We don’t have pot roast very often in our house. It’s like turkey….delicious but such a production! Ok, not really a whole lot of production, but a lot of planning and not easy for someone who plans dinner a hour before it needs to be served! J thought ahead though and took the roast out of the freezer, so I knew I had to cook it! Roast is one of our favorite comfort foods! If it’s cooked right, it tender, moist, and full of yummy flavor! Below is my recipe for a darn good roast {and gravy made from the stock}!
Pot Roast
You will need:
A large dutch oven (you can use a roaster, or slow cooker, but for ease of using one pot, a dutch oven is best.)
A roast of your choice– we used a 2.5 lb eye of round this time, but any beef roast will do
2 medium vidalia onions
Low-sodium beef stock (about 2-3 cups)
1 Cup Red wine (any…I just use cooking wine, and this is optional)
Carrots, whole and washed (I used about 5, but use as many as you want to serve)
Mushrooms (I used a whole container of chopped button mushrooms, and this is totally optional)
Fresh rosemary and thyme (my store stocks a “roasting blend” with rosemary, thyme, and parsley so you don’t have to buy them all separate)
Dried Bay leaves (2)
Meat seasoning of choice.
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| My ingredients |
Start off with your dutch oven on the stove. Add a little olive oil (or butter if you wish) and get it nice and hot. Browning the veggies and meat will add a lot of flavor to the stock. Start with the onions. Cut them in half from root to end, the chop off the ends and put them cut side down in the pan.
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| Cut root to end |
Onions have high water content and spatter a lot when put in hot oil, so be careful you don’t get spattered in the eye (like I did)! Let them sear a bit, then remove them to a plate/dish/whatever. I let them cool a bit then chop them into smaller, bite-size pieces.
Chop the carrots into smaller pieces, get the heat back up on the pan, and drop the carrots in next. These don’t spatter as much so I could get my camera close. See the brown stuff on the pan? We want that! We want lots of that!!
Roll your carrots around a bit to get them browned on all sides. Remember, we are just searing, not cooking them! Remove them from the pan and let them hang out with the onions. The meat is next.
Make sure you season your roast really well. You are only able to season the small portion you can see, so make sure you add enough to penetrate through the meat. I use salt pepper, and Emeril’s Essence, and I pat and rub it into the meat. Add more oil to the pan if you need to, and put the meat in to sear. Rotate it around so it can brown on all sides. Once it’s good and brown, remove it and set aside.
Now we are going to build our base. Lower the heat to medium. Add your mushrooms and let them sauté only for a moment. Then you will add 1 Cup of red wine. (if you decide to forego the wine, just add beef stock). Use a whisk to get up all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Now start adding your ingredients back in. First put in the roast (try not to trap all the mushrooms underneath it), then the onions and carrots. Now you will need to add more stock. Add enough to almost cover your roast. I added about 2-3 cups and it covered 2/3 of my roast. Add in the herbs next and make sure they are pushed down into the stock so they don’t burn, and can really add flavor to the stock. I used 2 dry bay leaves, 2 sprigs of rosemary, and about 4 of thyme. Put the lid on, and put in a 275º oven. Time should be 1 hour for every pound. So my 2.5 lb roast took just over 2 hours. However, this is fool-proof. The longer you go, the more tender it will be. It won’t burn if you keep the temperature low enough. Oh, and don’t mess with it! You don’t need to baste, or turn the roast, or add water. If the lid has a good seal, it will be just fine!
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| Fork tender! |
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| Pour some of the stock over the meat to make it even better! |
The great thing about a roast is the super flavorful stock that you can use to make gravy! You just need some cornstarch. For this occasion, I used about 4 ladles of stock and about 3 teaspoons of cornstarch. The cornstarch needs to be mixed in cold water first!! Adding it to hot right away will make it impossibly clumpy! It thickens with heat, so start it with a little bit of cold water (maybe 1/4 cup). Whisk it to get a smooth consistency, then add it to the hot liquid. It will thicken almost instantly. Start with smaller amounts of cornstarch and work up to what you need, so you don’t get it too thick right from the start!
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| Stock boiling in a pan |
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| Slowly adding my cornstarch mixture to my hot stock |
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| Instant, thick gravy! |
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| Season gravy with salt and pepper |
So there you have it! Pot Roast with carrots, mushrooms, onions, (potatoes) and gravy! Bon appétite!
Tuck & Sundry 
What a scrumptious looking meal and I'm sure it tasted better than it looks! We haven't had roast in a while. You sure are giving me lots of great dinner ideas! 🙂
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Glad you like them! 🙂
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What a scrumptious looking meal and I'm sure it tasted better than it looks! We haven't had roast in a while. You sure are giving me lots of great dinner ideas! 🙂
LikeLike
Glad you like them! 🙂
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