Poor Man’s Burnt Ends
On June 28, 2022 (Updated October 17, 2024)
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My poor man’s burnt ends recipe is a great way to get all of the classic BBQ flavors you love in burnt ends without having to smoke a whole brisket. By using a chuck roast instead of brisket, these chuck roast burnt ends save you some pocket change as well as some time spent at the smoker (without compromising on flavor!).
What Are Poor Man’s Burnt Ends?
Poor man’s burnt ends are beef burnt ends made with a chuck roast instead of a brisket.
BBQ Brisket Burnt Ends traditionally come from the fat-marbled point of a whole packer brisket. Slow smoked until they are nearly fall-apart tender and then basted in finger-licking BBQ sauce, they are the best bite in the BBQ world. These burnt ends are similar to brisket-style but might be a bit less intimidating than traditional brisket burnt ends.
Poor man’s burnt ends tend to be a cheaper option than brisket burnt ends, but you can often find meat that is relatively comparable in price. Think of them as bite-sized pieces of beef that are perfectly smoked and exploding with BBQ flavor.
Chuck Roast Burnt Ends
I understand that not everyone has the time to smoke up an entire whole packer brisket to make burnt ends. When you are craving burnt ends but don’t want to break the bank or make a smaller portion, using a chuck roast gives you a great flavor on a budget. I’ve also found that chuck roasts have a natural beefy flavor very similar to brisket, so the cut works amazing for making this burnt ends recipe!
For this recipe, I’m using a 3-pound chuck roast instead of a full-packer brisket to make a version called “Poor Man’s Burnt Ends.”
Poor Man’s Burnt Ends vs. Brisket Burnt Ends
For classic burnt ends, a whole brisket is smoked and the top muscle (the point) is removed while the leaner muscle (the flat) is sliced and served. The point is loaded with fatty marbling and amazing flavor. To enhance the flavor of the meat, it is often cubed and tossed with BBQ sauce before being grilled to meat candy perfection.
Honest truth, the price in my grocery store for brisket vs. chuck roast was almost identical (about $3/lb), so I don’t know where the phrase “poor man’s” even came from. Despite this, I would definitely make these again any time I’ve craving burnt ends but don’t want to smoke a whole brisket.
A whole brisket typically costs $40-50 and this chuck roast was under $10. My chuck roast burnt ends came in at about 3 pounds and was perfect for feeding my family.
Both burnt ends turn out delicious and both have a unique, delicious flavor, so I recommend trying out each type to determine which one is your favorite.
How to Make Poor Man’s Burnt Ends
The process for Poor Man’s Burnt Ends is very similar to smoking a whole brisket, but with the final intent of turning the whole cut of beef into BBQ burnt ends. This means more flavorful bark all the way around and oftentimes more even cooking. (It’s also fairly easy as well!)
Here’s the step-by-step on making these delicious treats:
- Preheat. Turn on your smoker and allow it to preheat to 275 degrees F with your favorite wood. I like to use hickory or oak pellets for my burnt ends as it beautifully complements the chuck roast.
- Season. Slather the roast in mustard then season. I recommend using my Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub (available from the Hey Grill Hey Store), but you can also use simple salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Season the roast liberally.
- Smoke that meat! Place the chuck roast on your smoker and smoke it until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. For me, it took 5 hours to reach this temperature, so adjust smoking time as needed.
- Wrap the roast. Wrap the chuck roast in butcher paper or foil and smoke until the internal temperature reaches 195 degrees F (this takes about an hour).
- Rest, cut, and season. Allow the roast to rest for 15-20 minutes. Cut into small cubes and season with 1/4 cup brown sugar and Everything BBQ Sauce (or your favorite Kansas-City Style BBQ Sauce) and place them in a foil baking pan.
- Finish smoking. Place the pan back on the grill grates of the smoker, and cook for up to 2 more hours.
- Add finishing touches. Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar and the remaining BBQ sauce. Return to the grill for just a few more minutes until everything is heated through and well mixed. Serve hot.
Tips for Cooking Poor Man’s Burnt Ends
Before you dive into this recipe, take note of a few tips to keep in mind that will help you get a great result.
- Cook to temperature, not to time. Often we want a recipe to give us an exact cook time, but the best way to cook is always to temperature. Every cut of meat is different, and each will finish at a different time. If you cook to temperature instead of time, you will never miss! For these burnt ends, I used ThermoWorks remote thermometer, The Smoke, and it was fantastic! There was a probe for the meat and another for keeping track of the grill temperature. Plus, I could view these temperatures remotely which is so convenient!
- Don’t forget to wrap. This recipe works fine wrapped in either butcher paper or foil; however, I prefer to use butcher paper.
- Meat grade matters! Normally with brisket, burnt ends are made from the fattiest piece of the muscle, so when you are choosing a chuck roast, try to select one with as much intramuscular fat as you can. This doesn’t mean you buy a roast with big, white chunks of fat in it. Rather, look for meat with small, white flecks of fat within the muscle.
More Burnt Ends Recipes
Ready to take on more burnt ends recipes? Check out these other tasty nuggets below!
- Burnt Ends Sandwich with Pickled Red Onions
- BBQ Brisket Burnt Ends
- Hot Dog Burnt Ends
- Maple Bourbon Pork Belly Burnt Ends
Poor Man’s Burnt Ends Recipe
Follow the video below and I’ll show you step-by-step how I make these easy Poor Man’s Burnt Ends at home. I’m all about helping you make the best backyard BBQ of your life, so check out more of my smoking and grilling recipe videos on YouTube, Instagram, or our Facebook Page. Follow along and let’s make awesome food together!
This post was originally published in May 2019. We recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.
Poor Man's Burnt Ends
Video
Equipment
- 1 Smoker I highly recommend this pellet grill!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chuck roast
- 2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
- 3 Tablespoons Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub or 1 Tablespoon each coarse salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder
- ½ cup Hey Grill Hey Everything BBQ sauce or your favorite ketchup-based BBQ sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat. Preheat your smoker for indirect grilling at 275 degrees F. Use hickory or oak wood for the most complementary smoke flavor.
- Season. Slather the chuck roast with yellow mustard then season liberally on all sides with Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub or equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Smoke. When your smoker is up to temperature, place the seasoned roast on the smoker and close the lid. Smoke the roast until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F (this took 5 hours on my smoker). You should have a fairly nice dark bark on the exterior of your roast at this point.
- Wrap. Remove the roast from the grill and wrap it in either butcher paper or foil. Return the roast to the grill and continue smoking until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 195 degrees F (this took just over 1 hour).
- Rest and cut. Remove the wrapped roast from the grill and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes. Cut into 3/4 inch cubes and transfer to a foil baking pan.
- Add sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar and drizzle with most of the Everything BBQ sauce, reserving a couple of tablespoons for later. Toss gently to coat all of the pieces in a little of the sauce.
- Finish smoking. Place the pan on the grill, close the lid and cook for an additional 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the sauce is bubbly and the cubed bits of beef are falling apart tender.
- Enjoy. Sprinkle with the additional 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar and the remaining BBQ sauce. stir gently and return to the grill for just a few more minutes until everything is well incorporated. Serve hot as a main course or on white bread/buns with pickles and white onions.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did a 4 pound Chuck Roast this weekend. Followed the recipe, but found that I reached the temperature levels in quite a bit less time on my Traeger Smoker/Grill. I used a internal probe for temp. Had no time to make BBQ sauce and used what I had in the pantry, Jack Daniels BBQ sauce. Mixed the meat, sauce and brown sugar in the aluminum pan as described. My concern was the brown sugar was going to be to much since the sauce is what I would consider very sweet. But I must say this turned out to be one of the best recipes I have ever tried. It was a huge hit with wife, son and grandsons. I would think that a spicier sauce might be the best choice since we are using quite a bit of brown sugar. The idea is wonderful and works great for us since we buy a half beef each year from a friend. His steers are large and be quite a few Chuck Roasts. Normally not one of my favorites but I can say for sure several of them will be Poor Man Burnt Ends. Thank you for a great recipe to add as one of our favorites.
Thinking of trying these this weekend. When you say you reached internal temperature in considerably less time, about how long did it take you?
Try the KC style sauce recipe on here. I doubled the red peppers. REAL good. I put a post up. The video says 225F recipe says 275F. I am guessing 225F is the correct temp.
Hey Brian- sorry about the video to post discrepancy! There was a miscommunication between my video editor and me. I actually smoke these chuck roasts at 275 degrees F. The biggest difference is cooking time. I love the idea of using extra red peppers in the sauce!
Can you possibly do this in a slow oven?I don’t have a smoker but would love to try it. I make a pork butt in a slow oven similar to this with a pan of water under it for moisture. Thanks
Hi Lori- you can absolutely try this in the oven. You’ll be missing the smoke flavor, but the results should still be good if you follow the time and temperature guidelines. The water pan is a great idea!
Thank you.I will let you know how it turns out.
If you’re making it in the oven, you can get a nice smoke flavor by using smoked salt in the rub. I make my own by mixing 2-3 Tbsp of liquid smoke to 1 C of sea salt an drying it on low in the oven.
You can use smoked paprika! Adds a yummy smoke flavor too.
Put the liquid smoke in the water pan
Thinking about getting an electric smoker from Lowe’s. Will a electric one work
Absolutely! Just keep your chip box full of wood and the temperature regulated.
Starting this on my Big Green Egg in the morning and can’t wait!! The written recipe states to set the smoker at 275 but the video says 225. I know it’s not much difference but should I stick with the lower temp for a smaller roast around 2 1/2 lbs?
Hey Nicole- you can get away with either temperature, since you’re cooking to the internal temp of the roast. 225 works great though if you want it on the smoker and exposed to the smoke a little longer.
I’m using a “Tragger” grill.Using that I start out on smoke Then switch to desired temp, Should I keep it on smoke or temp?
You could stay on the smoke setting, but I know Traeger’s typically run at about 180-200 degrees on smoke, so you’d have to add quite a bit of cook time to the recipe. Your best bet would be to change the temperature to 275 degrees after the initial fire-up and follow the recipe as written.
I have a traeger and turned my temp to 275, but the meat is already on 145 degrees and it’s onky been 1-1/2 hours?
There is typically a stall period between 145 and 165 where the temperature stops climbing as quickly and it will draw out the overall cook time.
Do you put any liquid in the water pan?
My smoker doesn’t have a water pan, but if yours does you can add water.
The stall happens when the meat “sweats” which cools down the cooking process. Regardless of the temp when the stall happens, it’s a good time to wrap which will help the meat from drying out.
Can you smoke at lower temp like 225 to keep the meat from drying out?
I’ve never had a problem with them drying it at 275, but you can totally smoke them at 225 if you want to. Just add on an extra couple of hours to the total cook time.
My first run through was in the oven – thanks to bad weather – and although the flavor was good, they were a little dry. Second run through today, this time on the smoker… just cut the meat into chunks for the final step and, I have to say, it also looked a little dry. We shall see when it comes out in about an hour.
What did you think Steven? Did they turn out ok?? I usually make an effort to buy chuck roasts that are well marbled with fat to help with moisture.
my smoaker has a tray and i put apple cyder or apple juce it so it wont be dry
I’m going to try this tomorrow. I just got a small pellet smoker, so I’m new to this. If my grill doesn’t have a water tray spot, can I just fill a small foil drip pan with apple juice off to the side will it work ok?
You can do that if you feel like you need it. I don’t use a water pan with this recipe on my pellet smoker.
When you say “return to the grill,” you mean the smoker, right?
Yep! I sometimes use the terms interchangeably.
Your Poor Man’s Burnt Ends looks great! Can you recommend a BBQ sauce recipe?
Hey Jeff- I have a few BBQ sauce recipes, my personal favorite for the burnt ends is the Apple Jalapeno. https://heygrillhey.com/?s=BBQ+sauce
This is the best thing that has come off my grill thus far. Thank you for sharing! My belly thanks you.
you said the top muscle is the deckle… thats the fat separating the two muscles. right? you mean the point?
Hey Paul- the deckle is actually the muscle and the fat, it’s just another name for the point.
I’ve had my pellet grill for 3 weeks, using it on weekends and days off. Just made the Poor Man’s Burnt Ends for Christmas dinner and it is the current family favorite here. Looking forward to trying more HGH recipes as I get to know my grill and new hobby.