Try this easy roast beef recipe which is one of my most popular recipes plus get my tips for how to cook and slice roast beef for juicy, tender roast beef perfection.
Once you learn how to cook roast beef, you’ll be able to replace all that deli meat you’ve been buying at the store and your life will be so much more flavorful and delicious. Promise.
There are a few main steps to cooking roast beef that will help you make your roast beef amazing and tender, which consist mainly of how to choose your beef, how to season it, what temperature to cook it at and then how to slice it.
We’ll cover how to master all of this in this post. I got you – we’re gonna make some tasty roast beef together.
BEST CUTS OF BEEF FOR ROAST BEEF
Not all beef is created equal for roasting. Some beef, like steaks, are best pan-roasted or grilled, and other beefs, like ground beef are better cooked on the stove top. For the best types of roasts for roasting, look for one of the following:
Top Round Roast (Inside Round) – this cut of beef is similar to the top sirloin in fat and flavor and is the most common cut used for roast beef.
Top Sirloin Roast (Top Butt) – this cut is lean and full of flavor with a little but of marbling.
Bottom Round Roast (Rolled Rump Roast) – this cut is a good budget cut and has more marbling than the Top Round.
Eye Of Round Roast – this is a circular cut that is very lean so needs to be very thinly sliced when roasted.
Now, it’s always possible to find other cuts of beef that will work for roast beef recipes so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see any of these exact names. You can also ask your butcher what they would recommend as they’ll have the best understanding of what they have available in their meat market for you, too.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST TENDER ROAST BEEF
Okay, so now that we’ve chosen a cut of beef that is expected to be tender, juicy, and flavorful and we’re ready to make it, what’s next?
Well, we need to season it and prep it for the oven. Since this won’t take very long, we need to make sure the oven is ready for the beef so make sure your oven is pre-heated. Placing a roast into an unheated oven will make things tricky because it will throw off your temperatures and timing so I highly recommend you have the oven fully pre-heated and ready to go.
The good news is that seasoning roast beef does not take make energy at all. In fact, it’s an easy prep of inserting a few garlic slices around the roast, lathering it with some olive oil, and then seasoning with sea salt, black pepper, and a few dried herbs for some additional flavor. My favorite herbs to use with roast beef are rosemary and thyme, but you can add mostly anything to it that you’d normally cook with and it’ll taste great.
WHAT TEMPERATURE TO COOK ROAST BEEF?
I have found the best temperature to cook roast beef starts at 375 degrees F and then ends a little lower to finish it off at 250 degrees F.
Changing the temperature midway through has the effect of not overcooking the beef and allowing it to gently come up to the right temperature to remove from the oven. I usually remove the roast when it reaches 135 degrees F in the deepest part of the roast because, as it rests for 10 minutes on the counter before slicing, the temperature will continue to rise up to 145 degrees, leaving it perfectly pink and juicy – just the way roast beef is meant to be served.
If you’d prefer your roast beef to be a little less pink, you can remove from the oven a little closer to when it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees and allowing it to rest and rise past 145 degrees F. Either way works, it’s simply a matter of preference.
For the most tender roast beef, you’re going to want the final temperature to be right around 145 degrees F. Any higher and the roast will start to become more tough and chewy.
I highly recommend using a digital thermometer to insure your internal meat temperature is where you want it. It removes the guessing out of cooking and helps make the meat the perfect temperature.
HOW TO SLICE ROAST BEEF
Ahh, slicing your roast beef. This is a major step as well to insure the most tender roast beef possible.
When you slice your roast beef, you want to make sure you’re slicing across the grain (as opposed to with the grain).
If you’re not sure how to find the grain, take a look at your roast and look for the long grooves and lines. Those will all tend to go in parallel across the roast in one direction. These are the muscle fibers and we want to cut across them (against them), not with them. If you cut with the grain, you’d be eating an entire long muscle fiber, which would be tough and chewy. Instead, if you cut against the grain, you’re eating just a portion of several of the muscle fibers, which makes for a much more tender bite.
Chuck Roast with Potatoes, Carrots and Celery
Ingredients
- 3-5 pound chuck roast
- 2 tablespoons Canola oil
- 5 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 4 carrots long stem
- 3 celery stalks;1 onion sliced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 Sazon packets
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 8 garlic cloves;sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cups beef broth
- 1 cup red wine
Instructions
- Rinse chuck roast and pat dry
- Cut (6) 4 1/2 inch slits in chuck roast and place 1 clove of garlic in each (add more if you love garlic as much as I do).
- Coat entire roast with canola oil and season with 1/2 tsp sea salt, worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper, 1/2 tsp seasoning salt, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder and place in roaster pan and cover.; Place roast into the oven for approximately 3 hours at 350°. Cube potatoes and cut celery and carrots into 3 inch slices.
- In a heated pan with 2 tbsp canola oil, sauté approximately 5-8 minutes and allow vegetables to slightly tender and brown.
- Add tomato paste, garlic cloves, wine, beef broth, sazon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and mix well. Add to roasting pan with chuck roast.
- Bake an additional hour and a half until the roast is tender basting with juice drippings every 30 minutes to ensure tenderness.
- Add parsley for garnish if you choose and serve. Cornbread goes well with this meal!