Smoked Pulled Beef Chuck Roast

I love pulled beef, and our smoked pulled beef chuck roast recipe yields tender, juicy meat full of rich beef flavor with a hint of smoke flavor.

It’s a great alternative to higher-priced cuts of meat and is guaranteed to bring smiles to your dinner table.

 

With just a few minutes of prep, all you need to do is wait for the smoker to do its thing, and you’ll be enjoying tender, succulent smoked pulled beef chuck roast deliciousness!

My easy smoked pulled beef chuck roast recipe makes the best pulled beef sandwiches. Add our Alabama white sauce or your favorite barbecue sauce, and you’ve got a sandwich your whole family will love!

If you enjoy smoked beef, try our Smoked Beef Brisket and Smoked Beef Short Rib recipes.

Ingredients to make a Smoked Chuck Roast

Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make our Smoked Pulled Beef Chuck Roast recipe. In Chef Speak, this is called the “Mise en Place,” which translates to “Everything in its Place.”

Not only does setting up your ingredients ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.

Made with simple ingredients

• Beef chuck roast
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt (or coarse sea salt)
• Coarse black pepper (restaurant style)
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Sumac

Can I use other seasonings in my dry rub?

Yes, you can. The key to making delicious smoked meats that you and your family will love is to use seasonings that you enjoy eating. Changing up the spices in this simple dry rub is easy and definitely something you can do each time you prepare smoked beef, pork, or chicken.

Other seasonings you could add to your spice rub are cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, turmeric, and coriander. You can also use your favorite seasoning blend. Cajun seasoning, jerk seasoning, barbecue seasoning, and Old Bay seasoning can be used instead of making your own dry rub. You can also add brown sugar to the seasonings to make a sweet rub.

What is a Chuck Roast?

A chuck roast is a larger cut of meat from the shoulder area of the cow. Although it’s a tougher cut of meat with connective tissue, it’s also well-marbled with fat, which contributes to its tenderness and enhances the rich beef flavor during the cooking process.

This makes it a popular choice for slow cooker recipes that call for braising, roasting, or stewing meat.

This cut is also known as “chuck pot roast” and is often used to prepare classic dishes like pot roast, beef stew, and pulled beef.

How to make Smoked Chuck Roast

• Add the kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and sumac to a small bowl.
• Mix the dry rub ingredients together until well blended.
• Trim any excess fat off the chuck roast, then pat dry the meat with paper towels.
• Rub the chuck roast with olive oil (the oil helps the beef rub penetrate the meat more fully). Then, spread the dry rub generously on the tops and sides of the beef roast for a well-balanced flavor.

*If time permits, let the beef marinate for at least half an hour before placing it in the smoker. This gives the rub time to soak into the surface of the meat and also gives the meat time to come to room temperature before beginning the smoking process, which helps the beef cook more evenly.

Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F. and add wood chips to the smoker tube. For this recipe, we used pecan wood. You will need to add more wood chips during the smoking process; this will help form a great bark and a lot more flavor. Oak, Hickory, and Mesquite wood are also good choices for smoking a chuck roast.

When the smoker has come to temperature, place the chuck roast on the smoker rack with a drip pan underneath.

• When the chuck roast reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees, remove it from the smoker and wrap it in foil. Then, return it to the smoker and turn it up to 250 degrees F.
• When the chuck roast reaches an internal temperature of 195 degrees F., remove it from the smoker and allow it to rest for 30 minutes so that the juices can redistribute throughout the beef.
• Place the roast on a cutting board.
• Chop the chuck roast into small pieces.

An important thing to remember is that the best results are achieved by cooking to temperature, not to time. You’re cooking the beef until it reaches the internal temperature. Cook time may vary depending on the size of the roast and the type of smoker you are using.

The smoking process for this recipe can also be used with a Traeger grill, pellet smoker, propane smoker, or charcoal grill using indirect heat.

This recipe can also be made in the oven. For the smoky flavor, add a little liquid smoke to the beef broth in the last step of the cooking process.

• For pulled beef, place part of the smoked chuck roast in a large bowl.
• Using two forks, shred the beef.

I do love our smoked pulled beef chuck roast! But you can chop it or slice it depending on how you’d like to serve it.

Chuck roast is not the prettiest cut of beef, but when cooked low and slow and well seasoned, it becomes one of the most flavorful cuts of meat you’ll ever smoke.

As I showed earlier, my smoked pulled beef chuck roast makes delicious barbecued beef sandwiches, but it can also be used to make tacos with your favorite toppings.

It can also be served sliced with your favorite barbecue sauce, chimichurri sauce, or our gremolata sauce.

Anyway, you can serve my smoked chuck roast; it’s delicious and will amaze your friends and family!

Any leftovers can be stored refrigerated in an airtight container for up to five days or frozen well-wrapped in a freezer-safe container for up to three months.

Recipe FAQ’s

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