Today’s post is a simple but amazing recipe for a Traeger Smoked Top Round Roast. I bought the top round roast at Costco and smoked it on the Traeger Trailhead portable pellet grill at 225F and it took about 2.5 hours.
The end result was absolute perfection.
This recipe will cover how to prepare the roast and adding extra smoke flavor along with the time and temperature for smoking.
Prepare the Top Round Roast for Smoking
An important part of this recipe is the size of the top round roast. We were using a four pound roast that we bought at Costco that was a little over two inches thick.
If you are using a smaller roast, like an eye of round, then you will need to shorten the cooking time accordingly.
The roast was USDA Grade Choice. However, top round is an extremely lean cut with little marbling so the difference between Select, Choice and Prime will be minimal.
We started by seasoning the roast aggressively with a classic beef dry rub. We used about three tablespoons of the Texas Beef BBQ Rub from Three Little Pigs.
If you want to make your own big, bold beef rub then here is a great recipe to start with:
- 1 tbls Salt
- 1 tbls Black Pepper
- 1 tbls Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Chipotle Powder
- 1 tsp Celery Powder
- 1/2 tsp MSG
Since this was a large lean cut we seasoned the roast the day before and let it dry brine in the refrigerator overnight. You can season and smoke the roast the same day if you are short on time but make sure you give the rub at least 30 minutes to work into the meat before it hits the smoker.
Fire Up Your Traeger!
We were smoking on the Traeger Trailhead that was hooked up to our Jackery 300 power supply and sitting on the Yukon Glory Portable Grill Table.
We filled the hopper of the Trailhead with Kirkland wood pellets, added a foil liner to the grease deflector, closed the lid and set the temperature to 225F.
It was a lovely day with just a bit of wind and it took the Traeger about 25 minutes to get to temperature and stabilize.
Smoke the Top Round Roast on Your Traeger
We put the roast on the Trailhead and then added a six inch smoke tube to get a little extra smoke flavor into the beef. The smoke tube got lit with a torch for about 30 seconds and once the pellets were burning good I blew out the flames to get a nice layer of smoke.
The cook took about 2.5 hours.
After the roast had smoked for 90 minutes the rub had set and the beef had beautiful color.
The roast got a spritz of water to help keep the surface from drying out and then was flipped over to help with even cooking.
After another 30 minutes the roast got another spritz.
After spritzing we closed the led and let the top round roast smoke for another 30 minutes until the target internal temperature of 135F was reached.
We placed the roast in a baking dish and let it rest, covered for about an hour before slicing.
Traeger Smoked Top Round Roast from Costco
Equipment
- Traeger Pellet Grill
- Six Inch Smoke Tube
Ingredients
- 4 lbs Top Round Roast
- 5 tbls Beef Dry Rub
- 1/4 cup Water for Spritzing
Instructions
- Season both sides of the Top Round Roast with the beef dry rub.
- Let the rub work into the meat for a minimum of 30 minutes and up to overnight.
- Set your Traeger to 225F and light a six inch smoke tube with pellets for extra smoke.
- Smoke the Top Round Roast for 90 minutes, then spritz with water and flip the roast.
- Smoke for another 30 minutes and spritz the roast again.
- Let the roast cook for another 30 minutes until an internal temperature of 130F is reached.
- Take the smoked Top Round Roast off the Traeger, place is a pan and let rest, covered, for at least an hour before slicing.
Slice and Serve
You have a couple of options when it is time to slice the roast but either way you go you will want to slice it as thinly as possible.
The grain on a top round roast runs from top to bottom.
If you slice the roast from the end then you will be slicing with the grain which will make the meat a little tougher than it needs to be. It won’t be as a big deal as it is with flank steak so don’t worry if this is the route you want to go.
If you want to get the meat as tender as possible then the trick is to make slices that are three inches thick, turn them on their sides and then cut thin slices against the grain.
You can serve the slices over a Caesar salad, make roast beef sandwiches or dice the meat for tacos. Leftovers are awesome in breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs!
