Easy Chuck Roast Recipe

2 Ingredients Only! "Carnivores" Will Shout from Top of the Mountain to Praise This Delicious Dish!!!

Easy chuck roast recipe is a very economic dish to substitute brisket to feed an army with very little work. It gives you plenty of time to prepare other side dishes or just have a break to relax until dinner is ready.

Total Time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes - 4 Hours 5 Minutes
Prep Time: 10 Minutes  
Inactive Cook Time: 2 Hours  
Serving: 4-6

This delicious dish was put together purely because of my carnivore and picky eating teenage son. As you may have already checked out several of my chuck roast recipes, they are always cooked with some kind of vegetables. Of course, it is great to soak up all the juices. But for my son, he is not only a carnivore, but also prefers his foods not to touch each other. Not sure if you have one or two family members with this kind of habits. We always tease him, "Once it goes in, everything will mix together." But I guess what happens after doesn't matter.

The other reason of making this recipe because this is a great alternative of brisket. It is almost half price. And it is much easier to find in majority grocery stores throughout the year. For anybody watching their budget, this is a big money saver.

Last, but not least, a small family can enjoy something as nice as almost like brisket, without worrying about too much leftover. A family of 2 can use this recipe and enjoy it at home instead of breaking the wallet to dine out for any brisket dish, right?

For a family of 4 or more, you can double the quantity. It's a all-around super low maintenance recipe.

TIPS & TRICKS

Get the Right Portion of Meat For Your Family

Grocery store tends to cut the meat to the size that the final price of the product looks very reasonable. But when you look further, the volume of the meat is barely enough. When you run into this issue, look into the shelf to see if there is another one which looks very similar in the marbling and size. The weight difference should be within half a pound. Then, wrap each piece of meat under the parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Transfer them into the same roasting pan with enough room between each to allow the air to circulate around.

With this method, I experimented by cooking 2 pieces of chuck roast together. Each is about 3 lbs. So, totally I cooked slightly over 6 lbs of meat. I was able to manage to cook both of them at the same time in 3 hours. Then, follow the instructions below and continue.

The other option is to check with the butcher and see if they can custom cut for a bigger portion for you.

The rule of thumb of the cooking time of the meat is about 45-60 minutes for every 2 pounds regardless if the meat is separated into 2 similar size or in one piece. The beauty of having a bigger piece of meat as a whole, it is easier to use the meat thermometer without worrying about losing all the juice. On the other hand, when the meat is separated into 2 pieces, one small hole made from that thermometer could cause you losing all the juice.

Double the quantity by wrapping each piece of meat about the same size separately. Then, put them both in the same roasting pan with enough room between each other and cook in the oven at the same time.

Can You Use Other Cut of Meat?

At first, I thought that I could use other cuts of meat, such as bottom round or top round. What it turned out was that the meat was leaner from either of those cuts. Even if there is a relatively thick layer of fat on top of a big chunk of meat, it is still too lean to break down and tenderize the meat. As a result, the meat was tough, dry and chewy.

In short, chuck roast is the best for this recipe. When look for a piece of chuck roast meat, it must be very marble or it will be too dry.

Why Using This Cooking Method?

In several of my other chuck roast recipes, the meat is either cooked in crock pot or oven with a big tray of vegetables. All of them have both meat and vegetables cooking together at the same time. This is the first time wrapping the chuck roast tightly with parchment paper and aluminum foil. I am sure that you wondered why.

The biggest difference is that this easy chuck roast recipe is to keep as much juice as we can with the meat. While the other recipes you find on this website is for the juice to be absorbed by the vegetables. So, the tight wrap of the aluminum foil works as an instant heat transmission agent to cook the meat.

What Kind of Seasonings Should You Pick?

I made this easy chuck roast recipe plenty of times that using different seasoning each time made it like a new dish. Here are some choices I recommend. Do feel free to try out some others that you may be pleasantly surprised with the results. Make sure to share with us to inspire everyone. Here you go:

• McCormick Steak Seasoning - My family is the big fan of this seasoning.
• Kansas City Steak Rub - It is a different mix of spices and has very different kind of flavor compared to the one above.
• Fajita Seasoning - Using this seasoning means you are going to serve the rest of the side dishes to allow the gang to assemble their own fajita. Use frozen pepper and onion and transfer them into the oven. This will be one less thing you need to worry about.
• Cajun Seasoning - Serve with Cajun fries is a great complement of this easy chuck roast recipe.

Managing Cooking the Side Dishes

Depending on the kind of veggies that you are going to serve along, I pop in a tray of seasoned frozen vegetables and it goes onto the top rack about 40-45 minutes before the meat getting out of the oven.  While it is resting, the vegetables will continue to cook in the oven.

When the meat is getting out of the oven, it is also time to pop in a crusty bread. Follow the package instructions to heat it up.

If bread is the only thing that needs to go into the oven, you can wrap up the bread with aluminum foil and pop into the oven after the meat is resting on the counter. The remaining heat will be enough to warm up the bread. No need to keep the oven on after taking the meat out.

Use any frozen vegetables. Add seasonings and mix well. Then, transfer the tray of vegetables into the oven about 40-45 minutes before taking the meat out.

How to Serve?

Although my family, maybe some picky eaters in your house, likes to serve the chuck roast without touching any other foods, there are plenty of ways for you to serve these delicious dishes.

Remember to check out the oven rack to see if there is room to slice in a few baking sheets of food? Here are a few you can do:

• Asian Sweet and Savory Brussels Sprouts
• SmasH Burger Crispy Brussels Sprouts
• Any kind of frozen vegetables, such as green beans, cauliflower, broccoli or California blend vegetables.
• Frozen pepper and onion mix would be great for serving taco and fajita. If so, pop the soft taco shells into the oven after wrapping them up with foil.  Baked potatoes would be another great option.  Slightly get the skin a little bit damp and cover it with salt before wrapping each potato with aluminum foil. Transfer the potatoes into the oven about an hour before the chuck roast is ready to be out of the oven.

Make Something Like A French Dip

When the meat is almost done resting, i.e. about 3 minutes before the 10-minute resting time is up, unpack the wrapper. Use a baster (the one you use in Thanksgiving for basting your turkey. Yes, you can use that kitchen gadget in this recipe as well) to take the juice out. There will be quite a bit. You can separate the oil and the sauce by using the fat separator. Then, transfer the sauce into a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. Serve it along with crusty bread, chuck roast and vegetables.

Use a baster to transfer juice into fat separator. Then, heat up the juice in a medium saucepan.

Serve the warm-up sauce along with a crusty roll. It's like having French dip for dinner.

What to Do with the Leftovers?

The chance of having leftovers from this easy chuck roast recipe is very low. But things happen. So, what do you do? As you may have already known that I love to turn leftovers to be new meal ideas. Here are a couple ways for you to use it up:

1. Pepper Steak with Chinese Black Bean Sauce
2. You can also add a few slices of chuck roast in any noodle bowl. The juice would be a great flavor booster as well.

One of the ways of using easy chuck roast leftover by serving it with a noddle bowl.

Easy Chuck Roast Recipe and Instructions

Ingredients
4.5 lbs Chuck Roast (needs to have a lot of marble and the fat is evenly distributed throughout. Or the meat will be very dry.)
2 heaping tbsp Grill Seasoning (or any seasoning of your preference)

Instructions

1. Cover seasoning on top of the meat and wrap it tight with parchment paper first and then aluminum foil. It needs to be air tight. So, put another piece of foil on the area which is not covered. Sim side up to keep as much juice inside the wrap.
2. Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 2 hours.
3. Take meat out of the oven and rest for 10 minutes before unwrapping the paper.
4. Take juice out with the help of a baster to make gravy or "French Dip".
5. Slice meat across the grain and enjoy immediately.

Easy Chuck Roast Recipe Steps with Photos

Transfer chuck roast on a parchment paper

Add seasonings (of your choice) on top

Wrap meat tightly with parchment paper

Then, wrap aluminum foil on top before cooking it in the oven.

Look at all the juice from the meat.

Let meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing into pieces.

A light tossed salad is one of many wonderful ways to serve this easy chuck roast recipe.

Slideshow

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