Eye of round is a pretty intimidating piece of beef. It’s an extremely lean cut taken from the hindquarters of the cow, which gets a lot of exercise. To be honest, I usually just use the eye of round roast to make jerky (along with london broil, which is also from the same area of the cow) because making steaks and roasts with this part of the cow is usually always a gamble.
The other day I stumbled upon a recipe that seemed both crazy and intriguing; you roast the meat at a high temperature for a while, and then you turn off the oven and leave it in there for 2 1/2 hours. The end result is something like prime rib – a dark, crusty outside with a juicy, pink, tender inside. Honestly, it makes this fairly inexpensive cut of meat taste about 100x better than what you paid for. I may never cook an eye of round roast any other way for the rest of my life!
You’ll Need:
Eye of Round Roast (2-8 lbs. preferred, we used a 3 lb. roast)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper (coarse-ground preferred)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
Mix together your seasonings and set them aside.
Take out your roast, rinse it and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the seasonings all over the roast, and let it sit out on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes. This allows the roast to reach room temperature, plus it lets the seasonings settle onto the roast. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
Place the roast in a roasting pan or dutch oven and put it in the oven, fatty side up. Roast at 500 degrees, uncovered, for 7 minutes per pound. Our roast was a little over three pounds, so I cooked it for 25 minutes.
Now comes the part that goes against everything I’ve ever done in the kitchen – turn off the oven completely and leave the roast in there for 2 1/2 hours. Don’t open the oven door at all during this time! Go watch a movie or something.
After 2 1/2 hours, take the roast out and check its internal temp with a thermometer. The temperature should be between 130-150 degrees – if it isn’t put it back in the oven at 325 degrees and check it every 10 minutes. Put the finished roast on a plate and cover it with tin foil, and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
Carve it into 1/2″ slices and enjoy!
Warning: I’ve been told that this recipe won’t work in gas ovens!
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Tags: beef, cooking, eye of round roast, food, health, paleo, pot roast, primal, recipe, roast
You don’t know how many recipes of yours I have tabbed so I can make. Up next is the Kalua pig. I use to live on Big Island and miss the food there. Anyway – hope you didn’t mind I added you to my blog roll. Keep on posting!
Awesome, thank you! Hopefully I can keep up with new recipes every week (last summer I sorta slipped – too many vacations). I am currently blog-roll-less for simplicity’s sake, but I appreciate the add!
wow! Meat is only something I’ve started to dabble in recently– this looks *amazing*! Thank you for sharing! Great photography!
Thanks Melodie, let me know if you make it and how it turns out!
does this work with a a gas oven ?
Hi Tracy, that is a great question. I don’t know much about gas ovens so I can’t give you a firm answer; does the oven tend to retain its heat after you turn it on? If so, you should be okay…but again, I don’t want to be responsible for a ruined hunk of meat, so try it at your own risk! :)
I tried this same recipe off of someone else’s website and it does NOT work with gas ovens. It was still raw at the end of the cooking time. Bummer!
Okay, thanks for the tip! I’m going to amend the post now.
Hi Russ, my question about this method of cooking for this roast is this; if I have an gas oven and follow directions up to the point of turning off, if I leave my oven on at 200 or 225 degress with this mimic the effect of a electric oven? I really really want to try this method of cooking my roast. Do you know if anyone with a gas oven has tried this and had success?
Thanks Sandy
Hey Sandy, you can definitely try it at a high heat and then reduce it to about 250. That’s a common method for making prime rib, so I’m sure it would turn out just fine. You should be able to check it with a meat thermometer as it cooks to make sure it gets to the desired temperature; an internal temp of 120-125 should be medium rare and just about perfect. Good luck and please tell me how it went!
Do you leave it uncovered the whole time or do you cover it once you turn off the oven? This looks so easy! Yum!
Cynthia, leave it uncovered!
I googled “how to cook eye of round roast” and this way popped up several times. I wasn’t convinced that this was the way for me. Your blog has sealed the deal and I can’t wait to try it
Chasity, great to hear! I hope it turns out as good as ours did!
Did you use a grass fed eye of round or a grain fed one?
I cooked a grass fed one this way, and it came out a little tough (though still delicious).
I’m wondering if the cooking time would need to be altered for grass fed beef.
Hi Josh, sorry to hear that it came out a little tough. I also used a grass-fed roast. I’m racking my brain to find out why it came out tough; was it a very small roast? Does your oven run hot? Are you at a high altitude? How pink was the inside?
While the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed does alter cooking times, that’s usually for pieces that are cooked more thoroughly – steaks, for example – and since this roast is cooked to medium doneness, it shouldn’t have been an issue.
I’m not a meat expert by any means, but I imagine the fat content in this cut of meat is similar in both varieties since it’s one of the most-worked muscles on the body (although arguably a grain-fed cow probably does more standing around!).
In the future, I’d cook it for a few minutes less than last time just to be safe, and if you’re up to it, rub olive oil all over the roast before applying the dry rub.
We are having this tonight, and I can hardly wait. I made a special trip to the store just to get the meat. I cooked a turkey once this way. 500 for 1 hour and in the oven overnight. Really juicy and good! I really enjoy your postings. Thanks!!
Thanks Dawn, hope it turns out well!
Trying this out tonight!! Glad I stumbled across this!!
Never left a comment on how it turned out…one word..awesome! Will be cooking it this way from here on out!
Awesome!!
This is in my oven right now. It smells SO good!!! It’s like torture that I have two wait two more hours!!! Might have to leave the house ;-)
Thanks for posting this, I can’t wait to dig in!
Alicia, I feel your pain! It’s worth the wait, I promise. Like I wrote in my post, watch a movie or something to take your mind off the succulent meat in the oven!
I’m going to have to try this cooking method with my new Dutch oven. Thanks for sharing Russ.
oh my – this was incredible….. I’m kind of afraid of meat and don’t know what to do with it. I made this last night and my whole family ate it and loved it. My 10 year old daughter says “it’s so juicy” (she actually said that about 5 times) and she had fourths…..
Thanks Karen! I’m very glad that it turned out so well. Hopefully we can get you over your fear of meat! :)
I finally got around to trying this and it was amazing. No pressure, but you’re definitely my new cooking hero.
Thanks! I’m pretty sure I’ll let you down at some point.
How about gravy where’s the gravy?
I personally think that it would be amazing with
gravy,but it would be best with different veggies,such as,spinach ,okra, corn,snow peas by the way corn is a grain.
Im sure my oven is like everyone else’s with the vent out of the back left heating element on the stove. Will this cause problems with keeping heat for the 2.5 hours?
Hey Cole, as far as I know it should be fine…my oven has a vent on the back as well. The main trick is to make sure you have a conventional oven and not a gas oven.
I made this and …. oh my…. it came out perfect, just like you said.!! It was sooo good!!! Thanks so much.
I made this for dinner last night. Tender, juicy, full of flavor and a total hit with the family. I use a gas oven so it was a gamble but it was a total sucess. Thanks for a new way to cook an unfamilar cut of meat.
Thanks for sharing Catherine! Glad to see that it worked with a gas oven.
I made this tonight with one of those infamous gas ovens, and guess what? It was gobbled down in one quick sitting. Here’s what I did: Roasted it for 7 minutes per pound at 500. Turned the oven down to 300 for the next hour, then down to 200 for the remaining time. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It helped me use one of those challenging cuts from my cow share.
Thank you, thank you, thank you…i too have a gas oven and was wondering. How am I going to do this?….and then you comment appears….