Best Ever Pot Roast

I have a confession. I've never made a pot roast before. But this past weekend I decided to take pity on my poor husband who has had to live with my preference for chicken for the past 16 years.

First I had to research what cut of beef to buy. It seems that there are several you can choose from - rump, chuck, brisket and no doubt more. But I decided to use chuck and off I went to the grocery store. No labels that said "chuck" so I had to ask the butcher. He showed me something called Cross Rib Pot Roast Boneless and explained that is the same as a Chuck Roast.

I bought a 4 lb. roast and that's what I used to make this amazing tender roast that melts in your mouth. This ended up giving me 2 dinners for two (so 4 meals), 2 hot roast beef sandwiches, and 3 beef pot pies (each made for 2 adults). And it cost me about $15.00 total!

Ingredients
1- 4lb chuck roast
1 Tbsp paprika
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
3/4 cup wine
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire
2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. dried Marjoram
2 sweet bell peppers, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 or 2 onions, quartered
5 cloves garlic
Veloutine

Method

First I rubbed the roast with paprika, then I seared it on all sides in hot olive oil on the stove top. That took about 10 minutes. Removed the roast but save the oil and any brown bits in the pan.  I'm sorry I haven't got any pictures of the prep but I will add them next time I make this. Put the roast into a small crock pot (Slow cooker) and set it aside for the moment.

To the pan that you used to sear the roast add 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar, 3/4 cup of wine (I used white because I didn't have any red), 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes, 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 2 tsp. white sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp. marjoram. I used my homegrown dried marjoram because I prefer fresh or dried to powdered.  Bring all this to heat, give it a stir, scrape up any brown bits and pour everything over your roast in the crock pot.

You can turn the crock pot on Low while you prep the vegetables. Slice 2 sweet bell peppers (red, yellow or orange), 5 mashed, chopped or minced garlic - it's your choice how to do this. I chopped mine.  Add one peeled and sliced carrot, then peel and quarter 1 or 2 onions. You're going to be making gravy from all this so it's up to you how "oniony" you want it to taste!

Toss the vegetables into the crock pot with the roast and check to see if the liquid almost covers your roast. If not, add some more wine. Now you get to relax for the next 10 hours because that is how long you are going to leave your roast cooking on Low.

When your roast is done, remove it from the slow cooker, wrap it in foil and let it rest while you make the gravy. I wrapped mine and put it in the microwave so it would hold the heat.

Making Gravy

If you have an immersion blender, use that to blend and puree everything left in the cooker. You want to mash up the carrot and onions so everything is blended to a nice liquid. If you don't have an immersion blender you can pour everything into a regular blender and blend that way.

Now pour the blended liquid into a saucepan on the stove top, bring to a gentle boil, add brown Veloutine and simmer while stirring until thickened. That is your gravy and believe me it's delicious.

The meat is fork tender and almost falls apart when you slice it. I served mine with mashed potatoes because I wanted to pour the gravy over them, and carrots.

The next day I made hot roast beef sandwiches with sliced leftover meat and gravy, then I made beef pot pies. That recipe will follow soon.