I was undecided what to cook this past weekend. I’ve been trying to be more organized about planning meals, at the least, a few days ahead of time. I could be like those organized people who plan a week ahead, but trust me, I’m so far from organized it’s not funny.
Looking through the sale circulars on Sunday for our local food stores decided it for me. Pot Roast. My favorite store had Chuck Roast on sale for $1.49 lb. so there you have it. Sunday dinner. Much like meat loaf, there a million and one recipes out there for pot roast. And I have never followed a recipe for it. I usually make it somewhat different every few times I make it. The one thing I don’t change is the cut of meat. I prefer a Chuck Roast. To me, it is the ultimate cut of meat for a Pot Roast. Sometimes I make it in the slow cooker, other times in the oven in my “look-alike-Le Creuset-oval-because I’m not paying $150 for one pot-dutch oven”. That’s what I chose to use this time around.
First thing I do is salt and pepper the roast generously on both sides. Then I get my “look-alike-Le Creuset-oval-because I’m not paying $150 for one pot-dutch oven” on the stove and pour in some canola oil. I let it heat up a bit and then I brown all sides of the roast nicely. You want it nice and brown so it leaves those delicious crusty brown specs on the bottom of the pot.
Once this is achieved I remove the roast to a plate and pour in beef broth and then use my wire whisk to scrape up all the bits off the bottom of the pan. I then add in the roast, some carrots and onion, a bay leaf and that’s it. Cover up that puppy and put it in a 275 degree oven for the next several hours. When it’s done it looks like this:
And this:
At this point, the meat will be so tender you can barely lift it out of the pot without it falling apart. You won’t need to slice it. Just get it on a cutting board and begin pulling it apart with two forks.
At this point you will probably be tempted to start shoving tender morsels of this meat into your mouth as you are breaking it apart. I was the same way. Notice the past tense I used. Past tense because I once worked with someone who told me her mother was stealing pieces of pot roast from the cutting board one day as she was breaking it up to serve for dinner. All of a sudden this girl saw her mother begin choking and immediately performed the hymelic maneuver on her. Luckily her mother survived and the tender piece of meat came sailing across the kitchen when it was dislodged from her throat. Now I have this sick phobia of me choking to death on a piece of tender meat I was quietly trying to shove down my throat, in my kitchen, all alone, and being found dead by one of my children or my husband. Who would then proceed to step over my immobile body to begin scarfing down their own tender piece of meat before acknowledging the fact that I was lying blue and lifeless on the floor below them.
Oh. Sorry for the blurriness. I was being mauled by this while I was taking these photos.
Well, not really “mauled”. More like being affectionately rubbed against in the hopes that I would notice he was there and waiting for a little morsel of meat to suddenly fall on the floor. I guess me missed that splotch of gravy on the floor to the left of him. I never said he was the smartest cat, just the most affectionate. And, he thinks he is more canine than feline and actually begs for food like a dog.
Just a side note. See that little bend at the end of his tail. Know how he got that? I accidentally rolled over his tail in my wheelchair a few years back when I was healing from a broken leg and the surgery endured to correct it. I felt terrible, and his tail never returned to normal. Almost five years later and he still has that little bend to it. Sorry, Max. I never meant to maim you with my wheelchair. I feel terrible about it and you remind me of it every time I look at you. So of course, I had to drop him a morsel of tender meat to feast on. He earned it.
Sorry. I’m easily side tracked. Back to the pot roast. I don’t have any specific measurements, but I will do my best to make it look like I do and post the recipe for you.
POT ROAST
- 3-4 lb. Chuck Roast
- 32 oz. Low Sodium Beef Broth
- 1 Medium onion
- 4-5 Carrots peeled
- 1-2 Bay leaves
- 1 Packet brown gravy mix
- 2-3 Tbsp. Canola Oil
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Salt and pepper the roast on both sides. Pour a few Tbsp. of Canola Oil into a dutch oven on the stove and get it nice and hot. Place the roast in the pot and brown it nicely on all sides.
While it’s browning, rough chop the onion and peel and cut up your carrots and place them to the side.
When the roast is nicely browned on all sides, remove it from the pot and place it to the side. Pour in your beef broth and use a wire whisk to scrape up all those brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the roast, carrots and onions to the beef broth in the pot and make sure it is submerged in the liquid. Place the cover on it and put it in a 275 degree oven and let cook and become tender and delicious.
This was between 3 and 4 lbs. so I let it cook for a good four hours. After the first three hours, I shut off the oven and left it in there, still covered, for the last hour.
Once done, remove the roast carefully to a cutting board and break all the meat apart. With a slotted spoon remove the carrots and the onion to a bowl. Now stir in the one packet of brown gravy mix until well combined. The sauce/gravy will be thin, but this is the way we prefer it. You can always thicken it with some flour if you like a thicker gravy.
I like to serve this with mashed potatoes or egg noodles. There you have it. An entire meal cooked in one pot and you barely had to do anything. Enjoy!
Bored Cook In The Kitchen 