48-Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast

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48-Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast

Sous Vide Chuck Roast Explained

The Sous Vide

So what is sous vide? It's just a precise water bath where a small immersion circulator clipped to a stockpot heats the water to whatever temperature you want and keeps it there. You have to put the beef in a vacuum-sealed bag with the aromatics before adding it to the bath and cook it at low temperature for a reasonable amount of time. For our chuck, it will be 52°C (125°F) which is hot enough to slowly convert the connective tissue into gelatine over 48 hours, cool enough that the meat stays a rosy medium rare. If you don’t have a sous vide setup but want one, I've seen some for a decent price online these days.

The Sear and the Jus

Once you pull the bag out of the bath (don't throw away the juices!!!), the meat is medium rare from edge to edge but may look grey and uninviting. Don't stress! We're going to give it a nice sear in the pan to give it a lovely golden brown crust on the outside. While the pan is still hot, we use it to caramelise an onion, deglaze with red wine, and reduce that down with the juices reserved from the bag. Then, add a knob of cold butter and whisk it in at the end to give the sauce its glossy finish. That last step is called monter au beurre, French for “mounting with butter”. It is what restaurant sauces use to get that silky texture but you can skip this step.

Ingredient Notes

Chuck roast:

Chuck comes from the shoulder, which is packed with connective tissue and intramuscular fat. Normally that connective tissue is what makes the cut tough, but cooked low and slow at 52°C for 48 hours it converts into gelatine and gives you tenderloin-soft beef.

Red wine:

Use a dry red you’d happily drink, nothing fancy but nothing cooking-wine awful either. A shiraz, cabernet sauvignon or merlot all work. The wine reduces almost completely in the pan, so any harshness will concentrate.

Beef tallow:

Tallow is rendered beef fat and gives a deeper, beefier flavour to the sear than oil does. You’ll find it at most butchers and some supermarkets, but olive oil works perfectly if you can’t find it.

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Ingredients

1.5kg (3.3lbs) beef chuck roast
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
2 garlic cloves, smashed
4 fresh thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp beef tallow (or olive oil)
1 brown onion
400ml red wine
500ml beef stock
20 grams cold butter, cubed

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Sous vide immersion circulator
Large stockpot or plastic tub (for the water bath)
Vacuum sealer and bags
Heavy-based frying pan or cast iron skillet
Tongs
Wire rack and tray
Whisk

Keep screen awake Off

Directions

SOUS VIDE THE BEEF

Set up a water bath in a large stock pot or plastic tub. Set your sous vide to 52°C (125°F).
Season the chuck generously with salt and pepper and place in a vacuum sealer bag.
Smash the garlic and add to the bag with the thyme, bay leaves and 1 tbsp tallow.
Seal the bag and drop into the water bath for 48 hours.

48 HOURS LATER

Remove the bag from the water bath and transfer the beef to a tray, reserving the juices in the bag for your sauce. Pat the meat completely dry.
Heat a heavy based frying pan over high heat. Add 1 tbsp of tallow and let it melt.
Sear the beef well on all sides until deeply browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack over a tray to rest.

MAKE THE JUS

Thinly slice the onion, then add to the same pan over high heat. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until well coloured.
Add the red wine and scrape up any frond from the base. Cook until the wine completely reduces.
Add the reserved beef juices and simmer until reduced again. Stir in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until reduced and glossy, and your desired thickness, about 10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the cold butter. Season to taste.

PLATE

Slice the beef into thin slices and transfer to a serving platter.
Spoon over the jus and serve immediately.

Notes

Chef Tips

Pat the beef dry before searing

After 48 hours in the bag, the beef will be soaked in juices. Dry it thoroughly with paper towel before it goes in the pan. Wet meat steams instead of searing and you’ll lose any chance of a proper crust.

Get the pan smoking hot

You only have a few minutes to build the crust before the internal temperature climbs past medium rare. The pan needs to be hot, smoking even, so the surface browns instantly on contact. Cast iron holds heat better than stainless steel and is worth using if you have one.

Storage

The cooked chuck keeps in the fridge for 3 days, ideally in the original sous vide bag with the juices, or in an airtight container if you’ve already finished the jus. The jus can be stored separately and reheated. Leftover beef sliced cold makes excellent roast beef sandwiches. To reheat the whole piece, drop the sealed bag back in a 50°C water bath for 20 minutes, or slice and warm gently in the jus.

FAQs

Can I cook it for less than 48 hours?

You can, but the texture won’t be the same. 48 hours is what the collagen in chuck needs to fully convert to gelatine at 52°C. At 24 hours the beef will still be perfectly cooked through and edible, but it won’t have that tenderloin-soft texture that makes this recipe worth doing.

Can I use a different cut?

Yes. Brisket, oyster blade and short rib all work brilliantly with the same temperature and time.

Is it safe to cook at 52°C for that long?

Yes. Sous vide at 52°C for over 4 hours pasteurises the meat, the combination of time and low temperature kills off pathogens in a way that a quick high-heat cook does too. Keep the water level above the bag the whole time and the bag fully sealed and you’re fine.