Crazy-simple Pot Roast

Lynne did a show recently where she mentioned off-hand that if you use your dutch oven on a cooktop instead of your oven you’ll get similar results and save a lot of energy. We’ve always done roasts in the oven and we had a roast in the fridge so I thought I’d give this a whirl. But I was also short on time (less than 1.5 hours until dinner) and short on ingredients too, so I tried making the simplest pot roast I could think of. Turned out great.

  • 1.5-2lb beef roast
  • 2 carrots, peeled, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 giant russet potato (peeling optional), diced
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1/8 cup water
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp coarse ground black pepper
  • olive oil

Heat the dutch oven on medium-high. Put some oil on, heat it right below the smoke point. Thoroughly salt and pepper one side of the roast, then put that side down on the dutch oven. While it’s searing salt and pepper the other side. Sear for a minute or two then flip. Sear on the other side then remove the roast to a plate. Should be nice and brown, crusty on both sides.

Loosen the fond off the bottom, add more olive oil and throw in the vegetables. Toss with more oil and saute for a few minutes. Add a splash of water, the wine, bring to a slow boil, reduce to a simmer and cover for 10-15 minutes. You want the potatoes to start showing signs of cooking and the onions starting to become translucent.

Place the roast on top of the vegetables, cover and continue simmering. After 20 minutes start checking the internal temp of the roast. Take it off the heat when it reaches an internal temp of 120F, should take about 20-30 minutes. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

If you want to make this complicated you could add fresh mushrooms, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, shallots, dried porcini mushrooms, a little beef stock (instead of water), or maybe a little butter (as a substitute for some of the oil). If you want to get fancy you could reduce the sauce with some additional wine and butter (maybe a touch of cognac and fresh herbs too?) and pour that over the roast when serving. Most of the crowd at my house wouldn’t appreciate that though.

What’s especially great about this is if you don’t eat the whole thing you can chop the rest of the roast, make a quick roux from 2 tbsp flour + 3 tbsp butter, add 2 cups chicken stock and 1 tsp cognac or brandy then simmer for a few minutes and you’ve got a beef stew out of the leftovers. Sounds cliche you’ll want to say “bam!” after completing the stew.

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