I have a 2.7 pound block of Angus beef bottom round roast that I need to cook expediently (meaning not 7-8 hrs in the slow cooker). What's the fastest way to prepare this meat without it tasting too chewy or tough? Ideally, I would like to be able to use it in beef tacos or burritos of some sort, but I'm open to other ideas.
I'm looking for an answer that contains a cooking technique which takes less than 2 hours total.
Best Answer
You can cook bottom round quickly, but not as a roast.
You can get extra flavor into it, but don't use a dry rub. As we're going for high heat, if you want extra flavor, after cutting your steaks, pierce them liberally with a fork or one of those spiky meat tenderizers (not the mallet ones), then toss in a bag with a marinade, (a mix of lime juice and italian dressing works pretty well for mexican applications, as it's pretty quick. Worcestershire or soy sauce also work for just about any treatment).
You still want to pat them dry, or else you risk causing the steaks to cook unevenly (the edges evaporate first, then curl up holding in the liquid ... but the curling places them closer to the broiler and the liquid means the middle can't get above 100°C, making the edges char way before the middle's cooked).
update : and to make sure I'm clear on this -- it's very important that you slice the strips in the end thinly, and across the grain. That's the only thing that's going to keep it from being overly chewy with this technique. (and keeping it fairly rare; otherwise it could start to get tough). Don't bother w/ slicing diagonally if it's going into tacos or burritos (as that's mostly to make it look like a thicker steak), it'll be more tender if you slice straight across. If you insist on cooking it to medium or further, I'd heat up some salsa or other flavorful liquid in a pot, and drop the cooked sliced strips in there to cook 'em a bit further without it drying them out)