Juicy Smoked Chuck Roast Recipe (2024)

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For barbecue beginners and those with small households, the idea of smoking an entire beef brisket can be daunting, expensive, and potentially wasteful. Clever pitmasters reach for brisket’s little brother—the chuck roast, for an inexpensive, entry-level cut of meat, which delivers a very similar eating experience in a smaller package.

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As a Texas chef and caterer, I’ve smoked many beef chuck roasts through the years and this step-by-step tutorial will reveal the secrets to ultra juicy meat and excellent smoke flavor that anyone can replicate in their own backyard.

This step-by-step tutorial will help you easily master smoked chuck roast, and here is what we will cover.

Table of Contents

  • How Long To Smoke A Chuck Roast Per Pound
  • How Long Does it Take to Smoke a Chuck Roast at 225 degrees?
  • Where do the Variations in Cook Time for a Smoked Chuck Roast Come From?
  • Where To Buy A Chuck Roast
  • How To Prepare Your Smoker for Chuck Roast
  • What Wood is Best for Smoking Beef?
    • Adding A Water Pan to the Smoker
  • How to Trim a Chuck Roast for Smoking
    • Intramuscular Fat and Intermuscular Fat
  • How To Dry Brine a Chuck Roast
  • Dry Rub For Beef Chuck Roast
  • How to Smoke Beef Chuck Roast
    • Probing the Chuck Roast with a Meat Thermometer
  • Resting the Wrapped Chuck Roast (Oven vs. Igloo Cooler)
  • How To Slice Smoked Chuck Roast

The first thing you’ll need to know is how long to smoke chuck roast per pound, as well as what temperature to maintain in your smoker for the perfect cook.

How Long To Smoke A Chuck Roast Per Pound

Smoked Chuck Roast is smoked at 225° for 2 hours per pound, or 250° for 1 ½ hours per pound. This does not include time for resting the meat, usually 1-2 hours for best results.

Best results are achieved by cooking to temperature, not to time. Smoked Chuck Roast should be cooked to 195 degrees, and rested for at least 1 hour. (My full procedure for ultra juicy chuck roast includes wrapping the meat at 170 degrees).

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How Long Does it Take to Smoke a Chuck Roast at 225 degrees?

A 3-4 pound chuck roast will take 6-7 hours, plus 1 hour of resting time.

Where do the Variations in Cook Time for a Smoked Chuck Roast Come From?

Variations in your specific cook time come from temperature fluctuations in the smoker, as well as whether you choose to wrap the chuck roast (which will be demonstrated later in this tutorial). What qualities you are looking for in the final product will also affect how long you smoke the chuck roast…

For a sliced chuck roast that resembles sliced brisket, you will cook to an internal temperature of 195° or for pulled style meat you will need to cook to 205°.

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Where To Buy A Chuck Roast

Fortunately, chuck roast is one of the easiest cuts of beef to find. Since it is essentially the same cut as pot roast you can find it at basic grocery stores and certainly your favorite butcher shop or big box stores like Costco and Sam’s Club carry chuck roast.

Like any cut of beef, the grades go in this ascending order – Select, Choice, Prime

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Choice is the lowest grade but what most of us will be purchasing at our local grocery store. Select or Prime can be found in specialty grocers and Costco. Higher grades of meat are associated with better flavor and tenderness, but with chuck roast, a choice grade cut is perfectly suitable for smoking.

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How To Prepare Your Smoker for Chuck Roast

We use our RecTeq 1250 pellet smoker to smoke the majority of our meat and that is what we will use in this tutorial.

You can use a pellet smoker like ours, a traditional offset smoker, a Big Green Egg or whatever smoker you have handy. Just make sure that whatever you’re using provides indirect heat and lots of smoke. The smoker should be prepped with clean grill grates and be ready to receive meat.

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Offset smokers should start their fire and have wood nearby for adding to the wood box. Pellet Smokers should freshly be filled with pellets.

Bring the temperature of the smoker up to 225 degrees.

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What Wood is Best for Smoking Beef?

Traditional beef smoking woods such as Oak, Pecan, Hickory, Peach, and Mesquite Blends are excellent to smoke chuck roast.

Our favorite pellets for smoking any type of beef are the Lumberjack Competition Blend Pellets. We also enjoy Bear Mountain Pellet Blends in traditional beef varieties. Whether you’re smoking with pellets, wood, or wood chips, the choice of wood is a personal preference. We encourage everyone to try different types of wood and pellets to see which one is your personal favorite.

Adding A Water Pan to the Smoker

We put a water pan into our Pellet Smoker because it helps to even out the temperatures in the cooking chamber. By doing this, you can ensure that your smoked chuck roast cooks as evenly as possible—and it doesn’t have to be anything high-tech at all. We use a basic foil pan filled with scorching hot water.

Why do you fill it with hot water? I’m glad you asked. Filling it with hot water will allow the water to evaporate into your smoke chamber faster. This works because you’re starting with water at a higher temperature and therefore the water doesn’t have to heat up as much as putting cold tap water into the chamber.

How to Trim a Chuck Roast for Smoking

The first thing we do in this smoked chuck roast recipe is simple. Cut off the vacuum-sealed wrapping that your chuck roast comes in and pat dry.

Whatever you do, do not rinse the chuck roast off in the sink. Studies have shown that this can spread bacteria around your kitchen. Instead, just use a paper towel to pat dry your meat.

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Unlike brisket, the great thing about smoking a beef chuck roast is that there is very little, if any, trimming that you have to do to it. The smoked beef chuck roast from the recipe video didn’t need any trimming whatsoever, which is common—let’s find out why.

Intramuscular Fat and Intermuscular Fat

Intramuscular fat is located within the meat and is referred to as marbling in the meat industry. This is the good fat that melts during the cook contributing to juicy meat and excellent flavor. Beef chuck roast has a lot of this intramuscular fat, which does not need to be trimmed out. The trick is making sure that all that fat renders out into liquid fat in your final smoked chuck roast.

There is also going to be intermuscular fat, the fat that separates the muscles. Chuck roast contains intermuscular fat because it is comprised of several different muscles.

Intermuscular fat is the fat that is chewy and will never break down all of the way. It will just soften and become chewy if you try to eat it. We’ve all had that chewy piece of meat that tires out our jaw and that was more than likely a piece of intermuscular fat.

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You’ll notice this type of fat right away within your chuck roast as it will be very firm to the touch and typically runs through the middle of your meat like a web. Don’t worry about cutting it out or trimming it, because it’s holding the roast intact and once the cook is done it is easy to pull the meat and remove these intermuscular fat beds.

In summary, no necessary trimming is typically needed in a chuck roast as you might find in other cuts of meat.

Now, you have 2 options depending on if you’re prepping your chuck roast to smoke the night before or the morning of your party, whether or not to dry brine.

How To Dry Brine a Chuck Roast

If you’re preparing your beef roast the night before you plan on smoking it, you can lightly salt the exterior with kosher salt and allow it to dry brine overnight in your refrigerator. Make sure and cover the meat after salting it and before you put it into your refrigerator overnight—we accomplish this by wrapping it in saran wrap, aluminum foil, or placing the meat in a disposable catering tin and tenting it with foil.

Dry brining the chuck roast is going to draw the water out from your beef and dissolve the salt. The beef will then reabsorb that salt solution into your meat, enhancing the flavor, and breaking down some of the muscle fibers resulting in even more tenderness.

There is a point of diminishing returns, so all you want to do is dry brine it overnight. If you dry brine for too long, such as several days, you risk the meat becoming mushy. Overnight up to 24 hours is the perfect dry brine timeline.

And if you aren’t able to salt it the night before, don’t worry because there are many times, we either forget or just don’t have the time. Dry brining is an optional step that can boost flavor if you make plans early to complete the process.

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Dry Rub For Beef Chuck Roast

Now we’re going to season the meat. You can use whatever kind of rub you’d like but we prefer to use a beef rub with the main ingredients of kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Below is my personal recipe for Texas-style beef rub.

When you season your chuck roast, you want to steer clear of covering it fully from top to bottom. I’ve seen some recipes and YouTubers that will give it an airtight coating of the rub. Their version of a good coating is to cover the meat until you can barely see it under the rub.

This is a huge mistake as it does two things, it keeps the smoke from penetrating into your chuck roast and it prevents the bark from forming.

You can watch the video playing on this page to see how much we season our chuck roast.

How to Smoke Beef Chuck Roast

The smoking process is a breeze. Once you’ve prepped your smoker and chuck roast, all that is really left is the time, temperature, and wrapping of your meat.

Bring the internal temperature of the smoking chamber to 225°-250°.

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Probing the Chuck Roast with a Meat Thermometer

Once you’ve put your meat in the smoker, you’ll want to place a temperature probe in the middle of the roast in the thickest area. We use our Meater Wireless Digital Thermometer for this cook.(Using this link will give our readers 10% off the Meater probe.)

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This is where we typically see people make mistakes—they smoke the roast for a certain amount of time (whatever a favorite cooking website tells them to do) but ignore the internal temperature of the meat, and this can be the difference between a great smoked chuck roast and a dry smoked chuck roast.

The meater probe thermometer allows us to monitor the temperature of the chuck roast itself, without having to open the smoker and lose the built-up heat and smoke. Probing the meat really helps you navigate through the cook without feeling anxious and achieve swift delicious results.

And as for the temperature of the chamber, you probably already have a thermometer on your smoker giving you readings of the internal chamber temperature. Knowing the temperature in the chamber and within the chuck roast tells you exactly what is going on in there without opening and looking for yourself.

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If you’re looking, you’re not cooking!You’ve heard this phrase hundreds of times if you’ve watched barbecue YouTube. (You are watching it right?! Check out our channel right here.)

Although this an overused phrase, it’s very true and your choice of thermometer should support your efforts to monitor the meat you are cooking, as well as the internal temperature of the smoker.

Place the meat in the chamber and maintain the chamber at 225°-250°. You may spritz the chuck roast with apple juice, apple cider vinegar, or water once every 30-45 minutes if desired.

Once your probe thermometer shows the internal temperature of the chuck roast at 170° it’s time to wrap it.By this point, your chuck roast will have developed an amazing bark that we lovingly call “Bark Candy”.

This Bark Candy provides the most amazing flavor to any meat, including your chuck roast.And this is the reason we absolutely do not go overboard with our rub while prepping our meat. To preserve this bark candy, our favorite way to wrap is to double-wrap our beef chuck roast in pink butcher paper, instead of aluminum foil.

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Pink butcher paper does 2 things for us.

First, it helps to seal in juices that allow our chuck roast to stay nice and moist.

Second, it allows some steam to escape which allows our Bark Candy to stay intact.

If you wrap your chuck roast in aluminum foil, it will trap all of the steam and you’ll have a nice, juicy pot roast—not the smoked beef chuck roast you are craving. (You’ll be upset with the time you wasted, and you’ll vow to not do that, next time. You really might as well have thrown the roast into a braising liquid like beef broth or beef stock.)

Now that we know what to wrap our chuck roast with (pink butcher paper) and what not to wrap it with (aluminum foil) the next internal temperature of the meat we’re going to take the chuck roast to is 195° internal temperature (smoker chamber temperature at 225°).

A Note On Temperature To Pull Your Meat:

Many recipes will take their chuck roast temperature up to 190° or 203° and sometimes even to 205°.The problem is the carryover heat will cause the 203° and 205° temps to go even higher, and that could potentially dry out your meat.

By taking your meat to 195°, the carryover heat will take us right around that magical 203° that gives us the perfect combination of tenderness and doneness. You should experiment with your specific smoker to find the sweet spot for your setup.

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Resting the Wrapped Chuck Roast (Oven vs. Igloo Cooler)

Okay, your wrapped chuck roast has continued on its journey and has finally reached approximately 195° internal temperature. I bet it smells divine. Now it’s time to rest.

At this point, we’re going to turn our pellet smoker temperature to the low setting which is 180°.You smoker isn’t even mandatory at this point of the cook anyways!

Wait, did I just say the smoker is no longer needed?That is correct.This part of the cook can be done in an oven because the smoke has already done its job of providing flavor and aroma.

While the meat is still wrapped and the probe still in place, you can rest your chuck roast in your kitchen oven or smoker at a temperature of 180°.

The reason we’re doing this is the intramuscular fat and connective tissue will continue melting as the meat relaxes between 170°-180°. You can do this for 1-2 hours.

Alternatively, some cooks will take the wrapped meat and place it in an igloo cooler wrapped in paper towels and leave it for 1-3 hours. This rests the meat and allows intramuscular fat to continue melting.

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How To Slice Smoked Chuck Roast

Now get out your cutting board because it’s time to slice your chuck roast against the grain.I always use this Cuisinart electric slicer for my large smoked beef cuts.

Sometimes this can be a little difficult because the grain will run in different ways. If you really want to be extra, you can cut/group it into smaller pieces to be able to consistently slice across the grain. Enjoy every tender morsel of your smoked beef chuck roast!

What Side Dishes Go With Smoked Meats?

For this smoked beef chuck roast, I recommend checking out these side dishes…

Houston Rodeo Blue Ribbon Potato Salad Recipe

Smoked Queso Recipe

Texas Cowboy Caviar Recipe (with Red Wine Vinegar)

Corn and Black Bean Salad with Mexican Vinaigrette

Poblano Mac and Cheese Recipe

Have questions? Need help? Have an addition or a suggestion to a recipe? Drop me a comment below!

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Yield: Serves 4-6

Ultra Juicy Smoked Beef Chuck Roast Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 7 hours

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 8 hours 15 minutes

A simple smoked chuck roast can be prepared like barbecue brisket for smaller households at a fraction of the cost. This recipe will share the techniques for an ultra juicy experience with a great smoke ring and fantastic beefy flavor!

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lb. smoked chuck roast
  • kosher salt
  • black pepper
  • onion powder
  • garlic powder
  • 1 c. apple juice, in a spray bottle
  • 2 c. barbecue sauce for serving

Instructions

Remove chuck roast from the package, if you are going to do an overnight dry brine, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and wrap in saran wrap, or place in a dish tented with foil. Dry brine for 12-24 hours. After the dry brine, remove and pat dry. Continue on with the recipe.

For the rub sprinkle the chuck roast liberally with salt and pepper first, then coat with onion powder and garlic powder. No measuring is needed just sprinkle directly from the shaker. Seasonings should be generous but meat should be able to peek through. (See photos or video for examples.)

Prepare your smoker and set it to 225 degrees for a pellet smoker, or maintain heat from 225- 250 degrees for a standard wood-burning smoker. Place the chuck roast in the smoker and probe the meat in its thickest part. Close the chamber and smoke to 170 degrees internal temperature, spritzing with apple juice every 30-40 minutes.

At 170 degrees, remove the chuck roast and wrap well in pink butcher paper. Place back into the smoker at 225 degrees, until the internal temperature hits 195.

Remove the chuck roast and place in the oven at 170-180 degrees for 1 hour, or rest in an igloo cooler (still inside the peach paper). The fat will continue to break down during this time giving you a very juicy chuck roast.

Remove from the oven (or igloo cooler) and rest an additional hour if you like, or slice it up immediately. Serve with barbecue sauce if desired.

Notes

If you get a smaller chuck roast than 4 pounds your time will be more than the listed 6 hours, plus resting. This is because the small chuck roast dehydrates and there is no water left to conduct heat. The stall begins earlier and we need to wrap it earlier to prevent drying out.

You may choose to smoke it for 2 hours and then wrap it in butcher paper or place it in an aluminum pan with a cup of beef broth and barbecue rub. Tent it with foil and then continue cooking.

Always cook to internal temperature, not a mandatory time frame. Cook at 225 degrees until the meat is 145-150 degrees for these smaller roasts, then wrap and continue cooking to 190-195 degrees. Rest as long as you can before serving.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

20

Serving Size:

1/2 lb

Amount Per Serving:Calories: 697Total Fat: 42gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 226mgSodium: 508mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 0gSugar: 10gProtein: 67g

This nutritional information is provided as a courtesy as an estimate only. Consult with a dietician for precise estimates. This website makes no claims that the nutritional values listed are accurate.

Did you make this recipe? Please leave us a comment below and let us know how it went!

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Juicy Smoked Chuck Roast Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep a chuck roast moist? ›

Beef shoulder/chuck roast is a tough cut of meat, so it needs to be cooked slowly and gently. The best cooking methods for this cut of meat are braising and slow roasting. Sear the meat before cooking. Searing the meat helps to lock in the juices and flavor.

How long does it take to smoke chuck roast? ›

Preheat smoker to 250°F. Place chuck roast in smoker and smoke until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F to 170°F (4 to 6 hours). Wrap tightly in 2 layers of foil or peach paper and return to smoker until internal temperature reaches 200°F to 205°F (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Does chuck roast get more tender the longer you smoke it? ›

Does the chuck roast get more tender the longer you smoke it? Yes. The meat will continue to break down and become more tender, especially since it's submerged in broth. Once the roast reaches an internal temperature of about 205°F, it will be fall apart tender.

Should you marinate chuck roast before smoking? ›

Tips For Smoking A Chuck Roast

The meat needs to marinate for at least two hours, cook for about four, then rest another hour before it's ready. Choose the right temperature. After extensive research and testing, we found that 250°F was perfect.

Should chuck roast be covered in liquid? ›

Some recipes call for liquid, some do not. It mainly comes down to the type of meat you use. Cuts like chuck roast will release more fat and moisture than leaner cuts, so they don't need any water. In addition, the slow cooker itself creates some moisture, which helps keep the meat juicy.

Why is my roast still tough after 6 hours? ›

There are several reasons why this could have happened even after so much cooking. First, your choice of a rump roast could be a factor since cuts from the hind quarter are very muscular and, since muscles are the most resistant to breaking, this cut is quite stubborn when it comes to becoming tender.

Do you wrap a chuck roast when smoking? ›

Place the chuck roast on the smoker grate and close the lid. Cook for 6-8 hours (about 2 hours per pound). Monitor the roast's temperature. When it reaches about 150 ℉, wrap it in butcher paper to help it maintain moisture while it finishes cooking.

At what temperature does chuck roast fall apart? ›

Chuck roast should be cooked to an internal temperature of 190-195 degrees F to be fall apart tender. The high internal temperature allows collagen to break down, making the meat melt in your mouth tender. You don't want to cook the chuck roast past 200F, however, because it can become mushy.

Is it worth smoking a chuck roast? ›

They tend to be a tougher cut of meat, but some TLC from the smoker can make them ultra tasty. By smoking a chuck roast low and slow, you allow that fat to slowly render and the low heat to break down and soften that connective tissue that can make chuck roasts chewy.

How do you keep a roast moist in a smoker? ›

Water Pan – Use a water pan in your smoker to maintain a humid environment so the meat doesn't cook with hot, dry air. Water works well, but you can also fill the water pan with beer, apple juice and cider vinegar for flavorful twists.

How do you keep roast from drying out in the smoker? ›

Another tip to prevent your meat from drying out is to add a bowl or pan of water to your smoker. Some smokers have a built-in pan or tray that's designed specifically for water. Even if your smoker lacks this feature, you can still add a bowl of water to it. The water from the bowl or pan will gradually evaporate.

Do you flip a roast when smoking? ›

Do I need to flip my meat when smoking on the grill? NO! Sorry for being so brash, but this is a common mistake that many novice smokers will make. When smoking, you don't have to worry about one side getting hotter than the other, because the meat cooks indirectly.

What do you rub on meat before smoking? ›

In its essence, a dry rub is a simple mixture of a few seasonings such as salt, spices, herbs, and sugar. These ingredients are mixed together to form a dry rub. The dry rub is then applied to the surface of the meat before you start cooking or smoking it. The main purpose of a dry rub is to add flavor.

Do you sear a roast before you smoke it? ›

Start the smoker about 15 minutes before you're ready to cook, allowing it to preheat to 225 degrees. Then, sear your beef roast in a large pan with a drizzle of oil on all sides. This should take about 8-10 minutes. Then, transfer the roast to the smoker.

Should you season meat the night before smoking? ›

You know, you can let them sit out for about an hour seasoned and you kind of get the same deal, but it's not really the same. To us, letting it sit overnight is always going to be better.

How do you cook a roast so it's not dry? ›

The key is keeping the temperature low and making sure the lid is tight fitting. Otherwise, too much vapor will escape from the pot and you'll have a dry pot roast. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of red wine for the liquid. Use whatever red wine you like to drink.

Which cooking method is best for a chuck roast? ›

How do you tenderize chuck roast? Braising is the best way to tenderize chuck roast because it breaks down the fat into tender, juicy pieces. Learn more about how to braise meat.

Why did my chuck roast dry out? ›

It sounds odd, but meat can become dry even when it's cooked in moisture. The most likely cause of this is overcooking. As meat cooks, its muscle fibers shorten in both length and width and eventually squeeze out the juices they normally hold. As you can imagine, this leaves meat dry, and often stringy in texture.

Do you put water in the pan when cooking roast beef? ›

To give your meat a flavourful crispy exterior, cook uncovered on a rack set in a shallow roasting pan. Don't add water! Invest in a digital thermometer that lets you monitor the temperature of your roast – or even alert you when it's done – without opening the oven door.

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