Yes, I’ve done pot roast before. But that was in a crock pot. (Oops, I mean a “slow cooker”. Crock-Pot is a brand name.)
Now that I’ve got a Dutch oven*, I’ve got a new method. It’s faster, easier, clean-up is easier, and the results are at least as good. Gotta love that.
* Technically Le Creuset call theirs a “French oven”. Find me anyone outside their company who calls it that and maybe I’ll be number 2. But until then … it’s a Dutch oven. So let it be written, so let it be done.
Ingredients
2½ pound chuck roast
3-4 potatoes
½ large onion
kosher salt
fresh-ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons bacon fat (or other high-temperature oil — not butter)
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 300°. While it’s heating up, melt the bacon fat in the Dutch oven over high heat.
Nicola commented after the potted chicken recipe that Le Creuset says not to cook over high heat. What I found was that Le Creuset warns against pre-heating an empty pan over high heat, but high heat is fine for short applications:
Low to medium heat settings will provide the best results for a majority of cooking applications, including frying and searing. High heats should only be used to either boil water for vegetables or pasta or for reducing the consistency of stocks and sauces.
They have a bit more to say about grill pans:
Use only low to medium heat settings for all pre-heating and cooking. The efficiency of the material is such that searing temperatures are achieved on medium settings within a few minutes. Heating the surface a little more slowly will ensure a thoroughly and evenly heated surface.DO NOT pre-heat the grill on a high heat and then reduce to medium or low for cooking. Cast iron is a very efficient material and retains heat well. If over-heated it will retain that heat for a long time and this method of use may contribute to poor cooking results and the food sticking to the surface of the grill.
That’s the official word. Check out this thread from Chow.com for lots of feedback from cooks who have used Le Creuset themselves.
What Le Cresuset is saying is that you don’t need high heat to get good results. If you use high heat the pan will be okay, but since it retains heat so well it will keep cooking long after you take it off the heat. For this recipe, it’s only on the heat for about 3 minutes before going into the oven.
I appreciate the reminder, though. It’s always good to double-check the safety recommendations from our hardware makers.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way … coat the roast liberally with salt and pepper on both sides.
You should probably do this before putting it in the Dutch oven.
Brown the beef all around. It should only take a minute or so on each side.
Cut the onion into quarters and place the sections around the roast. (Feel free to use a whole onion if you’ve got one.)
Scrub the potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces (or slightly larger) and arrange around the roast.
Add enough water to come about halfway up the roast.
Put the lid on and place in the oven at 300° for an hour.
Lookin’ good, huh?
Not quite done, though. You know how to check? Use two forks and see how easily you can pull it apart.
It should take almost no effort at all. If it’s not there yet, put it back in for another 20 minutes. Depending on your specific cut of beef — how thick, how lean, what temperature when you start — you might need anywhere from an hour-and-a-half to nearly 3 hours. Keep checking every 20 minutes or so until it’s falling-apart tender.
Carefully remove the roast to a cutting board.
I had to use that spatula in the background, since I couldn’t lift it with forks or tongs without it all falling apart.
While the beef rests, put the Dutch oven back over high heat. Mix a tablespoon of cornstarch with cold water. Stir it into the liquid in the pot, and add salt, pepper, cardamom and marjoram.
Bring to a boil and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Poof, you’ve got gravy.
If you try to slice the beef, it will shred. Just push the knife straight down, cutting thick slices.
And that’s it.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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34 Comments
Yum, that looks fabulous. I have a Le Creuset, and will have to make a pot roast soon. Thanks!
This looks and sounds fabulous! I am such a visual learner and soooo appreciate your photos included with your steps. Thank you.
Could you also add celery and carrots to this? If so, should they be put in at the beginning? How many would you recommend with a roast this size? And would the amount of water added need to be increased? And if so, by how much, please?
Thanks!
Depends whether you want them for flavor, or if you intend to eat them when it’s done. The onions, for example, were completely gone by the time it was done. Celery would mostly do the same. Carrots would hold together but get really soft.
I would hold off on both until about one hour in, then put them around the side as much as possible. Don’t worry about extra liquid. I don’t know how well you can see from the pictures, but the liquid level goes up while it cooks.
I would use unbleached all purpose flour for the gravy not only because of my corn allergy but because a cornstarch gravy will break upon reheating or overcooking. The only difference is that you need to make a slurry of the flour to avoid lumps and you need to cook it for at least 2 minutes to avoid a flour flavored gravy. I sometimes use the broth to turn a shredded pot roast into Beef Stroganoff, too. I don’t believe I have ever cooked a roast without garlic cloves and bay leaves but the spices you added to the gravy sound interesting and cardamom is one of my new favorites. I will have to try this. Also, this braising method works very well for lamb or beef shanks. I cooked roast this way all my life but didn’t learn until recently that what I was doing was called “braising”. :^)
Looks just like the pot roast I made last Sunday in my Lodge knock-off. Except I put tomatoes in with the cooking liquid. Because this time of year, I put tomatoes in EVERYTHING.
Oh, and instead of potatoes–which haven’t been dug up yet and which I was too lazy to do myself before dinner–I cooked rice in the de-fatted liquid. YUM.
I almost added tomatoes, too. But then I sliced them up and ate them with a little salt instead. I don’t have too many.
1) What size Le Creuset “French” oven did you use?
2) Is there an issue with using a dutch oven on a glass-top stove?
3) If you don’t have cornstarch, can you use flour instead to make gravy, or is corn starch imperative?
It was the 5.5 quart.
No problem on the glass-top. Cast iron is actually one of the most versatile when it comes to what types of cooktops it works on.
Yes, flour will work. You’ll just need a little more.
Ohhhh, yet another reason I MUST indulge and purchase a Dutch Oven (or Le Creuset) I’ve only used my slow cooker, but crave this method….well, off to the store, time to make my purchase! Thanks for the motivation to get out the bank card! Happy Cookin!
They’ve got it right here on Amazon
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I want a good “twist” on this, use V8 juice in place of the water. Yum!
Your pot roast looks wonderful but I hesitate to buy cuts like chuck roast b/c I hate coming across fatty pieces or having to take the time to dissect them out prior to serving. What are your thoughts on using a roast that has less fat? Do you think it would work as well? Any specific suggestions for a lean cut that would work well? I love your emails and your blog. The pictures are so helpful!
Ha, I’m actually Dutch and no-one here would ever call that a Dutch oven – or an oven even… In dutch it would be a ‘roast pan’ (aka a pan in which you make pot roasts!)
Speaking of which, I really should make pot roast again – and I might go with your recipe here! It looks delish!
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Mary, very lean cuts don’t get as tender. The great thing about this method with the chuck roast is that the fat and other connective tissue completely melts away. That’s why it falls apart when you try to take it out of the pot, and why it make such great gravy.
I learned something new and you are a great teacher–thank you. I will battle my prejudice against chuck roast and try it. Thanks for your help!
OK. I bought 2 chuck roasts to make for a family dinner and went back to recipe to refresh my memory. I don’t own a Le Creuset pan so am hoping that it will work in a heavy casserole/Dutch oven pan with lid. Also I am confused/uncertain about the cooking times. It looks like some much variation in the cooking times depending on when the meat is actually tender that I can’t figure out how I can successfully make this meal. How can you possibly figure out how far ahead to start cooking? Maybe I’m missing something or just making this hard. Your roast looks wonderful but at the moment, I am thinking I may have to go back to using a crockpot instead. Can you clarify for me, please?
Mary, the key with a chuck roast is low and slow. Start earlier than you think you need to — like three hours before dinner. When it’s done, put the lid on and put it back in the oven as low as it will go. It will keep until dinner time.
Valerie, if Wikipedia is to be believed, the name originated when an Englishman copied the superior Dutch technology for sand-casting iron pots. He then patented the technology (that he had stolen) and started producing them himself.
Oh, that’s cute… had no idea about that. Anyways, now ya know that the Dutch call it a roast pan, how ’bout starting a revolution and just calling it that!?!
If I heard different names for it, I’d go ahead and throw another name out there. But this one has been pretty well set for a while now.
Hey, drew I was wondering…. I am a newbie when it comes to cooking so i don’t yet own a crock pot or dutch oven. could i sear the roast on the stove and then finish in a deep casserole dish?
Sure could. Just make sure you’ve got a tight-fitting cover for it, or cover in foil until it’s mostly done. Otherwise the top will dry out before the bottom is done.
So I tried this… and my roast came out dry and chewy and hard. More than or equal to shoe leather. I did the low heat. I did the liquid. I did the veggies. Can you help me understand what went wrong?
Whoah, bummer. Two guesses: First, was it a chuck roast? They butcher differently in Europe than over here. It would need to have lots of fat and connective tissue running through it. Hmm, I wonder if the cattle over there are so different from commercially raised U.S. cattle that this recipe would be completely wrong.
Second, did you have a lid on for most of the time? I’m looking back at the directions and I only mentioned once — sort of in passing — “put the lid on”. Without the lid this would come out … well, dry and chewy and hard.
I made this tonight with a minor change. I changed the salt and pepper with Montreal steak seasoning. I also added a splash of beer into the liquid (since I had one open). I forgot about making the gravy (I was hungry!), but it was so good that it didn’t need it. I did “sprinkle” some of the broth on my plate though. Thanks for a great recipe!
I know I’ve looked at the Montreal seasoning before, and I’m sure salt and pepper were high on the list. I’m not totally opposed to seasoning blends, I just find that salt and pepper is usually all I need, and they fit in the cupboard a lot better than 30 different pre-made products.
(Please don’t look in my cupboard, or you’ll see the 30 different pre-made blends that people keep getting me for Christmas and birthdays, that I rarely use.)
At the advice of someone who always cooks extremely tender beef roasts in a slow cooker – I did exactly as she said: I slow-cooked the beef with packet of onion soup for 5 hours. It came out tough as shoe leather!
I’ve cute the meat into cubes, and I don’t want to waste it, but it’s to tough to eat (although it tastes good). Is there any way to tenderize it now that it’s cooked?
Sounds like chili meat to me. Sauté some onions and peppers, add a big can of tomatoes and the diced up beef and seasonings, and simmer all day.
Just a tip. Make sure you know what kind of Le Creuset you have. I asked for a pot and hubby got me one for Valentines, but I did not read the handy instruction book that came with it. Today I decided to follow your recipe for a pot roast and placed it on the burner to sear the meat, not realizing that my pot is stonewear NOT cast iron. Needless to say, it shattered into about 50 pieces. Thankfully, no one was hurt and I hadn’t even put the meat in it yet so I was still able to cook it in the oven in another dish.
I feel like a total idiot, but I learned a good lesson. Any day you learn something new is a good day, right?LOL
Off to buy a REAL Le Creuset dish!
Ooh, that sucks. I did that once with a Pyrex dish, except it already had the meat in it. I dumped in some water so I’d be able to turn the drippings into gravy and the dish shattered.
I just read recently that the Pyrex brand was sold in the late 90s, and the formula for the glass was changed. Pyrex is no longer suitable for rapid temperature changes, as it had been prior to the change.
For your pot, if it was Le Creuset — even if it was stoneware instead of cast iron — they’ll probably replace it. Their return policy is awesome.
Excellent recipe my wife and I loved the roast!
My Grandmothers and Mom made a roast like this. Their potatoes and carrots came out a very nice dark brown, almost black. I’ve never been able to do that part. Any suggestions?
I would guess they left the lid off for at least part of the cooking process. I’ve never had mine get super-dark, and I’ve (accidentally) overcooked them into mush before.
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