Texas Shredded Barbecued Beef

If you were anywhere near my neck of the woods (literally) on Saturday evening you would have heard a very disgruntled female on a mountain bike shouting at the trees in frustration, “Why can’t I make left turns?” That’s right, almost a year of pedaling my ass off every night and those tight turns still get me. I had cracked my knee pretty good and missed two turns twice on our ‘casual ride’ to stretch our legs before race day. Our race day.

On a hot and muggy Sunday, I decided to ride my first race our at the Fair Hill Classic hosted by the Delaware Trail Spinners. I rode in the novice race, a 7.5 mile ride. Not many females (only 6 or 7) were riding in my group, however the men’s and junior’s groups were pretty thick. The thin pack of ladies agreed to not be too aggressive in the field.   We took off and kept a good pace. At one point I was even passing people. Me, passing people! No freakin’ way.

Overall Handsome and I both placed third in our groups, results I’m very happy with! 😀 The icing on the cake – I made all my turns and I didn’t fall. Hells yeah! Now, on to the next adventure. (**Update: Results we updated this morning and I took 4th. Boo Hiss. But it’s ok, I still did it – and did better then a lot of men in my same category. I’ll take it.)

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Texas Shredded Barbecued Beef

from Cook’s Country Backyard Barbecue

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs pepper
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 teas cayenne pepper
• 1 (5 – 6 lbs) boneless beef chuck-eye roast, quartered and trimmed
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce, plus extra for serving

Preparation:

Combine pepper, salt, and cayenne in bowl. Pat pieces of meat dry with paper towels, and rub them evenly with spice mixture. Wrap meat in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours. (If refrigerating, let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before grilling.) Before cooking, unwrap meat and transfer to roasting pan.

For a charcoal grill: Open bottom grill vents halfway. Light large chimney starter half full with charcoal briquettes. When coals are hot, pour them into steeply bunked pile against 1 side of grill. Place wood chip packed on top of coals. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vents halfway. Heat grill until hot and wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 5 minutes.

For a gas grill: Place wood chip packet directly on primary burger. Turn all burners to high, Cover and heat  grill until hot and wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 15 minutes. Turn primary to medium and turn off other burners.

Clean and oil cooking grate. Place roasting pan of meat on cooler part of grill, away from coals or flames. Cover and cook until meat is deep red, about 2 hours. During final 20 minutes of grilling, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees

Flip meat over in roasting pan, cover tightly with foil, and roast beef in oven until fork inserted into center of beef has no resistance, 2 to 3 hours.

Transfer meat to large bowl, tent loosely with foil, and let meat rest for 30 minutes. When meat is cool enough to handle, pull meat into thin shred with two forks. Discard extra fat and gristle. Toss meat with barbecue sauce and sever with additional sauce.

My way: I smoked the beef for a full 6 hours until it was pull apart tender with a fork instead of grilling for a bit then finishing off in the oven.

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