Putting the Barbeque back in Barbacoa: Mesquite-Smoked, Beer-Braised Barbacoa-Style Chuck Roast. - Something Edible
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Putting the Barbeque back in Barbacoa: Mesquite-Smoked, Beer-Braised Barbacoa-Style Chuck Roast.

Putting the Barbeque back in Barbacoa: Mesquite-Smoked, Beer-Braised Barbacoa-Style Chuck Roast.

Abstract:

It seems like anytime you get shredded beef in a taco anymore, folks wanna call it "barbacoa". It tastes great and all, but so often we're talking about something braised or simmered that is totally devoid of those smoky, charred nuances that are synonymous with slow-cooking beef over a bed of coals. I happen to think it's possible to have the best of both worlds, and this hybrid barbeque/braise method elevates the lowly and economical beef chuck roast past the pedestrian Sunday pot roast.


Purpose:

If you've got a little time, a beef chuck roast is a fantastically frugal cut of critter that doesn't really mind being cooked into oblivion. Plenty of fat and connective tissue help to ensure that your pot roast will never need a knife to cut, and when served with a bit of jus or gravy, those eating will always be treated to the illusion of moist and juicy. Truly, I don't mind pot roast in the least, but when I get into my freezer and see a half dozen frozen slabs of chuck, my need to mix things up a bit simply won't let me jump to the assumption that they all gotta be tossed in the Crock Pot. Not to discredit taco night, but if I'm eating out at any number of Mexican food joints, I will take the shredded beef over the ground stuff any day of the week. More than just texture, you're getting eats from whole cuts, which in my mind means that someone cares more about their food than to stop at simply dumping seasoning and filler into a pan of ground beast. Specifically, burrito boutiques like Chipotle do a shredded beef that they call "barbacoa". As far as restaurant fare goes, I happen to think it's pretty good; and I also happen to think that the chuck roast makes for the right candidate to do something similar.

I started doing searches for "Beef Barbacoa" to see what else has been done. Turns out, if you want to keep it real, you're going to be giving some critter's cabeza the slow and low treatment, and lets be real here: Even if that was something you wanted to serve to family and guests (just thinking about the presentation makes me lol) it's certainly not something that's practical to do quite often. The further you dig, the more you realize that no one really gives a crap about authenticity anymore, and you could just about shred any cut of slow cooked beef that's been seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper and call it barbacoa. In situations like that, I figure that gives me license to do whatever the hell I want as long as I stay true to the etymology of said dish. In the case of barbacoa, our good friend Wikipedia tells us that the word itself is likely the origin of the word "barbeque" and eponymously means that we're talking about meat that's slow-cooked over an open fire. Bingo! I've been looking for an excuse to do a chuck roast over the coals, and I figured that as long as I pay attention to temperature and postmortem physiology, I'd be filling tacos and quesadillas with succulent, smoky, seasoned shredded beef by dinner time.


Recipe: Jump to the detailed recipe. (or, keep reading for the gist of it) -

Here's the Beef.

  • 2 1/2 lbs bone-in beef chuck roast
  • The Rub

  • 1 Tbsp Kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp demerara sugar
  • 2 tsps garlic powder
  • 1 tsp ancho chile powder
  • 1 tsp coriander ground
  • 1 tsp cumin ground
  • 1 tsp Mexican oregano ground
  • 1/2 tsp black peppercorns ground
  • 1/2 tsp allspice berries ground
  • The Braise

  • 1 Tbsp rendered beef fat (or olive oil i suppose...)
  • 8 fluid oz American lager (Sam Adams and the like.)
  • 1 Tbsp aforementioned spice rub (Don't forget to hold some back!)

  • The night before:
    Trim any exterior fat to leave about 1/8 of an inch anywhere it remains. To render some beef fat out of those trimmings, cut the fat into half inch squares and render it out in a skillet over medium-low heat (gotta keep that heat low so it doesn't smoke!).
    Assemble the spice rub (that means mix it all together) and reserve a tablespoon. Rub the lion's share of the seasoning blend onto every square inch of the meat, and let it overnight in a lidded container.

    The next day:
    Set up grill for indirect heat at 225F with mesquite smoke as per your manufacturer's directions. When grill starts to smoke, put a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the roast away from any bone and put the meat on the barbeque. Smoke the roast until the internal temperature reaches 145F (about 3 hours).

    At the end of the smoke, warm up the beer in the microwave for about a minute to take the chill off. Likewise, melt the beef fat in the microwave and combine with the reserved spices so as to form a paste. Add the beer to a five quart cast iron dutch oven, stir in the spice and fat mixture, and then bring on the chuck roast. Lid it up and return to the barbeque (or oven). Continue to cook over indirect heat at 300F for 3 to 4 hours or until the beef pulls with a fork. Drain most of the fat off the remaining braising liquid and dress the pulled beef with the braising liquid before serving(as much or as little as you like).


    Observation:

     

    • Here I am, totally nagging you again. When are you gonna break down and buy that cast iron dutch oven? If you wanna do this recipe, you've likely already made a significant investment in a BBQ grill of which the purchase certainly raised the fiscal ire of your significant other. What's another $30ish at this point when taqueria-style eats are on the line?
    • My Big Steel Keg is a dual-op sort of cooker and can go from smoke to roast on the same batch of coals with ease. If it's not convenient to do so with your particular smoke delivery vessel, or if something as big and as unwieldy as a dutch oven ain't gonna happen over your grates, it's totally acceptable to finish your barbacoa in the oven. As your meat will be clad in cast-iron, you're not gonna get any more benefit from open fire anyhow.
    • For those of you without a dutch oven or a smoker, there is hope. It won't be quite the same, but I bet you could probably jump straight to the braise and throw it all in a Crock Pot for seven to eight hours on low with an added tablespoon of liquid smoke to compensate for the lack of the real deal. Flavor-wise, that'd make this recipe pretty much on-par with the way I've done lengua tacos in the past, and there was no complainin' there.
    • There is a method  to the madness behind the two-stage cooking. Think of it as a Texas Crutch on steroids. As I've mentioned before, we know from our required reading that the proteins in meat lose their ability to take on smoke in the neighborhood of 150F. So, it makes sense to expose the meat to smoke at the low temperatures, and then switch gears to a method that works well to break down all that fat and connective tissue inherent to a chuck roast.  Sure we could probably simply wrap in foil, but doing a real braise in your dutch oven makes it fool-proof, as you also get the benefit of that heavy cast-iron lid creating a little bit of a pressure cook environment to help it all get to tender faster.
    • There's no telling how fatty or lean your chuck is going to be after threeish hours over a dry smoke smoke, and the bit of rendered fat incorporated into the braising liquid is that extra insurance. If you eschew the grill for the Crock Pot, there's probably no need for this step as the fat's not going anywhere; and if are cooking over coals and don't have the time or gumption to render beef fat, vegetable oil will do (I suppose).

     


    Results:

    You know you're in for a treat as soon as you begin to take a couple of forks to this barbacoa. The meat pulls with ease, and after the excess fat is removed from the braising liquid, you've got the perfect elixir by which to finish your beef before piling on to a soft corn tortilla. This barbacoa beef carries that subtle aroma of mesquite all the way from the plate to your mouth, and as this is a dish that's all about succulent flavor, those who are afraid of all things spicy won't be offended in the least. However, that's not to say that the seasonings here don't pair nicely with the hot stuff; jalapenos or a hot salsa compliment the rich, smoky-sweet flavor of this barbacoa quite well, and a dollop of guacamole works equally well to temper the heat. Enough describing; it's time to dig in. Could somebody get me a beer and a wedge of lime already!?


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