost always wrap brisket/chuck roast but honestly if I want to do another during the week I won't think twice to do it this way instead.

These are the pellets I used, but wouldn't neccesarily use them again if given more options (just what I had at the time and was an experiment after all :D) - https://www.acehardware.com/departm...and-smokers/grilling-chips-and-chunks/8015887

ALSO, it was around 75/80F all day so that helped with prolonging the pellets for 10+ hours. Definitely give this one a try and if you want, just let me know and I can give you the exact rub that I used as well when I saran wrapped it over night!

Thanks!