Smoked Eye of Round Roast {Easy and Delicious!}

One of the easiest and most underrated cuts of beef to put on your smoker is an Eye of Round roast.  Personally I am glad that most people still avoid this cut as it means that I can always find one at the grocery!

I love to take a Smoked Eye of Round, slice it as thin as possible and use it to make the best smoked roast beef sandwiches I have ever had.  Seriously folks, this is easy, fast and delicious.

Does it get any better than that?

Let’s take a look at how easy it is to turn an Eye of Round Roast into some extraordinarily great barbecue!

Prepare the Eye of Round for the Smoker

I smoke eye of rounds to Medium Rare which is an internal temperature of 130-135F.  Because we are only going to Medium Rare then all we need to do to get the beef ready for the smoker is trim and season the beef.  This technique is a little different than how I smoke tri tips but either method works great.

I have seen other recipes that treat this beef roast like a brisket or a chuck roast and cooks them to an internal temperature of 205F.  Those high temperature recipes will require you to either brine or inject the meat to keep it from drying out.  More often than not, the meat comes out tasting more like pot roast than roast beef.

Since we are only going to Medium Rare we get to skip the brine/inject step!

Trimming the Beef Roast

Most eye of round roasts will have one side with a thin fat cap and layer of silverskin and I always take this layer off.

There is not enough fat in this layer to add any meaningful flavor and the silverskin acts as a barrier that prevents the rub and smoke from flavoring the meat.

Take a sharp knife and trim away the silverskin.  It just takes a minute to do and there is very little waste.

Season the Roast

I start by applying a thin coat of yellow mustard to the beef to help the dry rub adhere.  A general rule is to use a tablespoon of mustard per pound of meat.

Since this roast weighed in at 2.5 pounds I ended up using a little over 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard.  Don’t sweat this step.  Just squirt some mustard on and spread it all over the meat.  It isn’t an exact science!

Once the mustard has been applied you can season it with the dry rub.

You can use your favorite beef rub for this step or the recipe below.  I love the color that I get with this rub!

Smoked Roast Beef Dry Rub

• 3 tbls salt
• 1 tbls smoked paprika
• 1 tbls chili powder
• 1 tbls black pepper
• 1 tbls brown sugar
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp granulated onion
• 1/2 tsp celery powder
• 1/4 tsp Accent (MSG)

Apply the rub liberally and let it sweat into the meat for at least 30 minutes before placing the meat onto the smoker.

I am telling you…this rub is tasty and beautiful!  You could put this stuff in a bottle and sell it all day long!

Smoke the Eye of Round

Set your smoker to 225F.

I was using a Z Grills pellet grill but you can use your Trager, Pit Boss or even a Masterbuilt electric smoker.  I like using hickory pellets when I am smoking beef.

This is a fast smoker recipe so you will need to have a digital thermometer on hand and pay attention as you cook.

Put the seasoned eye of round on the smoker and let it cook until the rub sets.  For this cook it took about 90 minutes for the rub to form a crust.  The beef is NOT done at this point and will look kind of “meh” on your pit.

Once the rub sets it is time to baste the beef with an extra layer of flavor.

Mix up the recipe below and baste the beef every 10-15 minutes.

Smoked Roast Beef Baste Recipe

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbls Teriyaki sauce

Ideally you would put the beef baste into a spray bottle and mist the beef as this will make sure that you don’t knock off the rub.  I didn’t have a spay bottle handy so I just gently dabbled the baste onto the beef.

Continue smoking until the internal temperature of the beef is 130-135F and then remove from the cooker.

The total cook time for this 2.5 pound roast was just a little over two hours.

If you are working with a 4-5 pound roast then the cooking time will increase but not by much.  How long it takes the beef to reach 130F is determined by the thickness of the roast, not the weight.

Slice and Serve

I like to slice the beef as thin as possible for maximum tenderness and the cooler the beef is the easier it is to thinly slice.

You can absolutely carve this up and devour it right off the pit but I like to wrap it in foil and refrigerate overnight.  After a night in the refrigerator the meat is easier to slice and the smoke flavor concentrates even deeper into the beef.

I serve the smoked beef on toasted buns and I really can’t emphasize enough what a difference the toasting makes.  Toasting the buns is a simple step that provides a wonderful crunch and extra layer of flavor to the sandwich.

I put a layer of horseradish cream sauce on the bottom bun and top the sandwich with a spicy barbecue sauce like Head Country Hot and Spicy.  The double spice kick of horseradish on the bottom and spiciness on the top is a “One-Two” flavor punch to your mouth!

If you can’t find a Hot and Spicy barbecue sauce then go ahead and use a traditional sweet sauce but throw some pickled jalapenos on there to bring the heat!