Dry Rub Top Round Roast Recipe

Best baked top round roast recipe in oven with a savory dry rub is here. This is how to cook beef roast to medium rare and perfectly fork tender.

Top Round Roast Medium Rare

We buy half of a cow at the beginning of every year so I cook a lot of easy beef recipes year round. Some are better cut into small bite size pieces and made into a stew of sorts. Others like this one is better left whole and left quite pink in the middle. Believe me, try it as instructed below, you will fall in love like I did.

I will start by saying that I typically like my cow well done, you do NOT want to overcook this one though. Sliced thin it is great served on slider buns or rolls like you would a French dip. We made a few side dishes instead and ate it as is that way. With our homemade rub you don’t need any sauce or A1 with this baby.

We are using a defrosted / thawed piece of meat, or fresh would work. If you needed to know how to cook a frozen roast in the oven I have directions for that as well. It can be done either way but I will say that thawed beforehand is better. The other turns out surprisingly well but definitely a bit more dry than the other.

Another negative is that if it starts out rock hard you can’t roll it into our pot roast seasoning dry rub recipes and get it to stick. You can sprinkle some on midway once it cooks for a bit but not as much will stay on so it’s not as thick with the crust we like.

Top Round Roast Oven

For large cuts of beef like this or our Eye of Round Roast it is best if you cook after it has been taken out of the fridge for a good 30 minutes. Then your cut of meat isn’t going from really cold to a hot oven all of a sudden. That requires thinking ahead a bit but keep that in mind.

• 2-3 lb top round roast ours was 2.1
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp Montreal steak seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika
• Cumin
• 3 tbsp garlic powder
• ** If you want sweet and savory add 1 tbsp brown sugar into your rub **

You will need a roasting pan with a rack to keep it off the bottom or make a foil ball like you see here. It is just better so the bottom doesn’t get too done and/or sit in any of the drippings. I didn’t have one on hand so I made do with this and it worked just fine.

Beef Top Round Roast

Feel free to make several batches of the rub once you find out how much you really love it. That way you can keep it in a container and then the next time you make top round roast beef you can just sprinkle it on a plate to coat and save yourself a bit of time.

Eye of round roast cooking time

Always preheat before adding your food in there so it is evenly cooked the whole time it’s in there. A vital part of getting the ideal outcome.

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix together seasonings in a dish.
• Rinse roast and pat outside with paper towels.
• Coat outside, bottom, top, sides well with what is listed or one of our dry rub recipes so it is well coated.
• Set inside a baking dish with a rack underneath or a waded up piece of foil so it isn’t sitting directly on the bottom.
• Bake at 450 for 15 minutes
• Then lower temp to 325 degrees F
• Bake until internal temperature in the thickest part reaches 135 degrees F for a medium rare roast with a perfectly tender center.
• For a 2.1 lb. piece this took 60 minutes for us.

You always want to allow your meat to rest for a good 15 minutes once it’s done, no matter what cooking method you use. That way it will stay moist and the juices won’t immediately run out. Only real exception to this rule is if you were slow cooking a frozen roast or fresh one. You could slice it right away that way.

2 lb Top Round Roast Cooking Time

You’re looking at about 1 hour and 15 minutes baked. If you used your Crockpot it is closer to 6-7 hours instead. This was plenty for the 4 of us to enjoy for dinner with some rice and veggies. I had a few slices left over and of course I warmed those up the next day for us.

The BEST way to reheat leftover beef is to dice it up, toss with some teriyaki sauce and make steak bites out of them. Seriously, it’s the only way to go. Then we usually put it on top of rice with some broccoli or steamed cauliflower. You do want to make sure to save it properly when you are done though.

With your roast leftovers wait until it cools to room temperature. Store it whole in a freezer bag or foil in the fridge. Within 3-4 days cut it up into bite size pieces and I think it needs some sauce to moisten it back up again. You could alternatively toss your lean cuts with olive oil and dry seasonings. Just a few minutes in your air fryer warms and crisps them up!

How to Cook a Top Round Roast

You can jump to recipe below and get started on this roasted roast beef recipe here. Let us know if you add any heat to your rub that you love. Another tweak you can make is add 1 tbsp brown sugar to add some sweetness too if you like. That will kinda’ caramelize in the first browning step which the kids seem to love.

OR just sprinkle on something simple like salt, pepper and some garlic salt and go. This would be best if you want to serve it with a gravy or some kind of sauce you want to shine. Give it a whirl the next time you go to the store and enjoy friends!