Smoked Chuck Roast
Here at Snyder Family Farm, we love to smoke meats---pork, beef, chicken, basically anything we have on hand! Maybe you're interested in learning how to barbecue; we're here to help.
We know that it can be intimidating to start out on your first barbecue project. Today we'd like to show you a recipe that will help ease you into smoking meats and teach you some of the basic principles of getting moist, tender, delicious smoked meat from your own backyard grill.
For this recipe, you won't need any fancy smoking equipment; you'll just need a basic Weber kettle grill and an instant-read meat thermometer or a probe. And, of course, you'll need your meat!
We'll be using a chuck roast in this recipe. Brisket is considered the king of smoked beef, but it can be a bit tricky for someone just starting out. A chuck roast is an easier, more forgiving and just-as-delicious way to get introduced to backyard smoking.
Ingredients:
One 3-4 lb chuck roast
Salt and fresh-ground pepper
Equipment:
Weber Kettle grill, instant-read thermometer or probe, coals, dry wood
Directions:
1. To start, dress your chuck roast in a 50/50 blend of salt and freshly ground black pepper. We like to go kind of heavy on it because the pepper lends a rich flavor and a mild heat to the outside of the roast. You can adjust how much you use to taste. Once you've dressed it, leave it to rest in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
2. Light the coals for the grill. We like to use hardwood lump charcoal, but if this is your first time, we suggest considering charcoal briquettes, which can be a bit easier for beginners. Fill up half a chimney of coals, dump it into one-half of the cook pit of the kettle grill, then fill up a full chimney and light it. Let it burn up about halfway and then dump it onto the half-chimney of briquettes already in the grill. (The unlit briquettes will slowly catch over the length of the cook, meaning you're less likely to have to add more.)
3. Adjust the vents on your Weber: Open the bottom vents about a quarter, and the top vents around a fifth. (Familiarize yourself with the bottom vent settings before you grill.) Keep adjusting the vents until you've stabilized the temperature at about 275 degrees, give or take fifteen degrees. (Note: The more your vents are open, the hotter the grill; the more they're closed, the cooler it gets.)
4. Once you've got the temp where you want it, place the chuck roast on the side of the grill without coals. Insert your meat probe (if you've got it) and close up the grill. After that, you just wait! Keep an eye on the temperature of both the grill and the meat. At some point the meat will hit a "stall," usually around 150 degrees or so, at which point the temperature will stop rising for a long time. Don't worry---it will start to go up again.
5. Once the meat hits an internal temperature of around 195-203 degrees (based on your probe reading or on an instant-read thermometer), pull it off the grill. Shut down all the vents to extinguish the fire. Let the meat rest at least thirty minutes, preferably more. Once you're ready to serve, slice the meat at the width of about a pencil. Enjoy!
