Smoked Roast Beef: Deli Style

12 reviews

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This Smoked Roast Beef recipe will change the way you cook roast beef forever! Slow, smoke-roasted and sliced thin, you’ll want this for Sunday supper and then sliced thin on sandwiches for the rest of the week.

Slices of smoked roast beef on a wood cutting board with decorative text.

What is Smoked Roast Beef?

This smoked roast beef recipe makes the perfect Sunday roast and the leftovers become the most delicious deli style roast beef! This method produces a perfectly pink, medium rare roast beef, packed with flavor and a kiss of wood smoke. Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy, a some grilled green beans and fresh rolls for a classic roast beef dinner you’ll come back to over and over again. 

The best thing about this roast recipe may be the leftovers. Chilled and sliced thin, this smoked roast beef makes the most unbelievable sandwiches. You are slow roasting a whole muscle, which means no food binders, no preservatives, no added sugars, nitrates, nitrites, artificial caramel coloring, or anything else you don’t want on your plate or in your sandwich. This is as clean as you can get, with more flavor than you can imagine. French dips or cold subs, you’ll never have better roast beef between two slices of bread.

Best Cuts to Use

In this recipe, I recommend using an eye of round roast. The tight grain of muscle and lack of excess fat makes it perfect for slicing thin and serving warm or chilled. Other great cuts to use would include a sirloin tip roast, a tri tip roast, top round roast, tenderloin roast, or a top sirloin petite. These cuts are similar in size and weight and are ideal cooked to medium rare and sliced thin. They will have great beefy flavor and a tender texture when sliced against the grain.

How to Make Smoked Roast Beef

You start by seasoning your beef roast. I recommend using my Signature Beef Seasoning (2020 NBBQA 1st place beef seasoning!) because it is the perfect complement to smoky beef. Next, you slow smoke your eye of round roast (typically 2-3 lbs) until the internal temperature is to the doneness you like. Make sure you own a great internal thermometer so you can track the temperature of your roast during this first slow roasting step.

We like our roast beef pretty rare, so I cook to 120 degrees F during the first step. If you want closer to medium, cook to 130 internal temperature. Medium well, cook to 145 degrees F. Eye of round is a pretty lean roast and if you cook it any higher than medium, you will have a pretty dry roast. I don’t recommend cooking this type of roast beef to well done.

For the second step, the roast gets a hot hot sear on the outside to add flavor and finish cooking. This is what gives you that gorgeous dark exterior to add contrast along the edges of each slice.

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Tips for Smoked Roast Beef

  • -Once your roast is done, let it rest for a few minutes before slicing if you are serving it hot.
  • -If you want to slice your roast thin for sandwiches, let the roast chill thoroughly before slicing. You can slice thin with a sharp knife if you don’t have a meat slicer.
  • -Place your slices in freezer bags and store in the fridge for use within a week or in your freezer and use within a month or two. Delicious in French dip sandwiches!

Hopefully you guys will see how truly simple this is to do at home and how much MONEY you can save over buying stuff from the deli counter at the store. If you have any questions, hesitations, need a cheerleader or advice, leave a comment below I’m always happy to help!

More Ways to Make Smoked Roast Beef:

If you can’t get enough smoky roast beef in your life, I’ve got a few delicious recipes for you to try!

Smoked Beef Tenderloin with White Wine Mushroom Gravy
Garlic Butter Smoked Prime Rib Roast
Smoked Mississippi Pot Roast
Pulled Beef Chuck Roast

Smoked Roast Beef Recipe

Homemade Deli Style Roast Beef

By: Susie Bulloch (heygrillhey.com)
4.92 from 12 votes
This Smoked Roast Beef recipe will change the way you cook roast beef forever! Slow, smoke-roasted and sliced thin, you’ll want this for Sunday supper and then sliced thin on sandwiches for the rest of the week.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Total Time2 hours 10 minutes
Servings4 people

Video

Ingredients
 

  • 1 2-3 lb eye of round roast

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees F with a hardwood like oak, hickory, or pecan.
  • Season the eye of round roast liberally on all sides with the beef seasoning.
  • Place the roast directly on the grill grates or in a roasting pan, and cook until the internal temperature reaches 120 degrees for rare roast beef.
  • Remove the roast from the grill and increase the temperature to High (around 450-500 degrees) or preheat a cast iron pan on your stove top to High. Place the roast on the hot grill or pan and sear for 2-3 minutes per side until the roast is nice and dark all around.
  • Remove the roast from the heat and rest for 10 minutes. Slice thin against the grain and serve. For any leftovers, allow the roast to cool until it stops steaming, then cover and place in the refrigerator until chilled (I leave it overnight). Once chilled through, slice thin and serve on sandwiches.

Nutrition

Calories: 321kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 50g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 141mg | Sodium: 127mg | Potassium: 773mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 26IU | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 5mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Like this? Leave a comment below!

About

FOUNDER/BBQ BOSS LADY

Susie is the BBQ Brain behind the Hey Grill Hey website. Her passion for smoked meats and developing fun, new recipes have landed her on the Food Network, cooking turkeys with Shaq, and on a couple of Guinness World Records. When she’s not grilling, she is hanging out with Todd and their three kids, preferably outdoors!

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Reader Reviews

58 Reviews

  1. Steve says:

    How would you recommend reheating the meat, if you wait until its cool to slice thinly?

  2. SeanG says:

    Do you think it would be ok to smoke this with apple wood ? I’m smoking a turkey breast at the same time and was worried any other wood might be too strong for the turkey.Thanks !

    1. Hey Grill Hey says:

      Should be great!

  3. Tom says:

    My meat guy had whole NY Strips for $5/lb. Cut one up for steaks; I’m thinking about giving this a try on half the other one For New Years–any thoughts on using that cut vs the eye of round?

  4. GrumpyGriller says:

    This is a simple and very tasty offering. I tend to keep the Traeger temp closer to 200, and that adds a bit of time to the cook, but it gets more smoke as well 🙂 And the 120 IT is perfect to remove and then sear in my cast iron skillet for a minute on each side. My little Nesco slicer does a great job slicing the roast beef nice and thin. In fact, I think it tastes better the second day 🙂 I’ve done this a few times, the last using Mesquite pellets…yum!

  5. Rita C. Donnell says:

    Hi
    Its great!
    I’m this first time in your blog. I love your deli style roast beef idea wonder technique. I can’t handle my greed to apply in my kitchen. Thanks for excellent sharing.

  6. Eric Jungclaus says:

    I have a Camp Chef also and cooked a eye of round yesterday to 120 using the built in thermometer of the WiFi PID controller and it seems the meat, although tender is not actually rare. The center does not have that nice pink color like you see in deli roast beef. Is this a product of inaccurate temp monitoring, or the smoking process? Love your recipes!

    1. Hey Grill Hey says:

      It could be temp inaccuracy. Verify with a known accurate thermometer or the ice-water method!

  7. MattP says:

    How long would you say is safe to put the meat in a roaster to just keep warm? I’m doing the beef and some pulled pork on Sunday, and it possibly would need to stay in a roaster for up to three hours.

    1. Hey Grill Hey says:

      That should be fine.