Classic Pot Roast Recipes

Steps:

• In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, stir together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons broth until smooth. Add remaining broth, tomato paste, potatoes, carrots, onion, and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper and toss.
• Season roast with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and rub with garlic. Place on top of vegetables. Cover and cook on high until roast is fork-tender, 5 hours (or 8 hours on low).
• Transfer roast to a cutting board; thinly slice against the grain. Place vegetables in a serving dish; skim fat from pan juices, then pour through a fine-mesh sieve, if desired. Serve roast and vegetables drizzled with juices.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Spray 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.
• Season beef with salt and pepper; coat with flour. In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook beef in oil 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides.
• Place beef, onion and celery in baking dish. Pour broth over beef and vegetables. Cover; bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn beef over; add carrots and potatoes. Cover; bake 1 hour. Uncover; turn beef over and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until beef and vegetables are tender and broth is slightly thickened. Skim excess fat from broth, and serve.

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. In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast all over with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Place in pan, and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
• Turn meat fat side up. Add stock, wine, if using, onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Stir in tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, cover; put in the oven, and roast for 3 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour more.
• Transfer the roast, carrots, and potatoes to a platter. With a spoon, skim the fat off the surface of the cooking liquid. Cut the roast into thick slices, and serve with the vegetables. Pass the pan juices separately.

Steps:

• Sprinkle the roast with 1 tablespoon flour. In a Dutch oven, brown the roast on all sides in half of the butter. Add the water, bouillon, onion, celery, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour. , Add carrots; cover and simmer 45-60 minutes longer or until meat is tender. Remove meat and carrots to a serving platter and keep warm. Strain cooking juices; set aside. , In the same Dutch oven, melt remaining butter. Stir in remaining flour; cook and stir until bubbly. Add 2 cups of the cooking juices and blend until smooth. Cook and stir until thickened; add additional cooking juices until gravy has desired consistency.

Steps:

• At major fat seam, pull apart beef chuck-eye roast to create 2 smaller roasts, and cut away all large knobs of fat from each piece of meat (deboning knife works great).
• Season meat with Kosher salt, place on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet, and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.
• Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat.
• Add onions, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 8-10 minutes.
• Add carrot and celery. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
• Add garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Stir in 1 cup beef broth, 1/2 cup dry red wine, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, bay leaf, and 1 sprig fresh thyme. Bring to simmer.
• Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with pepper. Tie 3 pieces of kitchen twine around each piece of meat to form even shape.
• Nestle meat on top of vegetables. Cover pot tightly with large piece of aluminum foil and cover with lid. Transfer pot to oven.
• Cook beef until fully tender and fork slips easily in and out of meat, 3 1/2 to 4 hours, turning meat halfway through cooking.
• Transfer roasts to carving board and tent loosely with foil.
• Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer into 4-cup liquid measuring cup. Discard bay leaf and thyme sprig.
• Transfer vegetables to blender.
• Let liquid sit for 5 minutes, then skim fat.
• Add 1-2 cups beef broth to bring liquid amount up to 3 cups.
• Add liquid to blender and blend until smooth, about 2 minutes.
• Transfer sauce to medium saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat.
• Meanwhile, remove twine from roasts and slice against grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Transfer meat to serving platter.
• Stir 1/4 cup dry red wine, 1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar into gravy and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Spoon half of gravy over meat; pass remaining gravy separately.
• ROOT VEGETABLE VARIATION:.
• Add prepped root vegetables to pot after cooking beef for 3 hours. Continue to cook until beef is fully tender, 30 minutes to 1 hour longer.
• Transfer large pieces of carrot, parsnip and potato to serving platter using slotted spoon, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and proceed with recipe at Step 12.
• TROUBLESHOOTING:.
• BUYING WRONG ROAST - Can result in dry meat, chalky meat, bland taste. Ignore stickers from butcher, avoid lean roasts from the round for they will become very tough and very dry if cooked this way; a fatty, well-marbled roast is better for this recipe. The most acceptable alternative to boneless chuck-eye roast is the top blade roast, but cooking time will vary.
• NOT HALVING ROAST - Can result in fatty meat, greasy gravy and the meat not cooked in the posted time. Be sure to remove the excess fat along the main seam. Separating the meat into 2 smaller well-trimmed roasts cuts the cooking time by about 1 hour.
• NOT SALTING ROAST - Can result in bland meat. The salting draws the moisture out of the meat, forming a shallow brine that during cooking seeps into the meat to season it throughout rather than just the exterior. Salt also enhances the beefy flavor of this cut.
• ADDING ALL BROTH AT OUTSET - Can result in unbrowned meat and bland taste. This recipe reserves most of the beef broth for the gravy, and counts on the beef sitting above the liquid in the pot, allowing the meat to brown without preliminary searing.
• NOT DEFATTING BRAISING LIQUID - Can result in greasy gravy. Be sure to follow steps 13-15 to get the full taste of the roasted vegetables in the gravy with a minimum of fat. The 5 minutes of resting time for the strained liquid allows the fat to rise to the surface, where it can be easily removed with a wide, shallow spoon.
• NOT PUREEING GRAVY IN BLENDER - Can result in thin and/or bland gravy. Pureeing the roasted vegetables ekes out the last bit of their flavor.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat olive oil in large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan. Add onion to pan; cook 8 minutes or until tender.
• Return browned roast to pan. Add the red wine, thyme, beef broth, bay leaf, beef base to pan and bring to a simmer. Cover pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours or until roast is almost tender.
• Add vegetables to pan. Cover and bake an additional hour or until vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf from pan and discard. Shred meat with 2 forks. Serve roast with vegetables and cooking liquid.