Sous Vide Roast Beef
For a perfectly medium-rare roast, that’s juicy and tender on the inside with a beautifully seared crust on the outside try making this sous vide roast beef recipe.
If you like tender, juicy roast beef try cooking your next beef roast sous vide. This sous vide roast beef recipe makes a fantastic roast whether you’re serving the whole thing for dinner or just want a delicious way to make roast beef sandwiches.
The advantage of cooking a roast sous vide is the long cooking time lets the beef absorb the flavors from the rub while the roast still comes out a beautiful medium rare. The spice rub for this recipe has loads of garlic and smoked paprika that create a full-bodied roast beef.
Picking Out a Roast
One of the things about cooking beef sous vide is how well the technique works for a wide variety of roasts. This recipe will work equally well with tougher roasts such as chuck, top round, or rump as it will with more tender ones like sirloin, ribeye, and tenderloin.
The reason this recipe works with so many different cuts is the flavors are modeled after those in traditional English roast beef recipes. It also helps that sous vide is such a forgiving technique. The long slow cooking time helps to tenderize the meat without breaking down the connective tissue and collagen making the meat fall apart the way braising does.
Whatever type of roast you choose, pick one with nice marbling
No matter which type of roast you choose, pick one out that has good marbling and a nice shape. It’s also a good idea to remove any extra bits of fat or gristle before cooking.
Cooking a Beef Roast Sous Vide
One of the best things about cooking a roast this way is it’s easy to get a perfectly medium-rare roast, that’s juicy and tender on the inside with a beautifully seared crust on the outside.
Most sous vide roast beef recipes call for cooking the roast between 12 to 48 hours in a water bath set between 130ºF to 145ºF.
The time and temperature combination that we recommend for sous vide roast beef is 136ºF for 24 hours.
During our testing, we found that cooking the beef at 136ºF gave us a nice medium rare roast that was firm enough to slice for sandwiches while staying tender enough to serve as a main course.
When we cooked roasts at lower temperatures, the beef pulled apart so easily that it was hard to slice for sandwiches. Anything more than 140ºF and the meat was more done than we prefer.
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As far as time goes at 18 hours the texture wasn’t what we were looking for and for the most part, we haven’t found any benefits to cooking cuts this size longer than 24 hours. That being said, a few extra hours here or there won’t make a big difference if it makes it easier to get dinner on the table at the right time.
There are two ways to get a nice sear on the roast at the end. The first is to pan sear it in some olive oil after it’s finished cooking. This is an excellent way to go if you’re going to make a pan sauce to serve with the beef.
To get a nice crust on the side finish the roast in the oven
Our preferred finishing method is to place the roast on a broiler pan in a hot oven or under the broiler for 10 to 15 minutes, making sure to turn it halfway through. What we like about this method is how easy it is to do as we’re getting the rest of dinner together and making the au jus out of the cooking liquid. The cooking liquid can also be used to make a nice gravy.
Making au jus with this recipe is incredibly easy, just cook down the liquid from the roast for a few minutes. If the au jus is cloudier than you would like, it can be strained through a coffee filter.
An optional step is to pan sear the roast before cooking. The theory is that pre-searing helps to deepen the roast’s flavors. In general, we haven’t found that pre-searing does much more than add extra steps to sous vide recipes.
If you’re interested in learning more about this type of cooking, read Getting Started Cooking Sous Vide. If you like your roast beef with a smokier flavor try making our Smoked Roast Beef recipe.
So Many Serving Options
There are so many different ways to serve sous vide roast beef. One of the most popular ways is to slice it thin and use it for French Dip or Italian Beef sandwiches. We’ll often make a roast and slice it throughout the week whenever we want a roast beef sandwich using whatever toppings we have on hand. If you use the cooking liquid to make gravy, you can serve traditional open-faced beef sandwiches.
One of the best ways to use this roast beef is to make French dips
It also works equally well as the centerpiece to a nice dinner. A few of the dishes we like to serve with this recipe are White Cheddar and Horseradish Mashed Potatoes and Sautéed Green Beans with Balsamic Vinegar. Toss in a couple of Perfect Manhattans, and you’ve got a completely updated 1950’s Sunday dinner.
Sous Vide Roast Beef
Print Pin RecipeIngredients
- 3 1/2 lb beef roast
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp rosemary, minced
- 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Set up your sous vide water bath with the temperature set to 136℉
- In a small bowl, mix the minced rosemary and garlic with the smoked paprika, mustard and onion powders, salt, and pepper.
- Rub the beef down with Worcestershire sauce, then spread the spice rub over the whole roast.
- Vacuum seal the roast in a plastic bag and cook it at 136℉ for 24 hours. When the roast is done cooking, drain the liquid into a small bowl and set the roast aside for finishing.
- To get a nice crust on the outside of the beef roast, place it on a broiler pan and finish it in a 350ºF oven for 15 minutes, turning it halfway through. Once the roast comes out of the oven, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
- The juices from the roast can be served as an au jus. To make the au jus take the liquid from the bag the roast was cooked in and bring it to a boil in a small saucepan for three to five minutes.
- The au jus is especially good when you're using the roast beef to make French Dip sandwiches.
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What is the cheapest cut of roast that you can use for this? I’ve done a lot of research and, barring using a meat slicer to make minute steak, there seems no way to make eye round taste good… but I hold out hope I will find a roast beef recipe that will make it so.
I tried this recipe with a bunch of different roasts and they all turned out pretty good. If you want to use this for roast beef sandwiches, I would stay from chuck roasts and other types of roasts that tend to fall apart when you slow cook them and go with something with a little less marbling. In general sous vide tend to hold things together pretty well.