Chuck roast burnt ends in oven turn out great. Also known as poor man’s burnt ends, we made this with a dry rub and sauced at the end too. These bites come out sticky, sweet, savory and are addicting.

If you’re looking to make burnt ends with chuck roast we have it! I will share how to bake it in the oven here but you could also make steak bites in air fryer as well. Take your pick because they are both beyond amazing and always a hit with guests. (affiliate links present)
How Long to Cook chuck Roast Burnt Ends in the Oven
There is a bit of time you need to prep this but not much. Dry rub needs to be mixed in a bowl and meat needs to be sliced into bite size pieces. Beyond that the cook time in total is 2 – 2.5 hours or so. This will vary slightly depending on the size of your cubes and desired texture but in it’s entirety you should need 3 hours to get this done.
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!!
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.
Ingredient Notes
You are going to want about a 2 lb chuck roast for the amount of rub to be adequate. If you were doubling this then you could obviously need to make twice as much of the seasonings listed below. You want a thick coating on each piece to get that caramelized look and taste as you see here. 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.
Speaking of which, the dry rub includes; Brown sugar, some Garlic powder, a dash of Paprika, add Chili powder and/or red pepper flakes to make it from mild to spicy, and the basics are Salt and pepper.
Yes the dry rub will give you basically all the yum you need but we are going to go a step further with a lather of your favorite barbecue sauce too. Oh yes we did!
with Frozen Roast
We have shared how to cook frozen roast in the oven but the dry rub won’t stick in this case. 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 pot 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.
with 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.
Equipment
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.
Chuck Roast Burnt Ends Recipe
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet
Ingredients
- 2 pound chuck roast
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 340 F. Rinse beef and pat dry with 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 foil and place 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. 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. and place in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until sticky and browned.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What type of meat is best?
You may have heard this called a poor mans chuck roast 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.
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 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!!
Something Different to do With Chuck Roast
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. ๐
Thank you for a recipe using a smaller cut of meat, I had 1.5 lbs to use and was having a hard time finding a recipe to use it up in. It wasn’t dry at all, nice and tender and if you get a fatty chuck it carmelizes nicely in the second part of cooking. I will def be making this again. I did cook it for an hour and 40 min not the 2 hours sugeested because mine ewas smaller, if that helps anyone.
Yeah for the yum
We made these yesterday….my guys whined all day that the yummy smell was killing them and they could not wait to eat!
Yay
Got a 2lb chuck roast, cooked 1.5 hours at required temperature, added the BBQ, increased temp and cooked for about 10 minutes and came out fabulous. Hubby loved it! Win for me!
Yay
How should I adjust cook time for a larger chuck roast?
Just use a larger baking tray so they aren’t overlapping and the timing shouldn’t really change if in a single layer
Great recipe! I added to it a little by seasoning it more. When you put it back into the oven with the BBQ Sauce, put slices of butter in it as well.
I had to cook this dish significantly longer than directed. Unsure of why, the meat was a little tough when I first pulled it out
Question:) After you slice the roast into cubes and cover with BBQ sauce, do you cover it with foil again for those final 15 to 20 minutes?:)
No, this time is so it can get caramelized and a bit browned
Loved this. Easy to make. Hubby couldnโt stop eating.
so glad
Question, do I drain the juices from the meat after the first baking before I had the barbecue sauce? Or do I keep it and added it to the barbecue sauce?
It isn’t entirely necessary to drain if you didn’t but yes ideally I would so the sauce can really stick on and caramelize.
Delicious! Iโve made it three times now and Iโve found that it doesnโt really matter what kind of roast or steak I use it just depends on how tender I want it. Even then I can add more sauce and cook longer and it gets super soft! Delicious.
awesome, great to know