Summer Family BBQ Beef Roast
We love our summer Saturday dinners with family and friends. We have recently hosted Luke's Karissa and her mom for a tasty dinner at the 3T. If you think beef roast is only good on cold snowy days, think again! Our BBQ Beef Roast was a hit and we had no leftovers. Nothing makes me more happy than people going for second serving of food!
Karissa has been helping on the 3T all summer long. We are so glad Luke found a match that is not afraid of hard work during our hot summer days. They have fixed many miles of fence together, helped with branding and sorting calves, played with our two little people, so the ranch mom can get some work done.. But don't worry, they also had plenty of times for riding the horses and relaxing!
We have sure enjoyed our summer dinner and I thought I would share these recipes with you as they were easy, tasty, but most importantly I didn't spend all day in the kitchen!
BBQ Beef Roast
Ingredients:
- 3T Ranch roast - I have used brisket, but you can also use Chuck, Tri-Tip, Sirloin Tip, Eye of the Round, Round roasts or Round steaks
- our roasts are typically 3-4 lbs
- 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
- we like Sweet Baby Ray's
- 1 cup of Coke
- do not use diet
- 1 tablespoon of Chipotle in Adobe Sauce
- use just the sauce, not the peppers
- you can also use Chipotle Sauce
- 1/8 cup of Weber Chicago Seasoning
- 1 red onion - thinly sliced
Directions:
- For this recipe, I used InstantPot to save time!
- Cut the roast in quarters, it cooks more evenly and faster.
- Sprinkle 1/8 of a cup of Weber Chicago Seasoning all over the roast.
- Mix BBQ sauce, Coke and Chipotle Sauce.
- Put the roast and onion in the InstantPot and pour over your liquid mixture.
- Lock the lid and move the pressure valve to sealing and set your InstantPot on Manual "High" for 60 minutes.
- When pressure cooking is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes, then release the remaining steam by moving the pressure valve to venting.
- If you are using round steaks, your cooking time will be only 45 minutes, release naturally for 15 minutes.
- At this point I check on the beef to see, if it needs additional cooking. Brisket and Round Roast will need additional 15 minutes on Manual "High". Again, release naturally for 15 minutes. Other roasts should need only 60 minutes depending on the size of your roast.
- Take out the beef roast, trim any fat and shred the beef into bite-size pieces.
- Put your shredded beef back into the InstantPot, so it can soak up all of the delicious sauce. I typically, turn on the saute mode (no lid) and cook it for additional 5 minutes to heat through the beef.
- Now it is ready to serve!
Orzo Pesto Summer Salad
Ingredients:
- 16 oz Dellalo Orzo - use only 2/3 of the box
- 1/8 cup of homemade or store bought pesto
- 1 small yellow squash - cut up
- 1/2 cup of Queso Fresco - crumbled
- Handful of cherry tomatoes
Directions:
- Cook orzo per box directions.
- Saute yellow squash. (Sauted red onion would be also good in this recipe).
- Cut up your tomatoes, crumble your cheese.
- Put orzo in a big bowl, stir in pesto, cheese and veggies.
- Keep it in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffins
Ingredients:
- 2x Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
- 2/3 cup of milk
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup of Cheddar
- 1/8 cup of chopped pickled jalapeno
Bake per directions on the box.
Karissa's Out of This World Brownies
Here is a link to the recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/almond-butter-brownies-8830400
We had a wonderful evening, we hope you will try some of our recipes!
Are you an Instapot user yet? This is my "go to" gadget these days. I use it at least three times a week. It saves time, but I really like how it cooks the beef. All of the beef cuts are nice and tender in a nick of time.
It seems like we went from summer to winter this year in one day. We are finishing up a few ranch projects before the Cowboss and the Top Ranch Hand bring the cows home. The cows have been enjoying the summer pastures and around Thanksgiving, we bring everyone home. During the winter we feed hay and yes.. even on those snowy cold days when schools and business are closed.. we venture outside to feed our herd. Then, spring rolls around and we keep a tight watch on the mama cows to make sure that we have healthy calves and healthy mamas. In early May, we load up the mamas, calves, yearlings and take them again to our summer pastures. The bulls have to wait until June 19th. Cows are pregnant for 9 months and by releasing the bulls on June 19th, we make sure that we don't have any winter calves. That's how the cycle goes on our ranch.
The Mexican Street Tacos are perfect for a busy night. You can get the dish prepped in less than 5 minutes and let it cook while you finish up your chores or homework or like us, finish setting up concrete forms.
Ingredients:
- 3-4 lb round roast or 1-2 round steaks (depending on size)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
- 1/2 onion - sliced
- 1 red pepper - sliced
- 1 can (10 oz.) whole green chile peppers (no liquid)
- 1 can (7.76 oz.) La Costena Chipotle Salsa (you can find it by the enchilada sauces at the grocery store)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 bunch of cilantro
Directions:
- If you are using a round roast, quarter the roast, this will ensure that your roast will be tender and cook faster.
- If you are using round steaks, just put the cuts into the instapot.
- Beef is in the instapot, now salt, pepper, onion, green chile and red peppers go in.
- Pour Chipotle salsa over the meat.
- Pour 1 cup of water around the beef. You want the Chipotle salsa to say on top of the meat.
- Seal per instapot instructions and cook for 60 minutes on the "meat/stew" setting for round roast and 45 minutes for round steaks.
- When cooking is complete use slow release.
- Shred the beef and the green chile peppers and put back in the instapot, so the beef can absorb the tasty sauce!
- Serve with tortilla, shredded cheese, chopped up cilantro and rice.
Beef Tacos for Busy Summer Nights
Are your summer days packed with activities and dinner becomes a big headache? The 3T crew is busy with ranch construction projects, fixing fences, transporting cattle to summer pastures and the kids have their own summer activities. Plus, we have decided to get not one, but two puppies.. I know, who does that? Their parents are great cattle working dogs and we could always use help to work our cows. So, I don't know about you, but by dinnertime, I'm pretty tired.
Here is an easy summer recipe, so you can enjoy dinner on your deck or patio. Nobody wants to spend a couple of hours making dinner. Even better.. The InstaPot or CrockPot will do the cooking for you in this recipe, so you can enjoy a Margarita while dinner is cooking on its own!
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs 3T Ranch Beef Roast (you can also use flank or skirt steak)
- 1 tablespoon dry oregano
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoon ground pepper
- 1 diced medium sweet onion
- 1 diced bell pepper
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 4 chopped garlic cloves
- 1 can (7.76 oz) LaCostena Chipotle Sauce or Chile in Adobo Sauce (if using Chile in Adobo Sauce - use two peppers and scrape out the seeds, then use all of the sauce from the can and discard the rest of the peppers It would be too spicy to use all of the peppers).
- 1 cup beef broth (2 cups of beef broth for CrockPot version)
Directions for InstaPot: Preferred 3T method
- Cut up your roast into bigger chunks. (I think the beef cooks better vs just putting in the whole roast).
- Set your InstaPot on "sear" and pour in 1/4 cup of canola oil.
- Dry off your beef chunks with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
- Now, that the pot is hot, sear the beef chunks on all sides. Take out the beef.
- Time to sauté the onion and bell peppers. Give it a couple of minutes to sauté the veggies before adding the garlic. You don't want the garlic to burn. Cook until all veggies are tender.
- TIP: if your onion is getting a little burned before being tender add a little bit of water to the pot.
- Add oregano, one can of Chipotle Sauce and one cup of beef broth and stir all together.
- Beef goes back in the pot, close the lid and set your InstaPot on "Beef Stew". Depending on your InstaPot setting, your beef will be done in about 60 minutes. If you are using steaks, you can cut down the cooking to 35 minutes.
Directions for CrockPot: This recipe
- You can certainly use CrockPot for this recipe as well.
- Dry off your beef chunks with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat your skillet and add 1/4 cup of oil.
- Sear the beef in a skillet on all sides. Take out.
- Time to sauté the onion and bell peppers. Give it a couple of minutes to sauté the veggies before adding the garlic. You don't want the garlic to burn. Cook until all veggies are tender.
- TIP: if your onion is getting a little burned before being tender add a little bit of water to the pot.
- Put in the CrockPot - oregano, one can of Chipotle Sauce and two cups of beef broth and stir all together.
- Beef goes in the CrockPot.
- Set you CrockPot for high for 4 hours. (I don't like to cook my beef on low in the CrockPot. I think the beef gets too dry on the low setting).
- Make sure to check your liquid levels during cooking.
Beef is done, time to serve it to your crowd. You can certainly shred the beef, but we do like the beef in chunks. You can cut the beef into bitesize chunks. The beef is juicy and tender, you can discard the sauce the beef was cooking in. (Or you can certainly skim off the fat and reduce the liquid in a sauce pan. It will have a kick. The beef on its own is not spicy). I typically serve the beef with rice, guacamole, salsa, pepper jack cheese and Costco uncooked flour tortillas. I know it adds another step to your cooking, but it is so worth it! And if you really want to step it up.. Here is a recipe for Homemade Corn Tortillas!
Homemade Corn Tortillas:
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups masa harina, more for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons fat such as melted lard, butter or canola oil
- 1 cup hot water, plus more as needed
Directions:
- Place masa and salt in a bowl and throughly combine with the fat, mixing with fingers or a whisk. (KitchenAid works great for this). Slowly stream in the water while mixing until the dough comes together into a ball.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Divide the dough into 12 portions and form each into a smooth ball.
- Place masa balls on a baking sheet, cover with plastic, rest for 30 minutes.
- After the dough has rested, preheat a cast iron skillet over medium-high for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to medium.
- If the dough has dried slightly during resting, wet hands and roll each ball again to moisten. Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and place directly in the center of the tortilla press. Press down firmly, then durn the tortilla 90 degrees and press again.
- Transfer it into the hot skillet. Cook the tortilla until brown spots appear on the bottom, about 1 minute. Flip with a thin metal spatula, and do the same on the other side.
TIP: Sur La Table has many great gadgets how to keep you tortillas warm while you are cooking the rest. The homemade tortillas might sound intimidating, but they are really easy. I have taken a class at Sur La Table with my friend and the tortillas were piece a cake to make and the flavor was amazing!!
Dobrou Chut!
Round Steak
Round steak is not your typical cut that you can find at the grocery store, yet so tasty that it totally should be!
We like to use the round steak cut for fajitas. I cut my steak thinly against the grain and fry it with just a little splash of oil in my cast iron skillet. Make sure your skillet is preheated. This cut is super lean and it doesn't take very long to cook. You want to see some pink before taking it out of the pan. Seasoning is very simple, salt, pepper and little bit Wildtree Asada seasoning.
This cut is also great for Beef Stroganoff, the braising does wonders for it.
Give it a shot. Sirloin is tasty for sure, but many beef cuts are underutilized, round steak being one of them.