Pot Roast: The Most Tender Braised Chuck Roast Recipe

This tender Dutch Oven Braised Pot Roast falls right apart after 3 1/2 hours of cooking. Filled with fresh herbs, beef stock, red wine & root vegetables, this one pot meal is sure to impress anyone this holiday season.

How To Properly Braise Chuck Roast

Believe it or not, this was my first time making Pot Roast, surprisingly. I’ve had people ask if I could create a recipe for it for the holidays and I was surely interested in seeing how this dish would come out. A big thing I learned over the last year is that technique is way more important than a recipe. If you master cooking techniques such as roasting, frying, stewing, & steaming, recipes will come easily to you.

Even though this dish is called “Pot Roast” the technique we’re using here is braising. For any braise, you will be submerging a cut of meat 2/3rds of the way into its cooking liquid, whether that be broth, stock, or water. A braise should always be cooked low and slow, so temperatures between 275°F – 325°F are ideal.

For a proper braise, you always want to sear your piece of meat at the beginning to create rich deep flavor not only on the piece of meat, but at the bottom of the pot as well. These brown bits at the bottom of the pot are called “fond”, which is basically GOLD. We cook our small diced veggies in this fond after removing the seared piece of meat from the pot, add a little tomato paste, and deglaze with wine.

Then we add our beef back into the pot along with the cooking liquid and some herbs, bring it to a boil, cover it, and place it into the oven to cook for a few hours until tender. I flip my pot roast halfway through cooking. In the last hour, I add in larger cuts of root vegetables (carrots & potatoes) and finish off the roast.

Dutch Oven Braised Pot Roast Video Tutorial

Salting Large Cuts Of Meat

I learned how to salt meat from the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, which is undoubtedly one of my favorite cookbooks. In the book, Samin has a chart titled “Basic Salting Guidelines” which demonstrates how to salt meat, vegetables, and grains by the pound. Six different salts are listed (fine sea salt, maldon, sel gris, table, morton’s kosher, and diamond crystal), as well as the perfect amounts of each to use per pound/cut of meat.

I only use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, because the grains are light, flaky, and easy to control; so I follow the guidelines for that specific salt. For every pound of boneless meat, you need 1 & 3/4 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, while for every pound of meat on the bone you need 2 & 1/8 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Since I’m working with a 3-3 & 1/2 pound boneless chuck roast today, I used 4 1/4 teaspoons of kosher salt. This consequently helps the meat become seasoned all the way through without over salting or under salting.

How To Make Dutch Oven Braised Pot Roast

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 lb boneless beef bottom chuck roast
• 4 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, Diamond Crystal
• ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, (canola, vegetable, or avocado)
• 1 carrot, small dice
• 1 celery stalk, small dice
• 1 small yellow onion, small dice
• 1 leek, sliced thin
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry red wine, cabernet or merlot
• 3 1/2 cups beef stock
• 6 thyme sprigs
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 russet potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Season chuck roast with 4 1/4 teaspoons of kosher salt & ground black pepper evenly on all sides. This may seem like a lot of salt, however this is a very thick cut of meat so it needs all the seasoning it can get.
3. Heat up the oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat, and sear all side of the chuck roast. This can take up to 10 minutes, and during this time, the roast develops a nice crust.
4. Once all the sides are nice and brown, remove the roast from the pot and set to the side. Add in the small diced carrots, onions, celery, and the sliced leeks. Sauté the vegetables until they start to sweat, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
5. Add in the tomato paste and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Deglaze the pot with the red wine and cook until the wine reduces by half. add the roast back into the pot along with the beef stock, thyme, rosemary, cumin, and a little bit more salt and pepper to taste.
6. Bring to a boil, cover, and place into the oven for 1 hour. Flip the roast after an hour and cover again for another hour and a half.
7. Afterwards, add in the carrots and potatoes, cover and let cook for 30 minutes. Finally, after 30 minutes, uncover the pot and let it cook for an additional 30 minutes.
8. Remove any excess fat from the top of the cooking liquid, so the dish isn’t overly greasy, and serve. Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions On Making Dutch Oven Braised Pot Roast

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