Tender eye of round roast beef, crusted with garlic herb seasoning is perfect for a Sunday or holiday dinner. This fool proof off-oven cooking method results in perfectly medium rare, juicy roast beef every time.

Overhead view of thinly sliced eye of round roast beef cooked rare on brown parchment on wood board. — Perfectly tender eye of round roast beef.

Making a whole roast anything can be intimidating. I promise you, making this tender eye of round roast is an easy way to get a show stopping meal on the table with minimal fuss. This roast is great for a Sunday dinner with all of the fixings or for a holiday when you need to feed a crowd like Christmas or Easter.

The trick to this recipe is following the cooking and serving instructions exactly for perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth slices of well seasoned roast beef.

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Jump to:

What is Eye of Round?
How much roast beef do I need?
How to season Eye of Round Roast
Ingredients
Off-Oven Cooking Method
Step by Step Instructions for perfect roast beef
Why is my Eye of Round Roast Tough?
Recommended tools for this recipe
What to serve with eye of round roast beef
Garlic Herb Crusted Eye of Round Roast Beef

Close up of slices of eye of round roast beef on brown parchment paper. — This method results in perfectly cooked roast beef every time.

What is Eye of Round?

Eye of round is a boneless roast that looks like a tenderloin, but it’s much tougher. It’s an economical cut of beef from the hindquarter of the animal best enjoyed medium rare and sliced thinly against the grain.

How much roast beef do I need?

For a holiday meal or Sunday supper, plan for about a half a pound per person. This will be plenty for everyone with some leftovers for the best roast beef sandwiches to enjoy for a few days after.

How to season Eye of Round Roast

This cut of meat can stand up to a generous amount of seasoning. Whole cloves of fresh garlic, dried herbs and a little bit of salt and oil get mashed together to coat the entire piece of meat and create a delicious crust while it roasts. The garlic herb seasoning is key!

Raw roast covered in garlic herb seasoning on brown parchment paper on a wood board. — Garlic herb seasoning makes this roast super flavorful.

Ingredients

All you need is a few simple ingredients to make a stunning eye of round roast.

Eye of Round Roast – I find that this recipe works best with a 2-3 pound roast.
Dried Herbs – I like basil and oregano but you can definitely experiment here with your favorite dried herbs. You could use Italian seasoning, thyme, rosemary or any other combination of your choice.
Fresh Garlic
Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Red Pepper Flakes – this is optional but it adds a bit of heat.
Fresh Garlic
Avocado Oil – or other high heat netural oil.

Raw eye of round roast on brown parchment with small bowls of salt, pepper and dried herbs next to it and a few cloves of garlic. — A few simple ingredients is all you need.

Off-Oven Cooking Method

The off-oven cooking method is the best way to cook an eye of round roast without any guess work. To be successful with this recipe, the most important thing is to follow the instructions exactly. Do not deviate from the plan! You’ll roast for five minutes per pound and then turn the oven off and let it finish in the residual heat. After about 90 minutes, your roast will come out at a temperature between 125 and 130 degrees for perfectly cooked medium rare roast beef.

Sounds crazy, I know. Trust me, if you follow these exact steps, you’ll be amazed at yourself.

Here are the critical steps for getting a perfect eye of round roast.

Know the exact weight – we will roast for EXACTLY 5 minutes per pound. No more, no less. If you buy from the grocery store, the weight should be on the packaging sticker. Using a kitchen scale to double check is absolutely worth the trouble. Do not estimate here. If your roast is 2 pounds, you roast for 10 minutes. If your roast is 2.5 pounds, you roast for 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Be exact.
Know your oven temperature – All ovens are different. I keep an oven thermometer hanging on my rack so I always know the exact temperature of my oven. They can vary a lot which can really throw off your recipe.
DO NOT open the oven – under any circumstances. You will be so tempted to do it. DON’T
Slice thinly against the grain – this part matters. If you slice it any other way, you will still have a tough roast! Use a good serrated knife. If you have an electric knife, this is the time to bust it out!

Closeup of thinly sliced eye of round roast on brown parchment paper on top of a wood cutting board. — Slice thinly against the grain for perfectly tender roast beef.

Step by Step Instructions for perfect roast beef

Remove roast from the fridge, pat dry with paper towels and rub down the whole thing with one teaspoon of kosher salt.
Let the roast sit on the counter for about 45 minutes to an hour. This will give the salt time to penetrate and tenderize the meat.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Give your oven plenty of time to come to temperature. Make the garlic herb seasoning by combining fresh pressed garlic with dried basil, dried oregano, more salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
Coat the roast in the seasoning and place on a baking sheet fitted with a rack.
Roast for EXACTLY five minutes per pound. If your eye of round is 2.5 pounds, you roast for 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Be precise.
Turn the oven off and do not open it for EXACTLY 90 minutes.
Remove roast from oven. Check internal temperature with meat thermometer. It should be between 125 and 130 degrees.
Tent with foil and let it rest for 10-20 minutes before slicing thinly against the grain with a serrated knife.

Brown hands rubbing salt into raw meat on a wood cutting board. — Rub salt into the meat and let sit to tenderize.

Mashing together fresh garlic and dried herbs in a small white bowl on a wood cutting board with raw roast in the background. — Rub salt into the meat and let sit to tenderize.

Why is my Eye of Round Roast Tough?

Do not deviate from the recipe! If your roast turned out tough, it may be because you didn’t have the accurate weight, oven temperature or did not slice against the grain.

This cut of meat is naturally pretty tough but when cooked and sliced correctly, you can have perfectly tender, juicy slices of roast beef. Eye of round has a thin fat cap but it doesn’t have much marbling or connective tissue which is how you get that fall apart, melt in your mouth texture. If you’re looking for that kind of experience, chuck roast is your best bet.

Thinly sliced roast beef on a white cutting board. — Leftovers are perfect for sandwiches.

Recommended tools for this recipe

What to serve with eye of round roast beef

Yield: 6 Servings