I was looking for a different way to use a well marbled chuck roast I picked up from Costco and decided to slow smoke it and use it in chili 🌶. A slow smoked chuck roast is almost like brisket but takes less time to cook as fibers aren’t as tightly packed.
Instead of cooking the chuck roast separate from the beans and other ingredients I placed the beans, peppers 🌶 and onions 🧅 and sauce in a dutch oven below the rack the chuck roast was smoking on so the wonderful drippings from the chuck roast would go into the chili.
This worked well except I discovered my Traeger Silverton 810 wasn’t keeping accurate cabin temperature. I already knew the temperature probe wasn’t working accurately as I had Traeger support send a replacement and was using my replacement thermometer. Then when the chuck roast stalled too long I placed another thermometer not in the meat but on the grills inner cabin and it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit less than indicated. Even raising the temperature the internal temperature didn’t rise much. At this point the chuck roast was about 165 and it was getting so late I had to cook a steak for dinner with some frozen vegetables then took the chuck roast and dutch oven ingredients off the grill.
Taking the chuck roast and the other ingredients in the dutch oven off the grill I put the dutch oven on the stove in the house and cut the roast. The chuck roast was still unbelievably tender and juicy. I placed the chunks into the dutch oven continued cooking. I wanted to go to bed but more cooking time was needed since the beans still weren’t tender enough and chili hadn’t reduced down and was watery. I thought about finishing the cook in a crock pot but didn’t want to dig that out and dirty more dishes. I decided to place the cast iron dutch oven into my oven in my kitchen at about 110 degrees then set the timer for 5 hours. This way the food could continue to cook super slow in that cast iron then the oven would turn off and the pot would slowly cool and be ready to put in the fridge not long after I wake up eat and get my storage containers ready.
The plan worked nicely I got up very late as I went to bed about 3 am combining that with going to bed about 4 am Friday without ample rest Saturday I needed to sleep in and the chili was ready. I made myself a brunch of potatoes breakfast style covered with chili I microwaved a minute just to get it piping hot with a couple of eggs 🥚 on top with toast. The brunch was some great comfort food to start a late relaxing Sunday.
Here’s some pictures of the process.
