Sous Vide Chuck Roast
Make the most perfectly tender and juicy chuck roast using the sous vide method of cooking. This Sous Vide Chuck Roast is a perfect meal that is budget friendly and tastes just like prime rib. It can be shredded for stew, used to make French dips, tacos, pot roast or served plain with brown gravy.
The past couple of months since purchasing an Anova Culinary Sous Vide, I’ve experimented with chicken and pork. Mostly small cuts of meat. It occured to me that I could also use this brillant cooking method to cook larger cuts of meat that produce more food and cost less.
The first type of meat I think of when budget friendly beef comes to mind is a chuck roast.
💭What Is A Chuck Roast?
A chuck roast is meat that comes from the shoulder of a cow. It is found in the store under the labels chuck roast, shoulder steak, boneless chuck roast, or chuck shoulder pot roast. It tends to be a fattier cut of meat that is pretty tough.
❔Can You Sous Vide A Pot Roast?
Absolutely! Just because it’s a larger cut of meat doesn’t mean that it can’t be cooked slowly using this method. It does need to be cooked low and slow in order for the connective tissue to break down, but once it does it produces a beautiful tender cut of beef without drying out that has so many uses.
⏲Best Time & Temperature For Sous Vide Pot Roast
In my experience, the best temperature to sous vide chuck roast is between 130 -140 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 24 hours depending on how you like your meat. To determine what temperature a chuck roast should be cooked at, use the chart below as a guide.
- Rare: 130F for 24 hours (this will be a prime rib consistency)
- Medium: 140F for 24 hours (this will also be a prime rib consistency)
- Well Done: 160F for 24 hours (this would be best cut up for sandwiches or other dishes.
🐄Ingredients & Equipment
- Chuck Roast – I used a 3lb chuck roast for this recipe, but you can use any size you have as the cooking time will not change.
- Seasoning – You can use any seasoning you enjoy on your chuck roast. I used this BBQ rub.
- Cooking Oil – You’ll need a cooking oil that has a high smoke point if you are pan searing your meat after cooking. I like using avocado oil or homemade ghee.
Equipment
- Sous Vide Immersion Circulator – There are so many immersion circulators out there that all work the same, but this one from Anova Culinary is my favorite and is very sturdy!
- Large Pot – For the heated water bath.
- Vacuum Sealer – You can use a vaccum sealer or a freezer safe ziploc bag. See below for water displacement instructions.
- Cast Iron Skillet – This is used to sear the meat after cooking in the sous vide.
📖How To Sous Vide Chuck Roast
1️⃣ Fill up a large stock pot with water ⅔ of the way. Add your sous vide and bring to a temperature of 140 degrees.
2️⃣ Season your chuck roast liberally with dry rub of your choice or just simple salt and pepper. You can also add pats of butter on top before sealing.
3️⃣ Place your chuck roast into a vacuum sealer bag and seal completely. You can also do this using the water displacement method and a Ziploc freezer bag (see notes below).
4️⃣ Cook for 24 hours at 140 degrees. It’s a good idea to cover your pot of water to prevent too much evaporation. If the water level gets too low, you can spoil the meat as the sous vide will turn off. Simply place a layer of aluminum foil on top while it’s cooking to prevent this from happening.
5️⃣ Once the cooking time is up, remove chuck roast from the bag and pour the juices into a bowl if you are making gravy. It can be sliced and served immediately or you can pan sear it.
🥘How To Finish A Chuck Roast
- Pat chuck roast dry with paper towels.
- Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat with 1 tbsp oil until it begins smoking.
- Sear the chuck roast on each side for 1-2 minutes until it is browned.
- Let rest for 5 minutes then slice and serve.
💧Water Displacement Method
You don’t need a vacuum sealer to use a sous vide. You can use freezer safe bags to cook your food in using these simple steps.
- Grab a freezer safe plastic or ziploc bag that is large enough for the food.
- place your marinated protein in the bag and leave a small opening in top of the ziploc about 1 inch.
- Submerge the bag slowly into the heated water bath allowing all of the air to filter out.
- Once air is taken out, seal the bag closed and add to the temperature controlled water bath.
🧊Can You Sous Vide Frozen Chuck Roast?
Yes! You can sous vide a frozen pot roast. It may take a bit more time to come up to temperature in the water bath and the seasoning will not marinate quite as well but it is absolutely possible especially since it is cooking for 24 hours or longer.
👩🏻🍳 Chef’s Tips
- For this recipe, we use a simple chuck roast, but you can also use a brisket, round roast, shoulder roast, eye round roast, or rump roast and use the same instructions.
- If you’re using a large pot to sous vide in, we recommend covering it with foil to keep the heat and steam from escaping. If the water level gets too low, it may turn off the machine. Check regularly and top off the water if needed.
- If you are using water displacement method with a freezer safe ziploc, you want to keep the zipper seal above the water to make sure the steam doesn’t open the top. You can use a clip to keep it submerged but above the waterline.
What To Serve With Sous Vide Pot Roast
Sous Vide Chuck Roast
Ingredients
- 3 lb Chuck Roast
- 2-3 tbsp Seasoning of choice
Instructions
- Fill up a large stock pot with water ⅔ of the way. Add your sous vide and bring to a temperature of 140 degrees.
- Season your chuck roast liberally with dry rub of your choice or just simple salt and pepper. You can also add pats of butter on top before sealing.
- Place your chuck roast into a vacuum sealer bag and seal completely. You can also do this using the water displacement method and a Ziploc freezer bag (see notes below).
- Cook for 24 hours at 140 degrees. It’s a good idea to cover your pot of water to prevent too much evaporation. If the water level gets too low, you can spoil the meat as the sous vide will turn off. Simply place a layer of aluminum foil on top while it’s cooking to prevent this from happening.
- Once the cooking time is up, remove chuck roast from the bag and pour the juices into a bowl if you are making gravy. It can be sliced and served immediately or you can pan sear it.
- OPTIONAL PAN SEAR: Pat chuck roast dry with paper towels. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat with 1tbsp oil until it begins smoking. Sear the chuck roast on each side for 1-2 minutes until it is browned.
- Let rest for 5 minutes then slice and serve.
