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Texas Smoked Pot Roast

Forget about the Mississippi pot roast and two step your way into a proper Texas smoked pot roast. This version smokes a beef fajita seasoned chuck roast low and slow before braising it with sliced onion, beer, pickled jalapeño peppers, beef broth, and ranch seasoning.

It’s super simple. Seriously, that’s the entire ingredient list. But for a dish so simple, it has complex flavors and melts in your mouth with the ultra tender shredded beef and jammy caramelized onions.

You can serve this Texas pot roast over mashed potatoes for a classic feel. Or you can use it to make tacos and burrito bowls, beef melts on Texas toast, loaded mac and cheese, or whatever else you can dream up. Now giddy up, and I’ll show you how to make it.

smoked pot roast in a bowl with mashed potatoes and a roll

Step 1: Smoking a Chuck Roast

I used H-E-B Texas Originals beef fajita seasoning to liberally season the roast before smoking. But any beef fajita or Tex-Mex seasoning blend will get the job done.

While the recipe doesn’t call for a binder, hot sauce is a solid choice for recipes with Tex-Mex flavors. I used Yellowbird hot sauce as a binder and chili seasoning mix for the roast in my smoked chili.

You want to go with a chuck roast that’s either USDA Choice or Prime so there’s plenty of marbling and fat to breakdown. Select cuts can work in a pinch, but you may need to add a bit more liquid or even beef tallow or butter to get a really rich beef jus. Take a look at my smoked beef tacos for an example of the fat that renders off a USDA Prime chuck roast.

HEB beef fajita seasoning with a boneless chuck roast

The cook starts at 275ºF for a few hours to get a jump start on bark development and pick up plenty of smoke before the roast goes in an open Dutch oven or grill pan with the remaining ingredients.

Fun fact: Did you know you can smoke a chuck roast like a poor man’s brisket? Even though poor man’s is probably a misnomer these days since chuck roast can be more expensive per pound than brisket.

Step 2: The Braising Ingredients for Texas Pot Roast

Speaking of the rest of the gang, all you need is a few thinly sliced onions, pickled jalapeño peppers, ranch seasoning, beef broth, and a dark beer.

pouring a beer into a Dutch oven with sliced onion, ranch seasoning, and pickled peppers

The thinner you slice the onions, the more they’ll break down and become nearly indistinguishable in the final dish. I like to preserve a bit of structural integrity by not slice too thinly.

You can skip the beer and use a bit more beef broth or other cooking liquid. It definitely adds a bit of flavor that will be missed but shouldn’t affect the cooking process much. You might want to add a tablespoon or two of dark vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, or soy sauce to add a little something-something.

smoked chuck roast in a Dutch oven with onion, pickled peppers, beer, beef broth, and ranch seasoning

The recipe calls for increasing the temperature of your pellet smoker and cooking the chuck roast on top of everything else with the lid off. This step allows some of the liquid to evaporate and reduce. The beef will also continue to pick up smoke and color.

Step 3: Covering the Pot to Finish the Cook Faster

If you want to speed things up, you can add the rest of the beef broth and cover the pot at any point. Once the lid goes on, you should have ultra tender beef that shreds easily with a fork within 2-3 hours.

smoked pot roast in a Dutch oven before shredding

Just be sure to keep an eye on things and occasionally stir the onions around. With the dark beer, broth, and beef juices, the onions will look dark as they cook. Give them a taste as you go and if anything tastes bitter or on the brink of scorching, add more liquid.

Scraping down the sides of the pot at this stage also preserves some of the delicious fond as everything reduces.

Step 4: Shredding the Beef and Exercising Patience

Sorry, Tom Sizemore, the action is not the juice here. The juice is the key. Once you shred the beef, let it hang out in the juices and jammy onions for at least 30 minutes (at a low temperature). This smoked pot roast gets even better the longer everything hangs out together.

serving smoked pot roast with tongs

While I hate to dirty another dish, I do like to shred the beef in a separate vessel. It makes removing any fatty pieces or connective tissue that didn’t quite break down much easier.

Why waste those juices on the chewy bits?

Serving Tips and Ideas

Even though this is a “Texas pot roast” or Tex-Mex spin on the classic Mississippi pot roast, mashed potatoes are still a no-brainer pairing. Mashed potatoes just soaks up all that goodness and balances the flavors perfectly.

The only thing missing in my photo below is a veggie side like roasted green beans or carrots.

serving smoked and shredded beef pot roast over mashed potatoes

You can also lean into the Tex-Mex flavors and use this pot roast to make tacos and quesadillas, burrito bowls with rice and smoked borracho beans, or a shredded beef torta with escabeche or pickled onions.

And speaking of sandwiches, we made a few beef melts with our leftovers from testing. Just spread a bit of mayo on two pieces of sourdough, toss them in a pan over medium heat, top with cheese and beef, and toast until the bread is golden brown.

smoked pot roast on two slices of sourdough bread topped with cheese in a skillet

After making these I actually made a new recipe for smoked mushroom swiss shredded beef sandwiches that’s pretty similar. It has a slightly different seasoning mix and adds a pound of sliced mushrooms alongside the sliced onion. Maybe an idea for the future if you dig this version.

However you end up serving this smoked pot roast, I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments or a recipe review alongside your thoughts on the recipe as a whole. I hope you enjoy it!

smoked pot roast in a bowl with mashed potatoes and a roll

Smoked Texas Pot Roast

Yield: 8 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours 15 minutes

Smoked and shredded fajita ranch beef with beer braised jammy onions.

Ingredients

  • 2.5 pound Boneless Chuck Roast (Choice or Prime)
  • 2 Tablespoons Beef Fajita Seasoning*
  • 3 White Onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 Tablespoons Ranch Seasoning
  • Pickled Jalapeño Peppers
  • 12 oz Dark Beer
  • 4 cups Beef Broth, divided

Instructions

  1. Preheat your smoker to 275ºF with the lid closed.
  2. Season the chuck roast on all sides with the fajita seasoning while the grill heats up. Once it's up to temperature, add the roast and cook for 3 hours until a nice bark forms.
  3. After 3 hours, increase the temperature on your smoker to 400ºF.
  4. Slice the onions and place them in a Dutch oven or grill pan, followed by the ranch seasoning and jalapeño peppers. Add the beer and 1 cup of beef broth, stirring everything together.
  5. Place the roast on top of the onion mixture in the Dutch oven and cook for 1 hour uncovered.
  6. After 1 hour, stir the onions around and add the remaining beef broth. Cover the Dutch oven and cook for an additional 2 hours or so until the beef shreds easily. Check on the roast periodically to make sure the onions are caramelizing, not burning.
  7. Once the beef is fully tender, reduce the temperature to its keep warm setting (180ºF to 225ºF or so). Shred the beef and let it hang out with the onion and juices for about 30 minutes before serving.
  8. Serve over mashed potatoes with parsley or fresh herbs and enjoy!

Notes

*I used H-E-B beef fajita seasoning but any Mexican seasoning blend works as a rub for smoking the chuck roast.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 398Total Fat: 22gCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 38g

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