Tender Eye of Round Roast
A very lean, inexpensive roast handled by the closed-oven method: a short blast at high heat, then the oven is turned off and the door stays shut while residual heat finishes the job. Eye of round has almost no fat or connective tissue, so it must be cooked to a low finished temperature and sliced thin. Anything past medium turns it into shoe leather.
- Prep15 min
- Cook25 min
- Total4 h 20 min
- Serves8
AI-generated illustration
Ingredients
Method
- Rub the eye of round roast all over with the salt and leave it uncovered on a rack at room temperature for 1 hour, which both seasons it and takes the chill off so it cooks evenly.
- Mash the olive oil with the garlic, black pepper, dried thyme, and onion powder into a paste and coat the entire surface of the roast with it.
- Set the roast on a rack in a shallow pan and put it into a fully preheated 500 degree F (260 degrees C) oven. Roast for exactly 7 minutes per pound, which is 21 minutes for a 3-pound roast.
- Turn the oven off and do not open the door for 2 1/2 hours. Every peek releases the stored heat this method depends on, and the roast will come out raw if the door is opened early.
- Take the roast out and check the center with an instant-read thermometer. It should read 130 to 135 degrees F (57 degrees C) for medium-rare; note that food-safety guidance for whole cuts of beef calls for 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) followed by a 3-minute rest, so return it to a 250 degree F (120 degrees C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes if you want that.
- Rest the roast 15 minutes, then slice it as thin as you possibly can against the grain. Thickness is what makes this cut chewy, and thin slicing is not optional.
Notes
- This method depends on a well-sealed, accurate oven; verify yours with an oven thermometer before trusting it with a roast.
- Leftovers make excellent sandwiches, and the cold roast slices even thinner than the warm one.
