I plopped down on the couch this morning and flipped the tv on to find that my favorite movie, Julie & Julia, was playing! There is something about that movie that just makes you want to eat! As I watched Julie prepare boeuf bourguignon, which is just beef braised in red wine, I became inspired to make a pot roast. This was my first time actually making a true, not in a crockpot, pot roast!
I remembered that I had once saw a pot roast recipe in my Pioneer Woman cookbook. I grabbed the cookbook off of the book case and flipped to page 120. There it was a simple pot roast recipe. I was nervous that it wouldn't be good, as Lipton soup mix was not listed as one of the ingredients like most crockpot roast recipes. But I was determined to make a legit pot roast...
I went to the grocery and plucked veggies and herbs from the produce baskets and then picked out the most perfectly plump chuck roast.
Once home I prepped all of my ingredients. I washed and chopped onions and carrots. Generously seasoned the beef with kosher salt and pepper...
The key to this roast is searing and caramelizing the veggies and beef. All those brown bits in the bottom of your dutch oven are rich in vegetable and beefy flavor. You'll later deglaze those bits with a bit of beef stock. Yum!
After 3 hours the pot roast was done and permeated through the house. It smelled just like my grandmas house when I would visit her as a child in the summer and she would make her pot roast. I pulled it out of the oven and placed the beauty on a platter. I tweaked PW's recipe a little in the end. Once I removed the roast and veggies from the pan I put it back on the oven to reduce the beefy broth left behind and added half a can of beer. I reduced it by half and spooned the velvety sauce over the roast.
Here is the original Pioneer Woman recipe I used...
Ingredients
- 1 whole (4 To 5 Pounds) Chuck Roast
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 whole Onions
- 6 whole Carrots (Up To 8 Carrots)
- Salt To Taste
- Pepper To Taste
- 2 cups To 3 Cups Beef Stock
- 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or more to taste
- 3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary, or more to taste
Preparation Instructions
First and foremost, choose a nicely marbled piece of meat. This will enhance the flavor of your pot roast like nothing else. Generously salt and pepper your chuck roast.
Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or you can do a butter/olive oil split).
Cut two onions in half and cut 6 to 8 carrots into 2-inch slices (you can peel them, but you don’t have to). When the oil in the pot is very hot (but not smoking), add in the halved onions, browning them on one side and then the other. Remove the onions to a plate.
Throw the carrots into the same very hot pan and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so.
If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pan. Place the meat in the pan 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 pan, scraping the bottom with a whisk to get all of that wonderful flavor up.
When the bottom of the pan is sufficiently deglazed, place the roast back into the pan and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway (about 2 to 3 cups). Add in the onion and the carrots, as well as 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary and about 3 sprigs of fresh thyme.
Put the lid on, then roast in a 275F oven for 3 hours (for a 3-pound roast). For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours.
