A failed attempt at pulled beef turned great fajitas


 
A

Aaron Legge

TVWBB Fan
It was a busy week which resulted in not a whole lot of barbecuing going on here To redeem myself with the barbecue gods I took a shot at making pulled beef. My plan was to make fajitas and save leftovers for lunches this week.
Started with a boneless blade roast:
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Rubbed it with just S&P, chipotle powder, garlic and onion powder:
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I put the roast on the offset smoker between 225 and 250 with a mixture or hickory and mesquite chips. After 4 hours I was only up to 130, I was hoping to get it to 200 to pull so I foiled to try get temps up faster.
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While the beef cooked in foil I prepped some onions and peppers for fajita fixin’s.
Lady Bell Peppers out of the garden and a jalapeno left over from last weekend’s ABTs.
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Cooked the peppers and onions on the charcoal kettle and even tossed the foiled roast on there to try and get the temperature up.
Peppers and onions roasted,
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and sliced up with some S&P and olive oil
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The roast had a small top portion and a larger lower portion, I cut the top cap off and diced it for the fajitas and sliced the lower portion.
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Plated as fajitas:
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The roast was good but I was disappointed I couldn’t get it to pull. It was obviously bigger than I thought and needed longer than 5 hours on the smoker.
 
tep, ya just didn't get it to the pull/shred point. you need to get it to the soft probe point which could be in the 195-210 range. then i would pull it off, wrap with foil and a blanket and let rest for a hour. that should get you to what yer lookin for. if it takes to long then up yer temp to 300 or so.
 
Looks good Aaron.

Have never done pulled beef myself but i guess it work wounders in fajitas.
 
Looks pretty darn good for something that didn't turn out the way you wanted. Nice save.
 
Howdy hi Aaron,

It has been written, time and time again, that a cut of meat like your beef blade roast or a Boston butt roast or a beef brisket isn't done until it's done--isn't done until it's tender by probe.

While my mother never smoked a piece of chuck roast in her life, she knew when a piece of braised chuck roast was done by feel. She probed her braised chuck roasts with a carving fork. You learn to feel how smoothly a probe of your choice feels penetrating the meat. If you use a carving fork like my mother, you can simply feel how easily or how difficultly it penetrates the meat. How much resistance is there? Not sure, you can give the fork a twist. If the meat wants to shred when the fork is twisted, it is done. Of course, you don't need to use a carving fork. You can use any suitable probe. I use my tip-sensitive thermometer. I usually note the temperature for interest only. The temperature varies quite a bit. The cooking time varies quite a bit. But, when I can feel that the meat is tender, I know it is done. Beef chuck should pull easily.

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You know, I had thought about doing some pulled beef. Now I'm going to do it. At least I know that if it doesn't come out as expected, all is not lost.
 
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