When it comes to barbecue and grilling two cuts of beef seem to standout far more than any other.  With BBQ it’s brisket and for grilling it’s tri-tip that gets the most press.  But, in my book the chuck roast is under appreciated when it comes to outdoor cooking.  The juicy meatiness of a well smoked chuck roast is something I look forward to.  Normally I just rub the chucky and toss it on the smoker.  A few hours later it’s moist and tender and waiting for any number of treatments.

This time around I decided to do something a little different.  I broke out my favorite cast iron skillet and tossed the seasoned chuck roast in it.  The whole thing went into the smoker for about four hours at 235 degrees.  I used the cast iron skillet so I could keep the drippings for some gravy.  It seemed to work to perfection.

After the four hours of smoke past I put the potatoes and carrots into the skillet and covered the whole thing with foil.  I didn’t want smoked potatoes or carrots, so this method allowed to me keep using the smoker outdoors and not get smoky potatoes.

Everything was cooked until the potatoes were done.  While the meat rested I made up a nice, simple gravy and we were able to chow down on a great dinner.

The “Hog Heaven”is labeled as competition rub.  Don’t let that designation scare you off.  If you get a chance to try them I think you’ll be happy…even if you’re just cooking in your backyard.  Just an added note to all rub makers:  Drop the “competition” label off your packaging if you want to sell to the wider backyarder market.  It’s just a guess, but I think you’re losing market share with the competition designation.  Lot’s of people win with “non competition” rubs.

The first thing you’ll notice, about “Hog Heaven”, is that for a rub it’s loaded with much more herbs than I normally expect to see in this type of rub.  I love the herbal flavors mixed with the more tradition rub ingredients.  One thing to remember when using this rub!  It comes packaged in a mylar bag type of package (which I prefer) but you’ve got to mix the rub up.  The herbs have a tendency to settle at the top of the package and if you don’t mix them up you’ll get a load of herbs without the other ingredients.  This shouldn’t be much a problem because you should always shake and/or mix your rubs before applying anyway.

I try to test most of the rubs I receive on pork ribs, this gives me a good basis for comparison between the various rubs.  So first up was “Hog Heaven” and since it’s called a rib rub I figured there wasn’t much sense in changing my normal pattern.  I gave a couple racks of pork ribs, trimmed to St. Louis cut a good dose of the rub.

You’ll notice in the picture the nice layer of herbs mixed with the other rub ingredients.  In the end this will give you a nice flavor to your ribs.  Although I did lightly sauce the ribs I think they would be perfectly good with no sauce at all.  I’d give them a try naked to see how you like them before saucing.  And I think a sauce less on the sweet side would match this rub very well.

I also tried “Hog Heaven” on some grilled chicken.  And I let me tell you!  This is an outstanding rub for chicken.  I didn’t smoke the chicken, which would be the more traditional way with a rub.  I grilled it instead.  No sauce…just rub and some heat.  It was fantastic.  I think I actually prefer this on chicken.  And I can already tell, even though I didn’t try it, that it would compliment fish too.

If you are using this rub on any meat and planning to use a direct heat cooking method make sure you monitor your heat.  Different ingredients in different rubs and seasonings burn at different temperatures.  The herbs in this rub will burn quicker than most rub ingredients (because they’re herbs) so just watch you food and keep the temperature in a moderate range and you’ll be just fine.

The “Raging Bull” beef rub is closer to a traditional rub than the “Hog Heaven,” but it has some different flavor profiles than most beef rubs out there.  One main ingredient, which I’m not going to share, is used in some great steak recipes in some of the best steak houses, so you aren’t going to go wrong.  But be warned it isn’t want you might expect.  If you look at the rub to the right you might be able to pick out some of the ingredients that are a little different.

I don’t know for sure what Steve had in mind for this rub, probably brisket, but I used a chuck roast for my test run.  And it worked fantastic.  Nice bark and more importantly a very nice flavor that just made the beef flavor in the roast jump.  I really like this rub.  It will go on my list of rubs I purchase.

Above you can see the rub when it was first applied to the chuck roast (Left) and then after a couple hours in the smoke(right).  The bark started to form almost immediately.  What was fantastic about this was the flavor of the bark really added to the overall flavor of the meat after I pulled it.

We used the pulled beef in some very nice tacos. (which I forgot to take pictures of).

You can purchase both these rubs from Great Lakes BBQ Supply and I suggest you do.

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I love smoking chuck roasts. This particular cut of beef is simply wonderful after several hours on the smoker. It provides a great “pulled” meat and the yield is fantastic.

I was at my local Sam’s Club the other day looking to purchase a couple of chuck roasts for some shredded beef tacos. I wanted to try smoking the beef to give the tacos a little different flavor profile than normal.

They had some three and four pound chuck roasts and the price was pretty competitive. I inquired about the case price and since it was over a dollar a pound cheaper I bought 53 pounds of chuck roasts.
I got the case home and inside was three cryo packs of meat. I figured they would be like buying pork butts. A couple of individual cuts of meat inside each cryo. Nope, wasn’t going to be like that. One giant cut of meat. The Chuck Roll.

After a good coating of rub the chuck roll went on the Weber Smokey Mountain. A few hours in it looked pretty good:

After 16 hours at 225 degrees I was able to pull this piece of meat of the smoker and put into the cooler for a few hours of rest before pulling it.

What was really great about cooking the Chuck Roll was that it gave me a great new yield. I probably only lost about 15% of the weight during the cooking. The marbling in the meat kept it very moist, without having to inject.

I’ve got two more of these monsters in the freezer and can’t wait to get them cooking. There’s so much you can do with leftover pulled beef. I should have some fun in the weeks to come experimenting with new dishes to serve.