Giving Chuck Roast a shot for Burnt Ends

Roaniecowpony · Jan 27, 2022

I thought I'd give some chuck roast a shot for burnt ends. So, I picked up a very nice Angus Choice grade pack at Sams today. Looks very marbled. It was the most marbled of the bunch.

Now, I'm trying to decide how to approach this. Smoke it whole, smoke it in strips, smoke it in cubes. I'm open to suggestions and rationale. Any other techniques would be appreciated as well.

Bbqallday80 · Jan 27, 2022

I would smoke this whole so you keep all your juices and keep it tender. When you get it to about 205 I would pull it and cube it and put in a pan with your favorite bbq sauce and let it cook about 30-45 more minutes. Or you can get it to 205 and pull and let it rest a hour or two then cube it and put back on smoker for about an hour. Good luck with however you decide.

Buckeye1 · Jan 27, 2022

You could do both methods. I did that a few weeks ago. There are pros and cons to both. On the full roast I pulled and cubed at 190. Then cooked in the BBQ sauce for 1 1/2 hours.

Buckeye1 · Jan 27, 2022

Forgot to add. On the pre cubed method I seasoned the cubes on all 4 sides. I would not do that again. It was a little too salty. I would season the entire roast and then cube.

C. Keeper · Jan 28, 2022

Roaniecowpony said:
I thought I'd give some chuck roast a shot for burnt ends. So, I picked up a very nice Angus Choice grade pack at Sams today. Looks very marbled. It was the most marbled of the bunch.

Now, I'm trying to decide how to approach this. Smoke it whole, smoke it in strips, smoke it in cubes. I'm open to suggestions and rationale. Any other techniques would be appreciated as well.

View attachment 14570

Smoked whole, chilled overnight, cubed and cooked covered for 2 hours @350.

sdynak · Jan 28, 2022

Good question.. I would lean toward like @Jigsaw as trying to get the cubes blackened all around is the goal so that method should cover it. Interested to see what you decide and how they turn out.

Bytor · Jan 28, 2022

I've had good luck with an overnight dry rub brine then on the smoker until the stall or the last few hours. Then put in a tin with about a cup of apple juice wrapped up to probe tender or in the 190 area. I will wrap in foil and rest for an hour or so. During that time, I will reduce down the juices some then add some sauce to it. Cube up the meat and back on the smoker for about 90 minutes with an occasional stir. Always turns out great.

Thor8594 · Jan 28, 2022

I cubed mine, worked out great.

Greg Jones · Jan 28, 2022

Nice looking piece of beef! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Ostrichsak · Jan 28, 2022

I've done this a few times now and after different angles and journaling I've settled on this as the best results although YMMV:

Salt, pepper & garlic powder all sides of whole chuck roast
Drop on smoker @ 275deg* until IT reaches 165 degrees
Wrap tightly in foil and take to IT of 195deg**
Remove & rest for about a half hour
Cut into cubes of your preferred size
Toss in a foil pan w/BBQ sauce and brown sugar
(just enough to coat them but not so much that there's a layer on the bottom of the pan once you're done)
Back on the smoker for an hour at 250 deg.
One more toss of BBQ & brown sugar to coat them all
Back on the smoker for about 5-minutes until sauce tightens up
(until you get that nice, tacky, gummy, caramelized surface)
Serve.

*I'd like to test a little more here if 250deg to IT of 165deg wouldn't yield a little more smoke flavor w/o letting the meat get more chewy/rubbery. 275 may be the play here as the smoke profile was plenty for my taste.

**with this step, you can experiment more towards the 200 degree IT range. 195 deg worked well for me & felt like the sweet spot.

My mouth is watering just thinking of this. Keep in mind that this will yield a more caramelized bark which some don't prefer. I haven't really perfected a method w/o wrapping to preserve that more jerky-like bark if that's what you're into because it's not really my thing. I've found that the tight rope between juicy and dry is more difficult to walk if you prefer that style bark.

Roaniecowpony · Jan 28, 2022

Greg Jones said:
Nice looking piece of beef! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Yeah, its a good one. I hate to mess it up. Going to do it for the games tomorrow, seeing as how there's a wing shortage. LOL

Beach Bum · Jan 28, 2022

Ostrichsak said:
I've done this a few times now and after different angles and journaling I've settled on this as the best results although YMMV:

Thanks for a very complete recipe. That is one I will definitely try out.

MOSmoke · Jan 29, 2022

Roaniecowpony said:
I thought I'd give some chuck roast a shot for burnt ends. So, I picked up a very nice Angus Choice grade pack at Sams today. Looks very marbled. It was the most marbled of the bunch.

Now, I'm trying to decide how to approach this. Smoke it whole, smoke it in strips, smoke it in cubes. I'm open to suggestions and rationale. Any other techniques would be appreciated as well.

View attachment 14570

I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile myself and finally did it today. I loosely followed Malcolm Reed’s recipe, which calls for cubing the meat prior to cooking. I cooked at 275 for about an hour and 45 minutes. Then I put them in a foil pan with some Sticky Pig sauce with a little beef broth, wrapped them up tight and let them go another 2 hours. The end result is smoky, salty goodness with a nice bark. Next time I would probably go a little lighter on the rub mixture as they are pretty salty, but they go great with a cold beer. We’ll see what the girlfriend thinks but I would definitely do these again.

Buckeye1 · Jan 29, 2022

MOSmoke said:
I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile myself and finally did it today. I loosely followed Malcolm Reed’s recipe, which calls for cubing the meat prior to cooking. I cooked at 275 for about an hour and 45 minutes. Then I put them in a foil pan with some Sticky Pig sauce with a little beef broth, wrapped them up tight and let them go another 2 hours. The end result is smoky, salty goodness with a nice bark. Next time I would probably go a little lighter on the rub mixture as they are pretty salty, but they go great with a cold beer. We’ll see what the girlfriend thinks but I would definitely do these again.

I had the same experience with the salt using this method. When I do it this way again I will season the entire roast then cube up. Instead of seasoning after cubing.

sdynak · Jan 29, 2022

MOSmoke said:
I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile myself and finally did it today. I loosely followed Malcolm Reed’s recipe, which calls for cubing the meat prior to cooking. I cooked at 275 for about an hour and 45 minutes. Then I put them in a foil pan with some Sticky Pig sauce with a little beef broth, wrapped them up tight and let them go another 2 hours. The end result is smoky, salty goodness with a nice bark. Next time I would probably go a little lighter on the rub mixture as they are pretty salty, but they go great with a cold beer. We’ll see what the girlfriend thinks but I would definitely do these again.

Those look like $$ .. man, I would pay for that

!

Nice work

Roaniecowpony · Jan 30, 2022

I put them on whole at 5:20 this morning, running at LO. I figure I got a good early start, I can let it run at 180F for a couple hours for some extra smoke. I rubbed them down with some Dales Steak Sauce for a binder, then my favorite savory rub. They'll get finished with a sweet KC type of sauce. They should finish up for the first game today.

Buckeye1 · Jan 30, 2022

I can say this, they won't last long

C. Keeper · Jan 30, 2022

Roaniecowpony said:
I put them on whole at 5:20 this morning, running at LO. I figure I got a good early start, I can let it run at 180F for a couple hours for some extra smoke. I rubbed them down with some Dales Steak Sauce for a binder, then my favorite savory rub. They'll get finished with a sweet KC type of sauce. They should finish up for the first game today.
View attachment 14617

Lookin' good! That's the way I do it, so far, so good.

Ostrichsak · Jan 30, 2022

MOSmoke said:
I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile myself and finally did it today. I loosely followed Malcolm Reed’s recipe, which calls for cubing the meat prior to cooking. I cooked at 275 for about an hour and 45 minutes. Then I put them in a foil pan with some Sticky Pig sauce with a little beef broth, wrapped them up tight and let them go another 2 hours. The end result is smoky, salty goodness with a nice bark. Next time I would probably go a little lighter on the rub mixture as they are pretty salty, but they go great with a cold beer. We’ll see what the girlfriend thinks but I would definitely do these again.

This was my experience whenever I experimented with cubing first. On paper, it seems like you can get more "burnt" to your burnt ends but I found that the edge between delicious and overly salty was more difficult to walk. I think that if you're going to cube first seasoning before cubing is the safest play.

I also found that cubing first tended to yield a less tender/juicy result although the total process was quicker. I liked the ability to probe the whole cut of meat too trying to probe individual cubes as well.

Pros and cons to both methods but I think if you could find a lower sodium rub and wanted to be able to prepare them quicker the cubing first method would be preferred. If you have time and want to replicate the OG burnt ends (read: packer brisket point) recipe as close as possible then cubing 2nd would be the play. In my testing I also felt this yielded the best overall results.

But my tastes are likely different than yours so I encourage people to experiment themselves with different methods. Smaller and less expensive cuts of meat like this are perfect for doing just that and you'll likely get to enjoy your efforts no matter what.

Roaniecowpony · Jan 30, 2022

Smoked at Lo for 2 hrs, then 225f for 4 hrs, wrapped when the bark right, then ran an hour at 225f, cubed them, a bit more rub and then some brown sugar, stepped-up to 320f (brown sugar melting) to dark color bark, sauced and tightened up. Whew.

Giving Chuck Roast a shot for Burnt Ends

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