When I was asked to develop the recipes for Florida Beef Month by the Florida Beef Council the first thing I thought of was a nostalgic recipe. One that maybe needed a little TLC.
Some dinners get a bad rap. Some that I can think of are tuna casserole, meatloaf and pot roast. I am not sure why they have a stigma around their titles. Maybe because people include them in their weekly meal rotation and never switch it up. Or maybe because those meals are just ugly to look at.
In my opinion, you can take an old recipe, one with a bad rap, and turn its reputation right around. Let’s take pot roast, shall we?
Some people just take a slab of chuck roast, throw in some veggies and turn the slow cooker on for 8 hours. You know what that means? It means mushy, colorless vegetables and flavorless meat. And it sure doesn’t look very appetizing when you serve it. I have taken your everyday boring pot roast and turned it into a visually appetizing and taste bud tantalizing meal.
One key to a meal with a lot of pep is to “build the flavors.” This basically means to cook each component separately, to give the dish a deep depth of flavor. In my recipe you will notice I build the flavors by searing the meat, deglazing the pan, caramelizing the onions, adding the extra flavorings and then cooking for a nice amount of time.
Remember how I talked about colorless, mushy vegetables? You can avoid this by adding the veggies during the last hour of cooking. This allows them to cook fully without losing color or taste.
So, if your family balks at the sound of pot roast for dinner, make my recipe and they will ask for it all the time!
| Fancy Pot Roast |
- Beef
- 4 lbs. boneless chuck roast
- Coarse kosher salt
- Freshly cracked pepper
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 large red onion, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 cup cabernet sauvignon (or your favorite red wine), divided
- 1 (26 oz.) box beef stock
- 2 tablespoons concentrated tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 stalks fresh rosemary
- 8 large carrots, cut into 1/2 pieces
- 1 (28 oz.) bag baby potatoes, sliced in half
- 4 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 pieces
- Gravy
- 1 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 1/2 tablespoon flour
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock (reserved from the roast)
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Allow chuck roast to sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Season liberally with coarse kosher salt and pepper.
- Over medium-high heat, add the canola oil to a large pot with lid.
- Add the roast to the pot and brown meat, about 4 minutes per side.
- Remove the roast, place on a plate and set aside.
- Pour about 1/2 cup of wine into the pot and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the brown bits.
- Reduce heat to medium.
- Add onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the stock and the remaining wine.
- Stir in tomato paste, Dijon mustard and bay leaves.
- Place the roast back into the pot, add rosemary stalks, cover and place in the oven.
- Cook for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, remove from oven and add the carrots, potatoes and celery.
- Place the lid back on and cook for 1 more hour in the oven.
- Remove the roast and place on a large platter.
- With a slotted spoon, remove all the vegetables and place with the roast.
- Ladle 1 1/2 cups of the beef stock (from the pot where you cooked the roast) into a measuring cup.
- – In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
- – Add flour and cook for 1 minute while stirring.
- – Slowly add beef stock into pan with the butter and flour.
- – Stir until all incorporated and lump free.
- – Bring to a boil while stirring, reduce heat and cook until slightly thickened.
- Spoon gravy over meat and vegetables before serving.
Recipe was developed by Leslie Green – The Hungry Housewife for The Florida Beef Council.
There’s nothing like a great pot roast. I make them often in the winter (and add dumplings on top as my mother did) and your veggies look so nice and fresh. Will do them that way the next time.
This looks delicious!!! Thanks for sharing, and I hope I prepare it soon!!! I’ll let you know! =)
Your meal just pops in your bakeware….I love your color choices and these photos! You’re doing and amazing job with your photography!!
Mmmmmm. I do love a good pot roast. dreamy
If I make this, my husband will be so happy. One of his favorite meals. It looks delish!
This is one seriously gorgeous roast! Definitely Pinning this one for future use!
This is an incredible meal: so juicy and delicious! I could eat this roast for dinner, lunch, breakfast and midnight snack :-). And the photos are stunning and vibrant with color and light! Gorgeous!
I would like to invite you to share this post (and other posts 🙂 ) on a new photo based recipe sharing site that launched only this Monday. The idea is simple: all recipe photographs are published within minutes of submission. And, of course, the images link back to the author’s site.
It’s called RecipeNewZ (with Z) – http://recipenewz.com
I hope you get a chance to visit and to share some of your delicious posts with our viewers. It would be a pleasure to have you on board 🙂
Oh my goodness does this look amazing!! I absolutely LOVE pot roast 🙂
Amazing that you made pot roast even look good!
That is a REALLY beautiful pot roast! When I was a little girl, I was convinced that I hated pot roast. But I didn’t. I missed out for a long time. I love it!! Can’t wait to try this!
Looks amazing! Reminds me of my mom’s pot roast! Perfection! Great photos!
That is one lovely delicious looking pot roast! I would love to have this on my dinner table too! My family would be so impressed!:D
Love pot roast, for me the key is the red wine, to drink while its cooking and for flavor, I have an awesome recipe which takes a whole bottle of red zin!
I really like this. I like the meat to be tender and really soft. But I am thinking to cook in slow cooker. It is more convenience for me. 🙂
I made this last week and have been wanting more ever since it was gone. The BEST roast recipe Ive ever tasted. Followed recipe to a T. Cant wait to make it again. I even went out and bought a new dutch oven especially for this recipe!!! Thank you for posting this!!!!!
Thank you for this! My mom was the queen of pot roast, but for some reason I didn’t inherit the gene. You’ve inspired me to try again…I’ll keep ya posted!
This is in my oven as we speak. I subbed brandy for red wine and improvised as far as measurements. i can’t wait to try it!