Garlic-Studded Sirloin Roast with Chili Pepper Crust

It’s good to be back in the kitchen! (Here, have a giant platter of meat!)

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind! Between baking dozens of practice tarts for Bon Appetit’s Holiday Bake-Off Party and making a kamikaze run to New York City to their Culinary Studios, I’m happy to be back at The Mouse House and free of big deadlines (for the time being, at least).

And needless to say, after all those tarts, I’m all set with dessert, at least for a little while.

The roast beast remedy

Since prepping for Bon Appetit, I’ve been positively swimming in homemade caramel and chocolate ganache. What better way to recover than by roasting a big ole hunk of meat?

Exactly.

So, this meat will melt your face off. It’s hot. It’s spicy. It’s LOADED with garlic.

It’s a roast that’s fit for company—except, of course, if your guests are Twilight fans. (Sorry, my corny vampire jokes know no bounds since we moved to Salem, Massachusetts.)

What kind of meat should you buy?

This roast is a spiffier version of my Homemade Deli-Style Roast Beef. It’s made with sirloin instead of eye-round.

Loosely speaking, sirloin is a step above eye round, and a step below a prime rib roast. (To learn how to make restaurant-style prime rib, check out the detailed recipe in my new cookbook.)

Sirloin Roast

Sirloin is tender and loaded with beefy flavor—and is also more affordable than a traditional rib roast. Get a roast with a nice layer of creamy fat on top. (That fat will melt as it roasts and baste the meat.)

Wait, 25-30 garlic cloves? Is that a typo down there in the recipe?

Nope. But like I said, this roast isn’t for the faint of heart.

For this recipe, find yourself a nice fat sirloin roast. Slather it in a chili-packed spice rub, douse it in olive oil, and stud it with a ridiculous number of whole garlic cloves.

Toss it into the oven for about an hour, during which time the flavor of the garlic will permeate and perfume the meat.

If you’re lucky and your garlic cloves are small enough, the cloves themselves will turn into spreadable, buttery roasted garlic. (Use small garlic cloves. Larger ones won’t cook through all the way.)

Meat flavored garlic? Garlic flavored meat? Yes, please!

Honestly? I know it’s kind of preposterous to stick all these garlic cloves into one little roast, but the whole thing is utterly delicious.

Choose smallish garlic cloves

I copped out and bought peeled garlic at my market. You could certainly peel the cloves yourself, though, if you’d prefer.

Be sure to choose cloves that are on the thinner side. Like I said, you want them to cook through and get perfectly melt-y.

To the meat!

As with my Homemade Deli-Style Roast Beef, this recipe is more method than actual recipe. Keep reading. You’ll see what I mean.

Garlic-Studded Sirloin Roast with Chili Pepper Crust

1 sirloin roast, about 4-5 lbs.
25-30 small, whole peeled garlic cloves
kosher salt
ground cumin
ground chipotle
chili powder
sweet paprika
olive oil

Serves 4-6

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Put a rack in a roasting pan and set it aside.

Stud the roast with garlic

Grab a sharp paring knife. Put the point straight down into the meat and cut a slit that’s about an inch or so deep.

Repeat until you have about 25 or 30 little slits.

I like to cut them in rows, which makes a nice pattern of garlic when you slice the roast.

When you’ve made all your slits, grab a small clove of garlic. Nip off the ends if they’re a little woody. Stuff it into one of the slits. (You may need to cut it open a little more…just fool around with it until you get the garlic to slide in.)

Push the little guy in…

…until he disappears. Repeat until each slit has a clove of garlic nestled in it.

Season the roast

This is the part that’s kind of imprecise. Sprinkle the roast with kosher salt.

Dust the top of the roast with a layer of each of the other spices (cumin, chipotle, chili powder, and sweet paprika).

Your roast should look about like this, give or take.

Drizzle the roast with olive oil.

Rub the olive oil all over the roast. It will combine with the spices and make a lovely red paste.

Turn it over and rub the spice paste on all sides of the meat.

Don’t forget to get the ends.

And, voila!

Roast the beast!

Set the seasoned roast on the rack in your prepared pan.

Pop it into your preheated 500-degree oven.

Roast for 20 minutes at 500 degrees, then drop the heat to 300 degrees (leave the roast in the oven the whole time) and roast for about another 30 minutes.

How do you know when it’s done?

Use a meat thermometer, and yank it out of the oven at one of the following temperatures, depending on how you like your meat cooked.

120 F = rare
126 F = medium-rare
134 F = medium
150 F = medium-well
160 F = well done

Tent a piece of foil over the roast loosely for about 10 minutes. (If you cut it immediately when it comes out of the oven, it will lose a lot of juice.)

Slice the roast, serve, and enjoy!

Slice the roast thinly across the grain.

(Scroll down here for a picture of what “across the grain” looks like.)

Enjoy!

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