Pot Roast Recipe
Filed under All Seasons, Beef, Comfort Food, Low Carb, Main Course, Wheat-free
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Pot roast was a standard growing up, and still continues to be in my parent's household. It requires slow cooking over low heat to ensure tender, flavorful meat. Pot roasts typically use the tougher cuts of beef - a chuck roast or shoulder roast - which have the most flavor. The slow cooking at low heat is what melts the tough connective tissue between the muscle fibers, leaving you with tender meat that flakes apart with your fork. This is my mother's tried and true recipe for pot roast. She only adds a half cup of liquid to the pot because she's able to keep the heat very low and her pot has a tight cover.
Pot Roast Recipe
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Ingredients
- 3 1/2 lb of beef shoulder or boneless chuck roast
- 1 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
- Salt, pepper, italian seasoning to taste
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped or sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1/2 cup of red wine
- Several carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise
Method
1 Use a thick-bottomed covered pot, such as a dutch oven, just large enough to hold roast and vegetables. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat (hot enough to sear the meat). Sprinkle and rub salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning all over the meat. Brown roast in pot, all over, several minutes on each side. Don't move the roast while a side is browning, or it won't brown well.
2 When roast is browned, lift up the meat and add garlic and chopped onion to the bottom of the pan. Let the roast sit on top of the onions. Add 1/2 cup of red wine. Cover. Bring to simmer and then adjust the heat down to the lowest heat possible to maintain a low simmer when covered (we cook our roast on the warm setting of our electric range)*.
3 Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until meat is tender. (If you are using a pressure cooker, cut the time by half). Near the end of the cooking, add carrots, cook until tender, about an additional 10 minutes.
After cooking 3 1/2 hours, before adding the carrots. Note how much liquid has been released by the meat. This comes from slow cooking at a very low temperature. If your pot roast is too dry, make sure the pan you are using has a tight fitting lid and that you are cooking at the lowest possible heat to maintain the low simmering.
Serves 4. Suggest serving with green beans and potatoes
*If you use a gas range, you may find difficulty getting the flame low enough. A tip I recently read in Cook's Illustrated suggests tightly rolling up some aluminum foil, shaping it into a skinny donut, and putting that on top of the burner to create a little more distance between the range and the pan. If your pot roast is turning out too dry, you might want to try this tip.
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Posted by Elise on May 25, 2006 and indexed Beef, Beef Roast, Pot Roast, Slow Cooking
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Absolutely fabulous recipe!!