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The round roast is an iconic supper roast with an affordable price tag and a very lean cut. It has roots in oven cooking, but by giving it a thick garlic and herb crust and grilling it over charcoal with a hint of smoke the flavors become deep and rich with sublime slices of medium-rare beef made for slicing, sandwiches, wraps, and more. 

When I think of roast beef, I immediately think of Sunday supper and thick gravy. Mashed potatoes and carrots. It wasn’t until much later, when I mastered the eye of round roast, that I started playing with these big inexpensive cuts again.

And it turns out, I don’t know what took me so long.

The round roast holds a ton of rich flavor at a less expensive price point than the eye of round or its big brother, the prime rib, and comes in a manageable weight for dinner and then a few creative meals inspired by leftovers, averaging 2.5 to 4 pounds.

With minimal marbling, it’s an incredibly lean cut, so cooking it without drying it out or causing it to become tough requires a bit of T.L.C. Or in this case, a moderately temped grill, some savvy tech, and patience.

But, can you cook roast beef on a grill? 

Grilling isn’t too different than turning the oven on and letting things get preheated. In this case, the goal was to barbecue a roast with charcoal. Which meant creating a charcoal heat source that was able to remain stable for the duration of the cook and grilling with the lid closed to create a convection heat for even cooking.

It turns out, once the temp was holding, you can grill a roast and the flavors of charcoal and smoke from wood add a whole new layer to the classic meat.  Warning, you may never go back to oven roasting.