The recipe for this dish is at the end of the post! {A note for impatient sons-in-law who wonder why a blog post goes on and on before getting to the recipe… but if I put the recipe first, who would read all my important musings, I ask you?!?}
I've been “roasting pots” (as my husband calls making this dish) for a long, long time. I've done it the easy way, which is pretty good, and I've done it the good way, which doesn't have to be difficult. I can do it.
This recipe is both easy and good, for those days when you just have to get the meat in the oven. But what makes it blog-worthy is the secret ingredient that gives a certain flavor that's irresistible.
In fact, it's the easiest and best recipe I've ever used, and as far as I know, it's my very own! I came up with it when I was in a hurry and happened to have the inspirational secret ingredient on hand. I could be wrong about me inventing it because stewing beef is a pretty venerable activity with infinite permutations as to flavor profiles. But I don't mind claiming this one.
Making slow-cooked meat is by definition pretty easy, once you know that you just have to cook it a long time at a low temperature. So the very easiest would be to “Irish up” the meat, by which I mean, don't bother to brown it, as in Irish Stew.
But… it's not as good as browning the meat first, even though doing so usually means getting the stove all spattery.
And there are wonderful recipes out there with many steps and ingredients, but they are not easy. The very best would be to “Julia Child” it, which involves disappearing down through a warren of recipes folded into recipes, and that's even before you start cooking.
No, we want nice browned meat with a hearty gravy, cooked to the point of tender perfection. So without further ado, here's the easy good way:
Those are all the ingredients, other than some flour or cornstarch to thicken your sauce at the end, and some beef broth if you have it — but it's not necessary.
This is the secret ingredient:
It can be the whole roasted red peppers rather than these strips, and you can have done them yourself at some other point (obviously not while making this recipe, or that would not be too easy!). I try to remind myself to keep a jar handy in the pantry, because they are so tasty.
In this case, for the meat, I used a small brisket, because that's what I had in my freezer at the time. I usually like making pot roast with the chuck. I know people might shy away from it because it has a lot of visible fat, but honestly that's what makes it so delicious! If I can, I always buy a nice big chuck roast at a good price and stow it in the freezer. But brisket is nice in its own way too — the slices stay neat and the flavor is very good.
You are going to brown the meat in the oven in the pan it will cook in. Then you add the few ingredients, turn the heat down, and let it simmer. When it's soft, it's done! This takes a couple of hours — maybe a bit longer than you think. If you think you usually “ruin” pot roast — it's probably not that you overcook it, but that you undercook it! Here's a secret: when you braise meat, it does go through a stage where it is as tough as a boot. Keep powering through!
Yes, you could do this in the slow cooker. Mine won't brown the meat, so it would mean using two vessels, so I opted to do it in the oven all the way. If yours will brown the meat first, or if you don't mind the extra dirty pan, just pop everything into the slow cooker after you brown the meat in the oven, and after scraping all the good bits out of the pan. (The other issue is that making the gravy takes either another pot still or a long time in the slow cooker on high, so… oven it is.)
And yes, you could do this in the Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker). Just brown the meat in the pot, add the ingredients, and use your pot roast function. To make the gravy, put the pot back on sauté at the end while the meat is resting on the board. This will probably cut an hour off the cooking time.
It's key to let braised meats rest in the juices before you thicken up your gravy and serve. You can fix your salad and set the table (that is, get the kids to set the table!) during this step. It is not a bad idea to make the pot roast early in the day so that it has time to rest.
Before we get to the actual recipe, I'll say a word about the whole menu here. I had made something over polenta the night before, so in the spirit of “save a step” cooking, I made lots extra. I poured the polenta into a pan to cool and solidify after I served what we were having, so that gave me pieces to cut up and freeze — but first, I cut some of it into triangles and put them in a skillet. In the oven they go while I'm getting the salad ready (the bottoms are already oiled from having been in the pan). Of course, the pot roast could be served with mashed potatoes, pasta, or rice.
The point being that I didn't make the starch from scratch here.
The salad is also a pulling together of odds and ends… half a cucumber, sliced up and sprinkled with salt and lemon while I get the other things out, a little sliced pepper, the very last of a jar of pickled dilly beans (like, 9 tiny beans or something, but here they just make a little crunchy note in the salad), and the last of a jar of pickled eggplant (the very last bit of it — note to self: Make way more pickled eggplant next year!).
All these little things go on a bed of lettuce with a little dressing on top (since some of those things each had its own dressing already) and make a nice sharp contrast to the meat. This type of composed salad uses just a little lettuce and makes your vegetable odds and ends really appealing, I think!
Some sourdough bread and we're good to go!
Okay, on to the recipe!
Easy and Good Pot Roast, Like Mother, Like Daughter
A 3 lb chuck roast or brisket (at least — you can make this go very far by cutting it up and serving small pieces with lots of gravy over a big mound of mashed potatoes, but if you can get more meat into this cooking episode, do, and just increase the other ingredients accordingly, because it freezes well and can be another, similar meal, and then maybe soup if you play your cards right and don't have too many teenage boys)
Red wine (hopefully you have at least a cup)
Roasted red peppers from a jar, about 1/2 a cup (or, as mentioned, that you have made yourself some other time) — these can be whole, in which case just roughly chop — use two large ones — or strips, use about a cup. This is the secret ingredient! Do not omit! (I mean, you certainly can, but the fabulousness will be left out, sadly) (put any leftovers in the freezer in a bag, as they will mold in the fridge — pull them out when you are making tomato sauce and taste the magic)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste (about 1/2 the small can — use a small spatula to pop what's left into one of those tiny containers, and then put it in the freezer for another day)
Beef stock if you have it, about a cup, but this is not necessary unless you want the sauce to be less tomatoey
Dried minced onion*, 2 tablespoons
Dried powdered garlic*, 2 teaspoons
Salt, about 1/2 teaspoon, more to season at the end
Pepper, a few grindings
Flour or cornstarch for thickening at the end
{To make this a more classic pot roast, use half the tomato paste and be sure to use beef broth. The way I have it here it's more Italian and tastes great with the polenta. Yes, you could add some herbs if you like — bay leaf, parsley, a little thyme and rosemary. But it's good, really good, even without, especially because these particular roasted peppers are seasoned already.}
Brown your roast in the oven at 425°. I suggest using a shallow roasting pan with a lid or even lasagna pan that you will put foil over afterwards — that's how I did it the time before, when I used chuck; but you can use a dutch oven as I did here — it's just that the roast will brown better in a shallower pan.
You can grease the pan lightly, salt the meat, and just pop it in the oven at that nice high temperature for about 15 minutes or until it's really nice and browned. Don't be shy, don't worry.
While it's browning, combine the other ingredients (except the flour or cornstarch) into a bowl so that you can get the tomato paste mixed with the wine. The peppers can be chunky.
When the meat is browned, take the pan or pot out of the oven. Scrape up any brown bits by pouring a little water over them and using a wooden spatula, then pour the ingredients in the bowl over and around the meat. Add water so that the liquid comes about halfway up the meat. Seal it up with the lid of the roasting pan or dutch oven, or cover well with aluminum foil.
Return to the oven, which you have turned down to 250°. Let the pot roast simmer there for at least two hours — probably more like three. You know your oven — if it runs high, turn it down. If after two hours the meat is not soft under the fork, turn your heat up to 300° and check again after 40 minutes. Even leaving it in there for longer is going to be fine.
When the meat is tender, take the pan out and let everything just sit and rest while you prepare your side dishes or up to a few hours.
Remove the meat from the pan to a cutting board. Slice it into chunks (if it's chuck) or slices. Do I remove that fat? No… I love beef fat! I'm all “his wife could eat no lean!” all the way! I give leaner slices to those who aren't fans.
Time to thicken your sauce. There will be a good quantity of rendered fat in the pan. If there is enough to scoop out with a spoon, then do that, but otherwise, leave it. Mash the peppers if necessary with a potato masher, the back of a spoon, or your handy immersion blender.
Make a slurry by mixing 1/2 a cup of cold water or beef broth with 3-4 tablespoons of flour or 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch until there are no lumps (a whisk is handy for this operation, or the immersion blender if you are already using it). Then mix this slurry into your boiling liquid and whisk/blend until it's smooth and bubbly.
Thin it with a little water or broth if you need to — taste it and see how the texture and seasonings are. You don't want it gummy but it needs to have body so that it doesn't just run all over the plate, unless you want to serve it in a shallow bowl over your starch with your salad on a separate plate — that's nice as well.
Then return your sliced meat into the gravy.
Voilà! Here it is again:
It honestly takes longer to explain it than to do it (other than the cooking; obviously this explanation didn't take 3 hours!).
*In this post about plain cooking I sing the praises of these two ingredients: dried minced onion and dried garlic. I love slicing up an onion and mincing some garlic, but using the dried expedites this meal and adds intensity of flavor.
Emily says
ooooh! This looks delicious! It is sad, but I’ve never made a pot roast before, and I’ve been looking for an easy, but good, recipe–because as much as I love Julia, sometimes, we don’t want to be Julia. Adding this to my recipe file.
Annie says
This looks delicious! My dad tells us of his days in graduate school, when he “really learned to cook” – he’d put a big roast in the oven on low, go out to the gym (his other hobby) and come back to a pretty fancy meal for a bachelor! I’m sure yours tastes better 😉 I am not a big beef eater, but was just telling my husband of my dream that one day we’d be able to invest in half a cow every year.
Rebekah W. says
Seconded–this looks delicious! Will have to try it some Sunday soon. 🙂
priestswife @byzcathwife says
looks very yummy- I’ve never used roasted peppers in a pot roast before.. I’ll try it!
Claire says
Wow that looks *fantastic* — why have I never thought to use roasted peppers? They’re good for everything but dessert!
Thanks for this — I can smell it already : )
Sibyl Niemann says
This sounds completely delicious, utterly. My pot roast is — meh. However, my complaint here is that we can almost never have pot roast because chuck roast (that supposedly economical meat) is about $4.50 a pound here, even at Walmart, and brisket is even more expensive, and requires being bought in huge 8-pound hunks. And in this household, 3 pounds is the minimum that would feed everybody, with no leftovers! What to do? I guess pot roast can be our special birthday/holiday treat.
Amy A. says
Dear Auntie Leila, are you suggesting that the roast I attempted to make in the crockpot last month that turned out so poorly that I called it “rubber roast” might have been improved by . . . . cooking it longer?! Will wonders never cease! I am going to try this recipe this weekend because we have been given a lot of beef by my parents (and I mostly avoid cooking with beef; there have been multiple iterations of the rubber roast over the past few years) and I need inspiration. Thank you!
Dixie says
It is counter-intuitive, but absolutely true!!! Just cook it longer!
Michelle says
Yes!! A Pot Roast recipe!!
First, on the posts: I love your chattiness. It’s my favorite! Sometimes I will email a post to my husband…he just shakes his head and smiles and is glad I am getting good advice embedded somewhere in all those words. Keep it up! I have started emailing him just the pertinant lines if you give advice especially needed for our busy household (8, 7, 5, 3 with special needs, and 8mos).
Pot roast is my favorite meal and I am excited to jazz it up a bit. I always make mine on the stovetop, so this will really be something new, haha. A few questions. You write that after browning you “scrape up an brown bits by pouring a little water over them…then pour the ingredients in the bowl over and around the meat.” Why are we scraping out the browned bits just to return them to the pan?? Can’t we just add water / beef broth to it and move on? Also, what kid of red wine? I find that with the price of wine, I don’t want to “waste” it in the roast. Thoughts??
Leila says
Thanks for the chattiness affirmation! And thank you for interpreting for your husband haha!
You don’t have to take the browned bits OUT of the pan. You just need to release them from the bottom, where they will be stuck on from the browning process (they are stuck because of the sugars that have caramelized and mixed with proteins, making a really sticky substance that tastes amazing!). To incorporate them into your eventual sauce, they need to be suspended in the liquid.
In the case of a small roast in a big pan, you can kind of skootch it around while using your spatula and some water or broth to loosen those bits up. You might have to remove the *meat* if it’s taking up a lot of room, scrape up the bits until they are freed from the pan, and then return the meat and add your other ingredients.
Katie says
Roasted peppers, good idea. My mother-in-law’s signature pot roast (and a frequent favorite around here) is made with a jar of *pepperoncini* peppers, plus Italian seasoning. It comes out with some good zing, and it’s great as leftovers shredded on a bun with horseradish mayo. Wimpier people decline to serve themselves the peppers, and spice-tolerant people eat up all the pepperoncinis alongside the meat. 😉
Emily says
Ohh pepperoncini! I AM SO DOING THAT!
ottercoon1 says
Dear Auntie Leila,
Just a note that my two plum puddings are now cooling on the stove! Thank you SO much for the recipe. (I would leave my comment on that post, but it seems to be closed to comments?) It looks and smells lovely. I am a bit late for Christmas – partly because of procrastination, and partly because it took so long to find suet. (I’d tell you the long story, but we’d be here a while.) Thank you so much for the tips on how to use suet – the last time I tried it (for Spotted Dick and Custard), I tried to grate the suet with the membranes still in it, and it was unpleasant to say the least. Your method worked perfectly.
Two questions, if you have time! (1) Does the pudding need to be refrigerated while aging? And (2) Can you give a general minimum time of aging between baking and eating?
Thank you, and a belated Merry Christmas to you and all the family!
Diana
Leila says
ottercoon1 —
1. I have always refrigerated it because I do have a second fridge and I just put it in the back in a tin or other airtight container. I would suspect that if it were bathed in enough brandy, it would be fine for any length of time even if not in the fridge. But I haven’t tried it.
2. I would say at least a few days? It’s better if it ages, but it can be eaten right away, of course.
God bless!
Diana says
Thank you so much!! I appreciate it!!
Diana
Katherine Hoarn says
Your description of Julia Child cooking as “disappearing down through a warren of recipes folded into recipes, and that’s even before you start cooking” is so apt! That cracked me up. I will look forward to trying this recipe next time I have folks over for dinner.
Also, thank you for sharing what you served with the roast. I’m a decent cook but terrible at assembling complete meals, so your tips here are extremely helpful!
Serena says
Roasted red peppers have been purchased – trying this out today! And I love your chattiness as well!
Would you consider doing a post on making soup out of your leftover ham bone? I had a beautiful ham bone and tried to make stock and then soup and it was just . . . okay. Decent, but the heavens didn’t open and angels didn’t sing like I was hoping : ).
Leila says
Serena, I have this post: http://likemotherlikedaughter.org/2008/10/slow-cooker-perplexity/
Other than split pea soup, I often make minestrone with my ham stock (I also use turkey stock for that soup). I find that the tomato added to the soup does indeed make the heavens open. Another good one is a tomatoey kale and white bean soup…
This post has a couple of our favorite soups and you could certainly use ham stock in the kale soup that Sukie makes: http://likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/02/soup-lets-get-ready-for-lenten-suppers/
Serena says
How did I miss those 😊? Thank you!
Thrift at Home says
Your gravy looks so perfect!
I like to stick a roast in the crockpot. My method is here: http://thriftathome.blogspot.com/2016/04/sunday-dinner-holy-cow-its-easiest-beef.html
We shred this up with salsa and eat it in tortillas with fixins or spoon it over warm French bread and provolone and call it French dip.
Jennifer Bush says
I’m just sitting down on the couch after just having put all the ingredients in the crockpot for Sunday dinner. Thanks so much for this recipe! I make a tender pot roast but it lacks flavor. Can’t wait to try this tonight!
Jenny
Jennifer Bush says
It was a huge hit! Everyone loved ut! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Anne Marie says
Auntie Leila, this is absolutely fabulous! Thank you so much — just what my pot roast game needed. People reading, try this, it’s fail proof!
Leila says
Glad the recipe worked out for you!
Elizabeth S says
I just did this in a pressure cooker, the gravy and flavor of the meat was great! But the meat was tough – it was a “rolled roast” from a quarter of beef we have in the freezer, I have no idea what part of the animal it was. But the flavor was so good! I’m going to try again with a different cut and conventional methods. And using an immersion blender for the gravy just revolutionized my gravy situation!!!
Jess says
Oh my gosh — browning IN THE OVEN!!!!! This is a revelation. No more standing at the stove for 15 minutes trying to avoid getting burned by splatters. This may be the best cooking tip ever.
Victoria says
Thank you for this recipe! I didn’t do it exactly your way, but you blazed the trail–I have never made pot roast before. I had English cut chuck roast that I pan seared, deglazed with red wine, whisked in the tomato paste, then stirred in sauteed onion, bay leaves and thyme. I put everything in a glass casserole dish that I first covered with parchment paper inside the dish and then sealed tightly on the outside with aluminium foil. I was concerned about not having a lid and I was skeptical that it would be done in 2 hours so I added 20 mins, but wow, it was AMAZING! It was tender, flavorful and I simmered the drippings until it was reduced by about 2/3 and it just knocked everyone’s socks off. Thank you!
Leila says
Great, Victoria! Next time you are at the store, just get those roasted peppers and add some — you won’t believe this next level of tastiness 🙂
Yes, I think you start checking at 2 hours but it is really going to be closer to three.
Thanks for your comment!
Christina A says
Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe! I made it for the first time yesterday with two 7-bone chuck roasts yesterday (almost 9 lbs of meat), but I only tripled the salt and pepper; I also diced the red peppers before adding. It was so flavorful, and my guests didn’t mind at all that I experimented on them! 🙂 Planning to make your bacon-grease-covered pork roast in the next couple weeks. Keep the culinary goodness coming!
Sharon Petrakou says
I cooked pot roast for the first time and it was lovely. The gravy (sauce) made the meal special.
Emily Marie Beier says
I have just revisited this recipe a few years later and wanted to add something in the category of Save a Step—if anyone *ever* stumbles across this so much after the fact! When I do a roast, I add mushrooms (and sometimes also frozen spinach) to the pot. Sometimes also carrots. After it’s done, I separate out the mushrooms (and spinach) and refrigerate them. We eat meal #1 as pot roast and carrots, etc. I make gravy from the drippings. For meal number two, I cut up the leftover beef and add it, the mushrooms, the leftover gravy (or just drippings) to a skillet and add in some ground mustard. Then fold in 1/2 to 1 cup of sour cream and–viola!–Beef Stroganoff. (Served over pasta or egg noodles). If your kids, like mine, *think* they don’t like mushrooms and spinach, these can be cleverly disguised by a quick immersion blender zip-zip before adding in the meat.
Lisa G. says
Oh, aren’t you clever! I have to save this information.
Jenny says
I made this today with mashed potatoes and everyone loved it! I browned the brisket in the oven in the cooking vessel-what a game changer! This is my new method of choice for browning roasts. Thank you, thank you! Hubby told me to add it to The Menus. Luckily it’s a great week to buy low for the freezer.