Classic Beef Pot Roast
This Classic Beef Pot Roast is slow cooked in the oven with onions, carrots, potatoes and a bit of red wine.
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seriously craving comfort food lately. (This may have something to do with the fact that the thermometer outside is currently reading 6°.) For me, one of the ultimate comfort foods is a Classic Beef Pot Roast. It’s easy to make, smells wonderful while it’s cooking, and tastes delicious. Sounds like a win-win-win to me! One of my favorite things to do on a cold, Sunday afternoon in the winter is throw this Classic Beef Pot Roast into the oven and then play board games or watch movies/sports all afternoon. (On a completely random note, my wife and I have been playing Ticket to Ride lately…great board game for 2-5 people.) Either way, after smelling the pot roast cook all afternoon, I usually can’t wait for dinner!
One of the keys to making a delicious pot roast at home is searing the meat and vegetables. Searing simply involves cooking the roast and veggies over high heat for just a couple of minutes per side. When I was younger, I never understood the purpose of searing meat before cooking it. Searing doesn’t cook the meat fully…so why waste the time? Oh, how wrong I was back then! Searing caramelizes the edges of the roast and the vegetables which then locks in the juices and flavors. This simple step will absolutely pay you back with delicious flavors later…so don’t skip it!
This Classic Beef Pot Roast is an extremely versatile recipe as you can use all sorts of different veggies with it. This time I went with potatoes, onions and carrots, but I’ve also used a whole assortment of winter root vegetables in the past, too. If you choose to add potatoes, here’s a key tip that I’ve learned: put the potatoes on top of the roast rather than around it. If the potatoes sit in the liquid around the roast, they’ll almost certainly turn mealy. However, when the potatoes sit up on top of the roast, they’ll be soft without being overcooked…and they’ll have soaked up loads of flavor from the roast itself. In fact, I think I could make an entire meal out of just the vegetables around the pot roast!
Classic Beef Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 medium white onions peeled and halved
- 6 carrots washed and cut into 2" pieces
- 4 pound boneless beef chuck roast
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- 1 cup red wine
- 10 oz. beef consomme or beef broth
- 2-3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme optional
- 6 medium potatoes peeled
Instructions
- Place a Dutch oven over high heat and add 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Sear the onions and carrots for 2-3 minutes. Flip onions and carrots over and sear for another 2-3 minutes over high heat. Remove onions and carrots and set aside.
- Liberally season all sides of the roast with the salt and pepper. Add 1 more Tbsp of vegetable oil to the pot (if needed) and sear the roast for 2-3 minutes per side. Remove roast from pot and set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium and add red wine to pot. Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to release the browned bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Add beef consomme and place roast in the center of the pot. (If necessary, add more beef consomme or red wine until the liquid reaches approximately half-way up the side of the roast.)
- Place the onions and carrots around the outside of the roast, and place the potatoes on top of the roast.
- Place a lid on the Dutch oven and cook in oven at 275°F for 4 hours, or until the roast pulls apart easily with a fork.
I’m craving comfort food (read: fried chicken) too right now! This looks delicious!
mmm…fried chicken!! Now I want fried chicken, too. Thanks for stopping by, Graham!
Yum! That is the perfect Sunday afternoon meal. Going to have to check out the Ticket to Ride game, we are always looking for new fun games.
This is totally a Sunday afternoon in the winter meal! And Ticket to Ride is definitely worth getting…we play a decent amount of board games in the winter…and it’s a good game!
This is the perfect meal for biting cold days like these. I mean common -4?? And that’s real temp with no windshield. But coming home to this will make everything so much better. So when you moving? I think we need to make this happen!! Love the pot BTW. The bright yellow speaks to me and I think it should join my orange one…just saying 🙂
-4 is just cold. But at some point, cold is cold. I mean what’s the difference between 7 and -4…not much as far as I’m concerned! Either way, I’ll be inside making more pot roast or baking one of your delicious cakes. 🙂 (And yes, this move needs to happen…maybe tomorrow.)
I could just imagine the aroma while this is cooking. Love this kind of meal for a cold day… which here in Utah, it’s 8 degrees right now. Loving all of the veggies in the pot with the meat. Great pics!
That board game sounds fun, by the way!
8 degrees…sounds about like upstate New York! Thanks so much for stopping by, Gloria!
I am so doing a pot roast this weekend. I have a million root veggies, so I will probably throw them in. YES! to the searing! So important! It is the difference between rich caramelized flavor and boiled meat flavor.
Root veggies and pot roast go together like two peas in a pod. (How’s that for using a foodie reference…haha!) Thanks so much for stopping by, Katie…I hope you are doing well and staying warm over there in Vermont!
This looks absolutely delicious!
And yes, it’s a good warmer-upper! I can’t believe these temperatures!
Thanks, SueAnn! It is (err…was) delicious. And I need it to warm up pretty soon here. I think my fingers are frozen!