Smoked. Braised. Chuck Roast.

The humble chuck roast. Often overlooked or assumed to be the boring Sunday pot roast - Chuck Roast in our household is often the most prized and recurring guest of honor. It’s such a great slow cooked protein, a true blank canvas to paint whatever flavors you want. To name a few: smoked, Mexican barbacoa, Asian sticky bbq (recipe coming soon), pot roast, curry or Indian spiced, Italian Beef, and more. This particular roast, I went for smoked. Firing up the smoker was the most tedious part - the cooking and eating was fairly simple… and delicious.

What you need:
3lb Chuck roast - I prefer Certified Piedmontese beef. The chuck roast from CP has less fat and connective tissue than the roasts you find in the store, so you are really getting 3lb of all meat. The fat that does render, produces such a flavorful gravy without over doing it with the fat.

2-3 cups beef stock
1 onion (red, white, sweet - up to you)
Carrots (I found a small bag of colored carrots at the store)
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper

Smoker (whatever smoking option you like or prefer is just perfect)

The Cook:
I seasoned my chuck roast with liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Classic.
I got my smoker going to 200, and smoked the roast for at least an hour, but no more than 1:30. On a chuck roast, that is enough time to impart the smoke flavor you want.

The Braise:
I brought out my dutch oven (you could use a tin foil pan/cover here as well), and added the sliced onion and carrots. I placed the smoked chuck roast in the pan and poured the stock to cover the chuck roast half ways up and added the bay leaves. Covered, I got it back into the smoker (now at 275-300) and let it braise for 3 hours.

The Shred:
After, it was done. My roast was right at 200. It shredded with such ease. Moist, tender, smoky, and delicious. A poor man’s brisket - or a much more economic way to get that brisket flavor than roasting or smoking a 10lb beast. All doing it in a 1/4 of the time.

You could certainly reduce the smoking liquids down to produce a gravy or sauce, but I just needed the beef. The carrots were really nice to serve on the side - tender, smoky, a really nice side piece to my smoked chuck quesadillas.