Easy and good pot roast.

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 (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)

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.

 

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