Looking for a cheap cut of meat that’s great for smoking? Eye Round is a tough cut of beef that’s often prepared poorly turning out either too tough or too dry.With a little bit of attention this tough cut can give your Texas brisket a run for its money.
The Eye of Round Roast is located on the back leg of the cow and at first glance looks very similar to the tenderloin. That being said it’s an extremely tough cut of beef because of its constant movement and being a weight bearing muscle of the animal. It is very lean with lots of connective inter muscular tissue. To break all that down you’ll want to cook this cut low and slow. Not for nothing another big advantage of the eye round is the price. Eye round is often on sale at local markets and in my research almost always cheaper than brisket.
Most of the time when you think of brining or curing beef we are discussing brisket to make corned beef or pastrami. Eye Round can benefit from some of these processes as well. I like to give the eye round an overnight brine using Real Salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, onion and garlic. The beef will turn a pale color but don’t worry, it won’t affect the final product other than making it more tender and juicy. For a easy cheat recipe for pastrami check out this recipe.
Smoking the Eye Round then wrapping in foil gives you the best of both worlds. You get the beautiful smoke ring and flavor that you want with beef roasts. In addition wrapping the beef will help tenderize and hold in the juices to keep the roast a Moist. The addition of beef broth and butter in the foil acts as a flavor booster to really take the roast up a notch.
To achieve a perfect smoke ring start the beef roast at a lower temperature around 225 for the first 3-4 hrs. Once the eye round has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. It’s really taken on all the smoke that it can. Then you can wrap it up and raise the temperature after that. Once the eye round is wrapped I’ll turn my smoker up to 300 degrees F and cook it until I hit 210 degrees F. Internally.
This is the key to your success or failure in this recipe. You’ve been cooking all day and you’re hungry but don’t let your impatience get the best of you. At 210 degrees the beef has pushed out a lot of juices but it can reabsorb those juices if you give it time. Plus if you cut it while it’s that hot it will probably tear and crumble when slicing. Open the foil carefully on top so the beef can breath and cool. Make sure the beef still sit in its own au jus. Let the beef cool down for 30-45 minutes until it hits an internal temperature of 150 degrees. It will still be hot and ready to eat but it will be perfectly moist as well. Pour off that leftover au jus in a bowl to serve along side the eye round for even more beefy goodness.
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Really interested in how this turned out? Even w/ the brining, cooking to a temp of 210 and cutting that thick...I can't imagine how many times you had to chew? Maybe I'm wrong. Cooked 2 last week,...the Medium Rare one, sliced very thin was good. However, the one that creeped up to Medium Well was almost inedible.
its all or nothing, you can slice thin like you did at med rare otherwise you have to treat it like brisket and cook it well beyond well don to break down the muscle fibers. I wrap it so it sit in its own au jus to stay moist. when its don its fork tender and not chew at all.
Can i did it for a smaller piece.
yes you can use a smaller piece, it will change the cooking time but internal temps will remain the same
Even with the mistakes (no time to brine) and adaptations (wrapped at 140 and finished in the oven) this was the most tender eye of round I have ever raten.
Awesome,glad you enjoyed the post. Eye round is an underrated cut!
#5 in your instructions don't make sense. Why would you cool beef 3-4 hours?
Spelling error, its supposed to say Cook, not cool. thanks for pointing that out. it has been corrected
Perfect smoking technique for eye of round. Works well on my RecTec 700
Thanks!! I love Eye round and this is almost as good as a tasty brisket. So glad you're Team Rectec as Well!
Have you tried this with a butcher paper wrap instead of foil?
normally I use butcher paper with beef but for this recipe I prefer the foil so I dint lose any of the juices. I pour all the rendered beef juices into a pot and add beef stock to make an au jus to serve along with the eye round to keep it extra moist.
Made this recipe with a few alterations. I already had the meat marinading when I read this recipe. So I skipped the brine. I followed most of the rest of this recipe, but instead of just beef stock in the "wrapped part" I added some of the marinade that I cooked first. The meat was soft and flavorful. My husband said it was the best piece of beef he's ever had!!
Fantastic!! thank you for the feedback and I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe!! I do love that Eye round recipe
I am going to try this recipe tomorrow (sans brine), but my question is what do you estimate in cooking time getting the meat from 160 to 210? I assume there may be a stall like in a brisket. I am trying to predict cooking time, thx!
depending on the size its normally about 2-3 hours. you can also raise the smoker temp once its wrapped to speed it up a bit.
This was my first attempt at smoking meat. Followed your instructions to a "T",even the brine. Found the eye of round on sale two for one. Came out perfect and tender, nice smoke ring. Glad I have leftovers. Thanks.
Thats fantastic to hear. Eye round is such an underrated cut of Beef. thanks for trying it out and leaving a review.