Best Chuck Roast Burnt Ends

Chuck roast burnt ends in oven turn out great. With a dry rub and sauced at the end these steak bites come out sticky sweet and savory.

Burnt Ends in Oven

After we made smoked chuck roast I had this thought. What if we diced the meat up and tossed with the sauce to really get it all caked on and almost caramelized? SO that is what we did, but baked this time. You could do the same thing on a grill grate in your Traeger too. When we give that a go with wood chunks I will link that here as well.

We eat a lot of beef around here because we buy half a cow at the beginning of each year. It not only saves us money but saves trips to the store and we know each bite is organic. When we first did this there were several cuts I had NO idea what to do with, this and top round roast was some of those. Now it is one of my all time favorites!!

Steak Bites in Oven

I have done all sorts of things with this large hunk of protein. I first made slow cooker chuck roast to the point where it could be pulled apart with forks. Like seriously so good y’all. For this one we cook it before that point so it can be sliced into bite size pieces, then drowned in barbecue sauce and baked again.

If you have ever caramelized onions, the outsides kinda’ remind me of that. Sticky and sweet with some crisp on the edges. You can make it as browned as you want or just a touch, I like quite a bit. You can do the same thing with other proteins too like our hot dog burnt ends. For this one the best idea is to keep it whole at first and bake it for a while to keep it moist.

If you dice it up first it won’t stay as tender, just trust me. There will be a decent amount of juices released too so use a baking pan with high sides. Oh and you’ll want to use a piece that is either fresh or has been defrosted beforehand. We have shared how to cook frozen roast in the oven but the dry rub won’t stick in this case.

Something Different to do With Chuck Roast

If all you have is something that is still rock solid you could follow those directions. Then 3/4 of the way thru cube it into pieces, toss with the dry rub roast seasoning and sauce and continue on with the last quarter of timing. It won’t be as juicy but is possible still if you’re in a pinch.

• 2 lb chuck roast
• Brown sugar
• Garlic powder
• Paprika
• Chili powder and/or red pepper flakes would make it more spicy
• Salt and pepper
• 1/3 c barbecue sauce

And a pan with high sides with some aluminum foil is what you’ll need as well. You could use a disposable foil pan too. Use your favorite sauce. Some are just sweet whereas others have quite a bit of heat to them. I like a combination of the two ideally……but I also buy what is on sale so there’s that.

Poor Mans Burnt Ends

You may have heard this called a poor mans burnt ends recipe. Ok so this may or not be the cheapest cut of beef where you are. For a really long time I could find this really inexpensive but recently it hasn’t been. One cut of meat that is always real cheap is an arm roast. You could use that too but tends to be a bit tougher and may need a bit more time.

• Start by preheating the the oven to 340 degrees F. Rinse beef and pat dry with a few paper towels on the outside to remove excess moisture.
• Put the beef in a baking dish. In a bowl, mix all the spices, salt and brown sugar. Rub beef on all sides with spices.
• Cover the baking dish with some aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, carefully remove the foil and transfer the beef from the baking dish to a cutting board.
  • you can use a meat thermometer to determine the temp
  • when internal temperature reaches 195 F this cut will be considered tender
• Cut into 1-inch pieces and transfer to a deep bowl.
• Add the BBQ sauce and mix everything thoroughly so that each piece is covered.
• Transfer to a baking dish, increase temp to 380 F.
• Place in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until sticky and browned as you want them to be.

If you are trying to cook a keto dinner there are low sugar sauces you can find online. You likely would want to serve this without a grain, we almost always make this with some frozen vegetables in oven since I can just throw them in at the end on another rack. Feeling really bad, make mac and cheese with it. 😉

Chuck Roast Dry Rub

I have shared many different dry rub recipes over the years. You could use any of them really, this one is quite simple overall without a lot of heat. Want a lighter version or make a few with a different sauce and see which you like best. Like instead of bbq, make some cajun garlic butter steak bites with this sauce instead.

Chuck Roast Steak Bites

You could use a cut of steak to make this too but that would change the timing since those aren’t nearly as thick. Brisket burnt ends are quite amazing but that is literally the most expensive cut you can find and typically you don’t want to mess with greatness. I like to leave that type whole and slice for the most part.

You are free to print recipe below or just come back time and time again to get the instructions. If you do have leftovers you can reheat steak bites recipes quite easily the next day too. I like using my air fryer to do that. Just throw them into a preheated basket at 400 for maybe 4 minutes tossing halfway thru to cook the steak on the outsides nice and crispy again and OMG so good!!