Pot Roast

This recipe is for the men in my life.  Both my honey and my daddy love a good pot roast.  (let me emphasize the good in that sentence)  It's simple, hearty, flavorful, and when it's done right, it just melts in your mouth.  I call it delightful, but that's not very manly, is it?

It's taken some practice for me to learn how to do a pot roast right.  I hope it wasn't Father's Day, but it might have been, on my first attempt to master this lovely.  I'd seen my mama put roasts in the oven and leave it in there all day while we were at church.  So one Sunday morning I got up, got dressed, and decided I'd be the main contributor to Sunday dinner.  

I was about 15 at the time, and had a basic knowledge of cooking.  I could make a pretty mean chocolate chip cookie. :)  I knew that with most things in the kitchen, "watch and learn" was a pretty good approach.  However, you do sometimes miss a few details...

So I got out a juicy hunk of meat, placed it gingerly in a casserole dish, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, put the lid on the dish, and stuck it in the oven at about 350 or so, then we all went to church.  I was so proud of myself!  

We returned home to that mouth-watering aroma of beef baking.  My dad gave me a curious look with those "hey, this might not have been such a bad experiment after all" eyebrows.  It smelled right!

Imagine my HORROR when I victoriously marched my masterpiece to the dinner table, placing it at the center and removing the lid, only to discover an extremely blackened hunk of meat on its way to perfect jerky.  It became known as THE BLACK BEEF, and I never, ever lived it down.  Maybe I need to try again for our next family reunion.  I promise I know better now!

To start, sprinkle both sides of the pot roast with a generous helping of salt and pepper.  Rub it in a little.  Love the meat, man.

Prepare some veggies (carrots and onions here, you can add celery, potatoes, parsnips, squash--whatever tickles your fancy) by chopping into large-ish chunks (this is man food!) and sauteing for a couple minutes in a little butter or oil.

Just get a little color on them.  You don't need to cook them to death.

Remove the veggies from your pan and place in the bottom of a large casserole dish or dutch oven (greased, please!).  Melt some butter in the hot skillet, then sear the meat on both sides.

To sear:  the skillet must be HOT.  The meat definitely not frozen, and preferably a little warmer than right-out-of-the-fridge.  Place the meat in the hot skillet and walk away for about 3-5 minutes.  Check for that nice dark brown color starting to show up, and the lighter brown creeping up the sides of the meat.  Add butter to the skillet and flip 'er over.

Remove the meat from the skillet and place on top of the veggies in the casserole dish.  Pour some beef broth into the skillet and use a whisk (or whatever) to scrape off all that flavorful goodness from the bottom.

Now pour that whole delicious mess on top of the meat and veggies.

Now, did you catch my mistake earlier?  DON'T set your oven at 350.  Shoot for at least 100 degrees under that.  Okay?  For a three pound roast, check it after about three hours.  Add an hour for a four to five pound roast.

To check for doneness, you can use a meat thermometer, but it should pull apart easily with a couple of forks, so don't bother with those fancy do-dads.

Pot Roast
slightly adapted from the Pioneer Woman

1 large onion
1 cup chopped carrots
(up to 2 cups additional veggies, optional)
3 lb beef roast
salt and pepper, to taste (approximately 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)
butter and oil, up to 1/4 cup
2 cups beef broth

Season roast with salt and pepper generously on both sides.  Melt 1 T each butter and oil in large skillet.  Chop vegetables into large pieces.  Add veggies to skillet and cook for a few minutes, until they begin to caramelize.  Remove veggies from skillet and place in the bottom of a large (greased) casserole dish or dutch oven.  Add 2 T butter to skillet and sear first side of meat.  Add another T butter and sear second side.  Remove meat from skillet and place on top of vegetables in casserole dish.  Add broth to skillet and simmer for a few minutes, stirring bottom of skillet to remove flavorful "dregs."  Add broth to casserole dish and cover with lid.  Bake in 250 degree oven and bake 3 hours, or until meat is tender and pulls apart easily.