Smoked Southwestern Chuck Roast for Tacos!

For this year's Cinco de Mayo, we decided to smoke a chuck roast to shred for tacos.  I'll share the steps taken from seasoning to loading up in flour tortillas for a delicious meal.

Let's start with the wood chips.  For a Southwest flavor profile, mesquite is the logical choice.  If you want to smoke a chuck roast for sandwiches or for a meat/gravy and potato meal, oak chips can stand up to the hearty flavor of the beef.

Soak the wood chips in water for 30 minutes.  Place the drained chips on the hot coals.  After 10 minutes or so of soaking, place the drained chips on the hot coals of the smoker.  

While the wood chips are soaking, make the rub for the roast.

1/4 cup paprika

2 T. granulated garlic

2 T. onion powder

1 T. ground cumin

1 T. dried cilantro

1 t. kosher salt

1 t. ground black pepper 

You'll need a 3 - 4 lb. chuck roast.  Remove from packaging and pat dry with paper towels.  Liberally apply seasoning blend to the roast.  

When the smoker reaches a temperature of 225 degrees F. Place the roast into the smoker for 3 hours.  Spritz the roast with beef stock every hour.

During the 3 hours while the roast is smoking, spray a 9 x 13 disposal aluminum pan with non-stick spray.  Peel and quarter two yellow onions and place them in the pan along with 5 - 6 peeled garlic cloves.  Smash them with the flat side of a sharp knife.

After 3 hours (the roast had reached 150 degrees F.), remove the roast from the smoker and place it in the aluminum pan on top of the onions and garlic.  Slowly pour in 2 cups of beef stock.  

Return pan to the smoker and smoke uncovered until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.  This will usually take 2 - 3 hours.

When the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F., cover with foil and smoke for another 2 - 3 hours.  When the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees F., you're ready to remove from the smoker.

Let cool enough to remove from the pan and begin shredding the roast.  You can use either your hands or two forks.  

At this point, if you'd like, you can return the roast to the 9 x 13 pan with the au jus, onions, and garlic.  You can use the meat for burritos, tacos, enchiladas, or to make really hardy sandwiches with a great dipping sauce!

But for our meal, we chose small flour tortillas, and loaded them up with lettuce, cheese, radishes, cilantro, salsa, and sour cream!

We normally smoke Boston Butts, so this was a new adventure for us.  We thought it turned out really well.  The meat was tender and easy to shred.  There was a lot of flavor, not only from the Southwestern blend rub, but also from the smoking process.

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