I love breaking out my rotisserie and spinning some meat over the flames. One great excuse to play with your rotisserie is if you find yourself with an eye of round roast on your hands. The eye can be a tricky cut of beef and if you don’t treat it right can come out dry and tough.Â
Don’t worry though, you can follow along with what I have going on here and you will be a happy griller!
How to Cook an Eye of Round on a Rotisserie
The general steps for cooking this cut on a rotisserie are:
- Trim the beef
- Inject and season
- Skewer and truss
- Cook with indirect High Heat to Medium Rare
- Remove and Rest
- Slice Thin
Let’s take a look at each of these steps in a little more detail.
Preparing the Meat
I start by trimming away the fat cap and silverskin. The silverskin will never get tender and acts as a barrier that prevents smoke and seasoning from reaching the meat. I want the entire roast to be delicious so that silverskin has to go away!
The next step is to pack flavor and moisture all the way through the beef by using an injection. My standard beef injection is:
- 1 Tbls Beef Base (you can find this in the soup aisle by the chicken bouillon)
- 1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup water
If you want some more ideas of what injections work great with beef then check out my article on Competition Beef Brisket Injections.
I pulse this with a hand blender to bring it all together. When I inject I go in diagonally with the grain. Move the needle around while injecting and when one spot is full move on to another.
This was a four pound roast and it soaked up nearly the full cup of injection mixture. You want the injection to have some time to settle into the beef. I let this guy sit overnight in the refrigerator but if you are in a hurry you can get away with letting it rest for just an hour.
After the inside of the roast has been flavored by the injection it is time to flavor the outside with a dry rub. This roast was coated in a rub that contained equal parts black pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onions and Lawry’s seasoned salt. I coated the beef with a little mustard first to help the rub adhere.
If you want more ideas on great beef rubs then check out my article on World Championship Brisket Rubs.
Rotisserie Grilling
The shape of the eye roast makes it an ideal candidate for grilling on a rotisserie. Because the roast is so symmetrical there is no need to bother with the counterweight on the rotisserie rod and you know that the meat will cook evenly. This will be almost identical to cooking a rotisserie pork loin.
Slide the rotisserie rod through the center of the roast and secure the roast with forks on both ends. Don’t worry if you can’t get all of the fork prongs into the meat as you will need to truss the meat as well.
Truss the roast at least four times with butcher twine. This will help secure the roast on the rod and prevent the meat from contracting and swelling up in the middle. Trussing is really important so please don’t skip this step.
Set up your grill for indirect high heat.
I was using an old three burner Weber Genesis that has burner tubes running from left to right. I turned the back burner to HIGH and left the front and middle burners off. If you are using a charcoal grill then fill a charcoal basket with lit coals and place it on the side of the grill parallel to the rotisserie rod.
I use indirect high heat because I want to meat to develop a nice crust. You could also use indirect low heat and get a roast that is more tender with a bit more smoke flavor. Either way is fine but I wanted the crust!
Once your grill is set then turn on the rotisserie and let that beef spin!
Depending upon how you have you grill set up and the size of the roast it will take between 90 and 120 minutes for the roast to reach an internal temperature of 135F for Medium Rare. I got distracted and let this roast slip up to 141F.
Once the beef hit the target temperature I removed the spit from the grill, placed the meat (still on the spit) on a cutting board and covered it with foil. Do yourself a favor and let the roast rest for at least one hour before you touch it again.Â
The resting period is going to let the rotisserie rod and forks cool off so you don’t burn the crap out of your hands when you take the roast off.
Been there, done that.
I try to slice this cut as thin as possible to make sure that the beef is tender. I have found that it is easier to get super thin slices if I chill the meat in the refrigerator for an hour or two and use a granton edge slicing knife.
I served this up with a horseradish cream sauce that was excellent!
Horseradish Cream Sauce Recipe
- 8 oz light sour cream
- 2 Tbls prepared horseradish
- 1 Tbls mayonnaise
- 1 Tbls fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tbls Sriracha chile garlic sauce
Thoroughly mix all ingredients and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
Update:Â This recipe is good but I have started using this roast to make Smoked Roast Beef on my pellet grill and it is even better!
Rotisserie Eye of Round Roast
Ingredients
- 1 Eye of Round Roast 3-4 pounds
- 1 tbsp Beef Base For the injection (Substitute 2 beef bouillon cubes)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce For the injection
- 1 cup water For the injection
- 1 tbsp Black pepper For the dry rub
- 1 tbsp Seasoned Salt (Lawry's or Morton's) For the dry rub
- 1 tbsp granulated garlic For the dry rub
- 1 tbsp granulated onion For the dry rub
- 8 oz Sour cream For the horseradish cream sauce
- 2 tbsp Prepared horseradish For the horseradish cream sauce
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise For the horseradish cream sauce
- 1 tbsp Fresh lemon juice For the horseradish cream sauce
- 1 tbsp Sriracha chile garlic sauce For the horseradish cream sauce
Instructions
- Combine the horseradish cream sauce ingredients in a bowl, mix well and refrigerate.
- Trim any silverskin from the eye of round.
- Combine the beef injection ingredients and inject the mixture throughout the roast.
- Allow the roast to rest for at least one hour to give the injection time to distribute through the meat.
- Combine the dry rub ingredients and mix well.
- Season the eye of round with the dry rubs. If desired, use a binder such as mustard or mayo to help the rub adhere.
- Secure the roast onto a rotisserie spit and truss the beef.
- Roast over Medium heat for 90-120 minutes until an internal temperature of 135F is reached.
- Remove the roast from the spit, slice thin and serve with the horseradish cream sauce.
Notes
I am wishing you much success in your grilling adventures!
Learn How to Use Your Rotisserie With The Weber Rotisserie Guide!
