Easy Pot Roast
This easy pot roast with veggies and herbs makes a flavorful slow cooked all-in-one meal. The meat is so tender that it will literally fall apart with your fork and garlic cloves placed inside give it an added boost of seasoning.
It all starts with choosing a great roast. Look for one that is well marbled with fat to keep the meat from drying out. Just make sure you don’t get one that has too much fat—it tends to shrink when cooked and what you thought was a large roast may end up being much smaller than you envisioned!
Still not sure? Ask someone in the meat department to help you out.
Browning the meat in a skillet first intensifies the flavor and gives it that nice, dark brown color that looks so appealing. You can even use the same skillet for your fresh vegetables.
You’re going to need a heavy pot large enough to cook a decent-sized roast. Back in the ‘old’ days, pioneers cooked over hot coals using large, cast iron pots with tight lids that kept the braising liquids from evaporating. They must have been on to something because you’ll still get a fork-tender hunk of meat today.
Easy Pot Roast Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-5 lbs chuck roast
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 3-4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
- 2 celery stalks, cut into 1" pieces
- 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 can beef broth
- 1 Tbsp beef bouillon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 275 degrees then rinse the pot roast under cool water and pat completely dry with paper towels.
- Pierce 5 holes evenly spaced around the surface of chuck roast (about 2½"-3" deep), using a sharp paring knife. Next, insert a garlic clove into each of the 5 holes and season all sides of the roast liberally with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the roast carefully to the skillet. Sear each side about 4-5 minutes, allowing the roast to turn a dark shade of brown.
- Transfer the roast from the skillet to a heavy Dutch oven then set aside.
- Immediately add onions, carrots and celery to the skillet, adding a bit more oil if necessary. Season the veggies lightly with salt and pepper and cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once they soften slightly and become brown around the edges, add red wine, bay leaves and thyme.
- Reduce the wine by half, stirring constantly and scraping all brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add the beef broth and bouillon, bring to a boil and continue to loosen anything that sticks to the bottom of the skillet.
- Pour the vegetables and broth carefully into the Dutch oven, cover and roast 4-5 hours, turning the roast once halfway through cooking.
- Check the roast by piercing with a fork. If it falls apart effortlessly, you’re good to go!
Notes
