Chuckroast Recipes

Steps:

• Mix first10 ingredients. Place onion, green pepper and celery in a 5-qt. slow cooker; place roast over top. Pour tomato mixture over roast. Cook, covered, on low until meat is tender, 5-6 hours., Remove roast. Strain cooking juices, reserving vegetables. Transfer juices to a small saucepan; skim fat. Mix cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Serve roast and vegetables with gravy. Freeze option: Place sliced beef and vegetables in freezer containers; top with gravy. Cool and freeze. To use, partially thaw in refrigerator overnight. Heat through slowly in a covered saucepan, stirring gently and adding a little broth or water if necessary.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
• Generously salt and pepper the chuck roast.
• Heat the olive oil in large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the halved onions to the pot, browning them on both sides. Remove the onions to a plate.
• Throw the carrots into the same very hot pot and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so. Reserve the carrots with the onions.
• If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pot. Place the meat in the pot and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Remove the roast to a plate.
• With the burner still on high, use either red wine or beef broth (about 1 cup) to deglaze the pot, scraping the bottom with a whisk. Place the roast back into the pot and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway.
• Add in the onions and the carrots, along with the fresh herbs.
• Put the lid on, then roast for 3 hours for a 3-pound roast. For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours. The roast is ready when it's fall-apart tender.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Season chuck roast liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat duck fat in dutch oven and brown chuck thoroughly on all sides. Remove meat from pot and set aside.
• Add all vegetables and garlic to remaining hot fat in pot and saute until tender. Add herbs and red wine scraping bottom of pot to remove all browned flavor bits from bottom. Reduce 10 minutes. Add veal stock. Paint chuck roast with tomato paste and add roast to braising liquid so that liquid reaches about halfway up the side of meat. (Add more stock if needed)
• Cover and braise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until meat fork slides into meat easily.
• Remove meat from hot pot, cool, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Strain braising liquid pushing it through strainer with back of spoon--reserving all possible liquid. Cool, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. (Keep it separate from meat)
• After 24 hours, remove meat and liquid from fridge. Remove fat from liquid and heat liquid in sauce pan until hot.
• In small sauce pan, make a roux with 1 1/2 tablespoons flour and 1 1/2 tablespoons butter. Cook over low heat from 5 minutes. Add roux to hot liquid, stir and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. This is your gravy.
• Slice meat 1/2-inch thick and arrange slices in oven-proof dish. Moisten with some of the gravy, cover and heat until meat is hot enough to eat.
• Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta and roasted seasonal root vegetables. Serve gravy on side.

Steps:

• Cut off the vast majority of the fat from the (NOT previously frozen) roast. For me, this usually results in maybe 4-5 variously sized pieces of usable meat culled from one roast.
• Place a layer of oil (to coat bottom) in a cast iron skillet on the stove over medium-high and while that's heating ----.
• ---- poke holes part way through each piece of roast meat with a knife tip a few times on each side. This simply provides more surface area for the flavor to cling to. Rub all meat surfaces well - first with Kitchen Bouquet, then with the chopped garlic.
• When the skillet is hot, add meat and sear on all sides until well-browned, about 2 minutes on each side or whatever achieves the nicest deep brown.
• Add water to almost cover roast (maybe 1/4" below top of roast) - somewhere between 1 and 2 cups.
• Continue to heat until water just starts to bubble, then reduce heat to low or simmering, cover and braise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Braising cuts down the connective tissue in tougher cuts of meat.
• At the end of cooking time when meat is tender, remove lid and boil water and juices in skillet until volume reduces by almost half.
• Turn off heat and move all of the meat pieces to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm.
• Remove oil from juices with a gravy separator. This is VERY important to making successful gravy. Doing it by hand with a spoon or bulb baster is a tedious job, so I just ordered a Trudeau gravy/fat separator to make life easier. ;).
• Return about 1 cup of the separated water/juice/gravy fluid to the skillet heated to medium-high.
• Mix the Wondra with just enough water to make a thinnish paste. While whisking FEVERISHLY, ~slowly~ pour the thin paste into the sauce to combine and prevent lumps from forming. Wondra flour in the tall blue can works Wondra-fully and is made for this purpose. (Hey, any opportunity I have for making stupid puns shall not go wasted.).
• For the next few minutes, continue whisking as though your very life depended on it, even after the Wondra/flour has incorporated into the sauce. Then, still whisking, slowly add the milk.
• When gravy is heated through, it's ready to pour over hunks of roast beast and boiled tater slices! Season *after* tasting as it may already be just fine. However, I highly recommend some finishing salt to bump that puppy right over the edge of heaven! Saltistry's "herb grey" is absolute bliss.
• Oh, and for leftovers, might I suggest a beef version of Breakfast Pork Hash (Recipe #170376?) :).

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250°F (low). Rub the salt, pepper, and brown sugar into all the sides of the roast. Coat roast with flour.
• In a large dutch oven, heat oil and butter over med-high heat. Sear roast on both sides.
• Remove roast, and add onion to the pot (the liquid may become blackend, this is from the sugar and is normal). Add the wine, reduce heat to medium and cook onion about 1 minute to deglaze the pot.
• Place roast back into dutch oven. Cover and place in oven. Bake for 4 hours.
• Add baby carrots and cubed potatoes. Season with italian seasoning, then place green beans over top. Cover and continue cooking for an additional 1 hour.