Help! Chuck beef issue on how to cook

We are having party and cooking beef and gravy rolls - we bought the wrong but and are now stuck with 6 pieces of chuck steak beef - how can we cook these so that the beef fallS apart for the rolls?

Melissa Klinac
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8 Comments

Faye November 16, 2023
Thursday evening, I just finished cooking 6 beef tenders totaling 18 lbs. for shredded beef sandwiches. For a party Sat afternoon. Should I shred them now or wait until Sat? Also, should I put the shredded beef back into the juice or separate the beef and juices?
 
Miss_Karen October 17, 2019
Lori T, How many hours @ 250 F?
 
Lori T. October 18, 2019
I find a 4-6 pound chuck roast will take about 3-4 hours to reach the falling apart stage. However, the wonderful thing about chuck roast is it's a pretty forgiving cut of meat. If you go a little longer, so long as it doesn't evaporate all the moisture inside- it isn't going to hurt anything. You just don't want to rush it by turning up the heat, and it's not the cut for rare meat slices like you see at the deli. You can also cook this beforehand, and refrigerate it overnight in the pan if you like, or other container. Then you can shred or kind of slice it and heat it up gently in the juices before serving time. If you want to slice it, that's best done with cold meat, across the grain.
 
Miss_Karen October 21, 2019
Thanks!
 
PHIL October 17, 2019
slow cooker or instant pot will do the trick. It will fall apart easily.
 
HalfPint October 17, 2019
You can braise them like Lori T. suggests or pressure cook (hello Instant Pot!). You can cook them days in advance, shred, and freeze. Reheat in the oven or slow cooker at party. Personally, I like to use chuck since it's a forgiving cut of meat. It just needs to be cooked properly.
 
Lori T. October 17, 2019
Well, if you wanted neat slices of beef you are out of luck. However, if you are open to the idea of very tender shreds of fall apart, melt in your mouth beef- the cut you have is the ideal choice. If you have the time, remove these from their packaging and rub them down well with kosher salt, and whatever dry spices you'd like to use for seasoning. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours, or ideally overnight. I also like to cut slits in the meat and insert slices of garlic cloves inside- they will cook to a mush and disappear when the meat is done. When you are ready, put the roasts in a large baking pan with a bit of water, cover it all with foil and bake- low and slow. We are talking 250F, and bake until the internal temp is about 165F- which will take several hours. You can also cook them in a slow cooker, for about 8-10 hours on low. After resting for thirty minutes, the roast should pretty much disintegrate into shreds without much work. If you wanted to try for slices, you would need to cook to a lower internal temp - somewhere around 145F for a medium rare to medium. However, it might be a little chewy, and it may still want to shred. This is the cut people think of when they think pot roast. You can use whatever spices or herbs you want, and you can certainly use wine or beer as the liquid for baking if you'd prefer. It should produce plenty of good gravy starting liquid, full of nice beefy flavor to make your gravy for serving. Leftovers, should there be any, make great BBQ sandwiches, and it's also good for filling tacos, enchiladas, or beef pasties. You may have gotten it by mistake, but I think you'll discover it wasn't such a bad thing after all. You might even like it better. Just remember to cook low and slow, and you will do fine.
 
Melissa K. October 17, 2019
Thank you so much!! :)
 
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