Chuck Roast
Chuck roast is a beautiful cut of beef if you cook it correctly. Try to cook it like you would a steak and you will have a lot of tough chewing ahead of you. But if you give it some time and some nice moist heat (AKA braising) you will end up with a very flavorful cut of beef that falls apart and melts in your mouth.
Where does the chuck roast come from?
Chuck roast comes from the front shoulder of the steer. The whole chuck primal can be broken down into quite a few different cuts (at least 10) but for the sake of this post we will concern ourselves with the chuck roast.
If you want to get your hands on a chuck roast just head to your grocery store. Every grocery store I have ever seen carries chuck roast. A chuck roast can be either boneless or bone in. The bone in version is sometimes called a “7 bone roast” since the shoulder bone looks kind of like the number 7.
As you can see by this picture the chuck roast is made up of several different muscles surrounded by connective tissue. Try to cook that hot and fast and you will have a pretty horrible steak. But give that connective tissue and collagen time to break down and it is a totally different experience. When cooked properly a chuck roast will fall apart and be extremely succulent. Few cuts on the steer can match the chuck roast for a strong beefy flavor.
Most chuck roasts are sold weighing around 2-3 pounds and are about 2-3 inches thick. If you had a 1,000 pound steer about 107 pounds of that would be from the chuck primal. A good majority of that can be cut into chuck roasts. This makes chuck roast one of the most plentiful cuts of beef on a steer.
How to cook a chuck roast
In my opinion there is only one reasonable way to cook a chuck roast: Pot Roast
Pot roast was always one of my favorite meals growing up. Few comfort foods can compare to a nice pot roast. With a fall apart chuck roast, some potatoes and carrots, and a nice, beefy broth there aren’t a lot of meals that will fill you up and warm you up like a nice pot roast. They are about the simplest thing to cook as well.
This recipe can be adapted for a slow cooker or stovetop as well. Just make sure you do sear the meat somehow. Then just cook it until it is close to falling apart and add in the vegetables and cook those until done.
After researching chuck roast I also came across some recipes for smoked chuck roast. The main complaint most people had with a smoked chuck roast was that it was try. This can be fixed by smoking the chuck roast for 3 hours, removing it and adding it to a pan with some braising liquid, and then returning to the heat for a couple more hours. Some people also didn’t like the way a 3 pound chuck roast cooked up so they talked to their butcher and got a bigger roast in the 8 pound range. The result will be a nice, smokey chuck roast that is reminiscent of a good brisket.
Where to buy chuck roast
Like I mentioned earlier, every supermarket should have chuck roast. At around $5 per pound it makes a nice pot roast dinner fairly affordable. Keep in mind that a 3 pound roast will shrink significantly when cooking so plan accordingly. Most recipes say you can feed 6-8 people with one chuck roast but I would find that a bit of a reach. 4-6 people might be a bit more reasonable, especially if kids are in play.
Chuck roast can be a beautiful piece of meat. With all the connective tissue if you give it the time to cook it will be fall apart tender and have a great beefy flavor.
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