Delight your taste buds with Chef Britt's unique recipe for the classic Kansas favorite-- Bierocks! Full of smoky chuck roast and beer-and-mustard-braised cabbage, these delicious meat-filled buns will tantalize your senses and have you coming back for more.
WHAT YOU'LL LOVE
- Smoking the chuck roast completely open, rather than wrapping it, lets the bark develop uninterrupted over the full 5-hour cook
- Cooking the braised cabbage uncovered until all the beer evaporates, then covering it to finish with residual steam, builds concentrated flavor first before gently finishing the texture
- Scaling the dough into 80-85 gram portions and letting them bench rest before filling gives the gluten time to relax, making each round easier to stretch into the final square shape
- Offering both a wood-fired oven method and a pellet grill method for baking the bierocks means the same filling and dough work regardless of which equipment you have on hand
Smoked Beef Bierocks
Britt Shoffner
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Category
Entree
Cuisine
American
Servings
15
Prep Time
1 hour 3 minutes
Cook Time
7 hours 15 minutes
Calories
419
Chef Britt updates a Kansas favorite: Bierocks! She smokes a chuck roast and mixes it with beer-and-mustard-braised cabbage to create her filling. Then she shows you how she makes and bakes the dough for these tasty meat-filled buns!
Ingredients
- 3 lb chuck roast
-
Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard
-
Killer Hogs AP Seasoning
- 500 g milk
-
14 g instant dry yeast
-
1 1/2 tsp Jacobsen Salt Co. Pure Kosher Sea Salt
- 2 tsp sugar
-
720 g Antimo Caputo ‘00’ Chef’s Flour
- 1/4 head cabbage, sliced thin and roughly chopped
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced medium
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
-
1 tbsp Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard
- 16 oz lager, pilsner, or other lighter beer
-
1 heavy pinch of Jacobsen Salt Co. Pure Kosher Sea Salt
- Cracked pepper, to taste
For the Smoked Chuck Roast:
For the bierock dough:
For the beer-braised cabbage:
Directions
To make the smoked chuck roast:
Preheat your Yoder Smokers YS640s Pellet Grill to 275ºF.
Rub the chuck roast with a thin layer of Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard. Season generously with Killer Hogs AP Seasoning.
Smoke the chuck roast open until you can shred them with a fork, about 5 hours. The internal temperature will be 205ºF-210ºF.
Rest the meat 20 minutes before shredding and/or chopping and adding to the beer-braised cabbage filling.
To make the beer-braised cabbage:
In a Lodge Dutch Oven, combine sliced and chopped cabbage with diced onion, Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard, Jacobsen Salt Co. Pure Kosher Sea Salt, cracked pepper, and beer. Over medium heat, soften the vegetables while constantly stirring.
Once all the beer has cooked off and there is no more liquid bubbling at the bottom of the pot, cut the heat and place the lid on the dutch oven to allow the residual steam to cook the cabbage through.
To make the bierock dough:
In your electric mixer set up with a dough hook, place the milk and instant dry yeast together. Mix until yeast is completely dissolved.
Whisk together your Antimo Caputo ‘00’ Chef’s Flour, salt, and sugar and add them on top of your milk mixture. Mix until no dry patches are present.
Mix dough for an additional 5 minutes on medium speed.
Turn the dough out and shape into a large round. Allow to proof covered at room temperature for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
(Recipe note: if you intend to bake on a wood-fired hearth, such as the Clementi, begin building your fire during the dough’s bulk fermentation.)
After the bulk fermentation, fold the dough and begin scaling 80-85 gram portions, getting 15 portions total.
Shape the portions of dough into rounds and allow the rounds to bench rest for 25 minutes before building the bierocks. If the timing of your dough is ahead of schedule, you can place the covered rounds in the fridge until ready for further use. Just be sure to allow them to come back to room temperature before filling.
To assemble the bierocks:
To create the filling, chop up the smoked and rested chuck roast and mix with the beer-braised cabbage.
Using a rolling pin and a light dusting of flour on your workspace, roll out the dough rounds into 5-inch discs.
Brush off any excess flour from the dough using a pastry brush and place about 1/2 cup of filling in the center of the round.
Take opposite ends of the round, stretch them out slightly, pull them together, and pinch the ends together in the center. Do this again with the unstretched sides of the round to create a square shape. Pinch together the seams tightly and ensure they are fully sealed. Place them on a sheet pan seam-side-down and keep covered until ready to bake. If your dough is having a hard time staying sealed, dab a little water on the edge of the round before sealing.
To bake the bierocks on the Clementi Wood-Fired Oven:
Begin building your fire about two hours before your approximate bake time. This will allow you to have more control over the deck’s temperature.
About an hour before baking time, remove the oven door while maintaining the fire.
Using an infrared thermometer, check your oven’s deck temperature to ensure it is between 400-500ºF before baking.
Using a lightly floured peel, slide a few bierocks directly on the deck, making sure not to get them too close to the fire.
Working in batches, bake the bierocks for approximately 6-7 minutes with the vent closed and the door closed. You can check on them about 4 minutes into the bake to rotate if necessary.
Let cool slightly and serve with Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard.
To bake the bierocks on the Yoder Smokers Pellet Grill:
Preheat your Yoder Smokers Pellet Grill to 400ºF.
Prep your bierocks onto two sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
Brush the tops of the bierocks with half & half or milk using a pastry brush.
Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the bake.
Let cool slightly and serve with Kozlik’s Dijon Classique Mustard.
Recipe Note
Recipe FAQ
Why smoke the chuck roast completely open instead of wrapping it partway through?
Leaving it unwrapped for the entire 5-hour cook lets the bark build continuously, rather than being interrupted by the moisture a foil or paper wrap would introduce.
Why cook the cabbage uncovered until the beer fully evaporates, then cover it to finish?
Cooking it open first concentrates the beer and mustard flavor into the cabbage as the liquid reduces. Covering it afterward lets residual steam finish softening the cabbage gently, rather than needing more direct heat that could overcook it.
Why let the scaled dough portions bench rest for 25 minutes before filling them?
That rest relaxes the gluten built up during mixing and bulk fermentation, making each round much easier to stretch into the final square shape without springing back or tearing.
Why does this recipe include both a wood-fired oven method and a pellet grill method for baking?
Offering both means the same dough and filling can be finished with whatever equipment is available, rather than requiring one specific type of oven to make the recipe.
What internal temperature should the chuck roast actually reach?
This recipe smokes it until it's shreddable with a fork, at an internal temperature of 205-210°F, well above the USDA minimum of 145°F for whole-muscle beef. That higher target is what breaks down the connective tissue for shredding, not a food safety requirement.
How indoor-friendly is this recipe?
2 out of 5 — the dough and cabbage filling come together easily indoors, but the multi-hour smoke that renders the chuck roast tender is difficult to replicate without an actual smoker.
Recipe Highlights
Fully unwrapped smoking: Builds continuous bark on the chuck roast.
Open-then-covered cabbage: Concentrates flavor before a gentle steam finish.
Bench-rested dough portions: Relaxes gluten for easier shaping.
Dual baking methods: Adapts to wood-fired oven or pellet grill.
Recommended Recipes
Nutrition
Nutrition
- Nutrition Serving Size
- 8.25
- per serving
- Calories
- 419
- Carbs
- 45 grams
- Protein
- 39 grams
- Fat
- 9 grams
- Sodium
- 90 milligrams
